Leonard Bernstein was honored on what would have been his 75th birthday by the city of New York, which named a street after him. The block of West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam in Manhattan shall hereafter be called Leonard Bernstein Place. (The street runs through Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.) Bernstein died in October 1990.
- GERARD SCHWARZ, music director of the Seattle Symphony, has been appointed to a three-year term as artistic adviser of Tokyu Bunkamura's Orchard Hall, in conjunction with the Tokyo Philharmonic, beginning Jan. 1, 1994. He will conduct six programs yearly with the orchestra, besides advising on selection of artists, future projects and other aspects of the Bunkamura cultural center. Besides his position with the Seattle Symphony, Schwarz works with the New York Chamber Symphony and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center.- THE JOFFREY BALLET has turned itself around, thanks to a new ballet, "Billboards," with music by Prince. The work has four acts, choreographed one each by Laura Dean, Charles Moulton, Peter Pucci and Margo Sappington. Critics are divided, but the public loves it.
Two years ago the Joffrey lost its second home at the Los Angeles Music Center; its deficit soared to $2.5 million at the end of 1992. But in summer 1993 the company has so many bookings coming that it expects to bring in more touring fees than at any time in its history. The deficit has been cut to $1.8 million and cash flow is good.
- STRETCHING FROM THE AMAZON to Salvador, Brazil's northeastern coast is studded with a string of newly refurbished opera houses, the lavish legacies of turn-of-the-century rubber barons, sugar kings, and cotton oligarchs.
But invariably, after each multimillion-dollar restoration, modern audiences return to their television sets, leaving refurbished stages to fall dark.
Fernando Bicudo, one of Brazil's most successful arts promoters, hopes to break this cycle by transforming Sao Luis' 1817 opera house into a hub for a new, regional theater circuit that would run down Brazil's northeast coast.
"We are going to have a circuit going down the coast," said Bicudo, whose passion for the project explains why he declined an offer in July to direct Rio's prestigious Municipal Theater.
The hub of the 2,000-mile, 11-theater regional circuit is to be in Sao Luis, at the 825-seat Teatro Artur Azevedo. Bicudo, a former ballet dancer, said he plans to produce modern operas, plays and ballets based on traditional themes, rhythms, costumes and dance steps.
"I want to be Brazil's Off Broadway for theater production," said the 46-year-old director, who worked in opera and ballet in New York in the early 1980s.
- AFTER A LONG HOLDOUT, the Metropolitan Opera has announced it will project Supertitle simultaneous translations to accompany its operas, beginning in 1994-95. Rather than projecting above the proscenium, the company expects to put a small screen, 2 by 8 inches, on the back of each seat.
Many technical and aesthetic objections to such an arrangement remain to be worked out. But the major victory is that the nation's largest and most prestigious opera house has joined the majority in their popular opinion - that Supertitles do indeed make opera far more intelligible and enjoyable for most viewers, and increase public interest enormously.
- THE LILA WALLACE-READER'S DIGEST FUND has awarded $5.5 million to seven dance companies, five leading presenters and a national performance network to help build audiences for contemporary dance in the United States. The grants include money to underwrite tours and dance residencies by leading modern and ethnic dance companies in cities throughout the country, especially ones seldom if ever visited, to draw more people to performances and help audiences develop a greater appreciation of dance.
The new grants, which will be paid out over a period of three years, bring to the total the fund has committed to dance since 1989 to $21 million.
The grants go to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York, $600,000; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, New York, $300,000; Pilobolus Dance Theater, Washington Depot, Conn., $300,000; Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance, New York, $150,000; Ko-Thi Dance Company, Milwaukee, $150,000.; Maria Benitez Teatro Flamenco, Santa Fe., N.M., $150,000.
Other recipients are Jacob Pillow Dance Festival, Lee, Mass., $900,000; Dance Umbrella, Cambridge, Mass., $450,000; American Dance Festival, Durham, N.C., $486,900; Pittsburgh Dance Council, Pittsburgh, Pa., $375,000; Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder, Colo., $225,000; and National Performance Network, a program of the Dance Theater Workshop, New York, $1.1 million.
- THE ARTS HAVE LOST: Conductor Erich Leinsdorf, 81, in Zurich, of cancer. His long career included stints with the Metropolitan and New York City operas, the Rochester Philharmonic and Boston Symphony; and during his latter years, as guest conductor of many of the world's most prestigious orchestras and opera companies. He was born in Vienna, trained with Toscanini at Salzburg Festival . . . Elise Reiman, 79, longtime teacher at the School of American Ballet, in Boston, of an aneurysm . . . Voice coach Carlo Lifavi Menotti, 84, of New York City, of heart failure. He counted among his students Judy Garland, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin . . . Letitia Ide, 84, in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., of cancer. Ide danced with Humphrey-Weidman and Jose Limon modern dance companies.