FOLLOWING A DISASTROUS fire in January, the historic Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona is in the throes of reconstruction with all the attendant political and artistic squabbling. The plan is to reconstruct the house, which still has viable walls and much of the roof, by 1997, but many doubt that accord can be reached to meet that date.
Plans are bogged down by conflict between city and national authorities about who shall shoulder costs and have autonomy. Fusses also involve the private owners, 400 of whom have retained control of the theater, even with increasingly large amounts of public subsidy. Seats were inherited, and could be purchased at a discount.Under a new plan, owners will cede their basic rights and transform themselves into a foundation, which will support the opera while not actually owning it. They will retain their ticket-purchase privileges and club memberships. The total cost of building and modernization has been estimated at $68 million, with insurance paying $14 million, and another $30 million already pledged.
- SANTA FE OPERA`S founder and general director John Crosby recently announced a major new commissioning program that will enable three distinguished American symphonic composers to present their new works at Santa Fe during the next three years.
A commission has been assigned to David Lang for "Modern Painters" (1995) with libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning art and music critic Manuela Hoelterhoff. The opera deals with the life of John Ruskin.
The premiere for 1996 is "Emmeline" by Tobias Picker, libretto by poet J.D. McClatchy, a true-life story of a woman whose life is ruined by betrayal and incest. In 1997, "Ashoka's Dream" will debut, by composer Peter Lieberson with libretto by Douglas Penick. It recounts the personal journey of Emperor Ashoka (270 B.C.) whose benign reforms transformed India.
Plans to remodel and revamp Santa Fe's remarkable desert opera house are also in the works.
- ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER'S "Requiem Variations" highlighted June performances by Opera Omaha. The show combines music from Lloyd Webber's "Requiem," which won the 1986 Grammy for best classical contemporary composition, and "Variations," a work that was part of the 1982 Broadway hit "Song & Dance." In the new work, the two pieces are woven together into "an uplifting story of love, loss and rebirth." The 10 performances in Omaha's Orpheum Theater will be followed by a national tour.
- FROM JUNE 18 to July 2, 144 dancers from 41 countries converged on Jackson, Miss., to participate in the fifth USA International Ballet Competition and compete for the dance world's most prestigious medals.
The IBC originated in 1964 and now rotates among five cities: Moscow; Varna, Bulgaria; Helsinki; Paris; and Jackson. The Jackson event is spearheaded by Thalia Mara, a former dancer who brought the event home to this Southern U.S. city in 1975, where it functions on civic pride, traditional southern hospitality and an army of 2,000 friendly volunteers.
The talent on display was prodigious, according to the Christian Science Monitor's Margaret Willis. The international jury was led by Boston Ballet's artistic director, Bruce Marks, and 34 competitors advanced to the final round, with 12 nationalities on the winners' list.
Among 20 medals awarded, the Grand Prix, awarded unanimously, went to Danish Johan Kobborg. Senior male gold medal, Dai Sasaki, Japan; senior male silver, Yury Yanowsky, Spain; bronze, Igor Antonov, Ukraine.
Senior female silver medal, Marina Antonova, Russia/Beate Vollack, Germany. Bronze, Alexandra Koltun U.S./Mariko Miyauchi, Japan/Tiekka Schofield, U.S.
Junior division male gold, Simon Ball, U.S.; junior female gold, Zenaida Yanowsky, Spain; Robert Joffrey memorial award of merit, Alexander Pereda of Cuba. Sixteen IBC scholarships were also awarded.
- FIVE AMERICAN BALLET companies have lost their artistic directors during the past few months, which causes Richard Philp, editor of Dance Magazine to reflect.
At BalletMet of Columbus, Ohio, John McFall, who built the company to its present hight profile position, was dumped when he challenged decisions and policies of his own board of directors.
Bay Ballet Theatre of Tampa, Fla., chucked its founding artistic director, Christopher Fleming, at the behest of a charlatan whom they made managing director and who now faces criminal charges in south Florida. Robert Barnett, artistic director for 31 years of Atlanta Ballet (the oldest ballet company in America, founded in 1929) retired a year early because of differences in financial philosophy with the board.
Indianapolis Ballet Theatre's Dace Dindonis, who replaced the company's founding director George Verdak in 1988, was fired on short notice for being "an artistic person," not an administrative one. And Christopher d'Amboise, whose charismatic leadership saved the Pennsylvania Ballet in 1990, found his plans scuttled by a board that had already chopped his budget by almost $3 million, and wanted, rather than raise more money, to cut another $1.5 million.
The common points at issue here were boards and money said Philp, who doesn't know how issues of artistic excitement and enterprise can be balanced against fiscal responsibility.
- IN BEAUTIFUL SPOLETO, Italy, Gian Carlo staged his 57th international festival June 22-July 10, with a distinguished lineup of stars and attractions. Opening the festival was a double bill of "Les Mamelles de Tiresias" of Poulenc and Bronislava Nijinska's "Les Biches," performed by the Ballet National of Nancy and Lorraine.
Additional highlights included Berg's "Wozzeck" conducted by Christian Badea, the Martha Graham Dance Company, Ballet National de Marseilles Roland Petit, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, performed in the piazza before Spoleto's cathedral, with exciting new German conductor Christian Thielemann conducting. A host of vocal, choral, orchestral, chamber and other instrumental concerts completed the roster, along with distinguished drama by St. Petersburg's Maly Theater and others.