Share how the arts survive and thrive online despite the pandemic

[lizkat]

Even the Royal Opera House is coming up on hard times during the pandemic... no arts venue has been spared the lack of audience and income.

Royal Opera House to sell off David Hockney painting in bid to stay afloat

Portrait of former CEO and arts pioneer David Webster could fetch up to £18m

www.theguardian.com

The sale at Christie’s of Hockney’s portrait of the late Sir David Webster will be publicly announced on Monday. Webster ran the opera house for 25 years from 1945 to 1970, during its greatest period of expansion and ambition. Christie’s expects it to go for between £11m and £18m.

The painting, which was commissioned for the Covent Garden building in the 1970s, is to go up for auction later this month in an unprecedented attempt to protect the venue’s future as a home for the Royal Ballet and for international opera.

“We are the biggest arts employer in the country and we knew we had to look at any assets we had,” said Beard. “And there is only really one of any note that stands out and that is this portrait.”

Hockney has been informed, said Beard, who worked previously at the Tate. “We have a good relationship, but he does not much like it when any of his work is auctioned.”

 

[SuperMatt]

The musical organizations I perform with put out virtual products where each musician performs at home and it’s all put together with software. One new tool that has been cool is soundjack - it focuses on a low-latency connection between a small group of musicians so you can get the feeling of a live performance or rehearsal, and feel the music together.

 

[lizkat]

Reuters reports The Royal Ballet has returned to the stage... online.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1314770127779319808/

 

[lizkat]

Even the Royal Opera House is coming up on hard times during the pandemic... no arts venue has been spared the lack of audience and income.

Royal Opera House to sell off David Hockney painting in bid to stay afloat

Portrait of former CEO and arts pioneer David Webster could fetch up to £18m

www.theguardian.com

As a followup, the Hockney painting has been sold, for USD 16.7 million via auction at Christie's

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1319700118925414401/

 

[lizkat]

The Philadelphia Orchestra has gone into full swing with Digital Stage options including build your own bundle of streamed performances w/ discounts off single tickets, exchange of one for another performance without a fee, even gift certificates.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

www.philorch.org

Nice write up in the Philadelphia Inquirer by their classical music critic

The Philadelphia Orchestra, now online, has become a critical source of serenity

Last week’s concert operated on numerous levels. Vivian Fung’s Prayer brought a stunningly original compositional voice into the orchestra’s repertoire.

But the moment that really took my breath away was a sliver of silence. It came between Appalachian Spring and the Siegfried Idyll. Copland, in its delicate 13-player version, had died away. An exterior drone shot lifted up over the Mann Center shed with the Philadelphia skyline close by. And then the serenity of the Wagner began.

The sequence suggested meaning. Wagner’s score, written as a private gift to his wife, has a soft, pastoral shimmer. The camera move showed off the Mann as a vital urban-sylvan venue in as lovely a glamor shot as was ever designed. And the transition sent an unmistakable emotional message about everything good in our town. I’m not sure any other arts group is speaking for the city with quite this ardor in these unsettled times.

 

[lizkat]

Maybe shouldn't have left out how media outlets are trying to survive while showing off what has drawn their residents to their venues...

The New York Times has assembled a great interactive piece that invites a virtual tour of the architecture of 17 of its storied neighborhoods. Lots of fun and will maybe help remind people that after covid-19 finally gets its behind whupped, NYC remains a wonderful place to visit, work and play in.

17 Virtual Tours of New York City (Published 2020)

Pick a neighborhood and let The Times’s architecture critic guide you through its notable sites.

www.nytimes.com

Access info: This site is at least looking for a user registration and is likely paywalled after a few free peeks.. Can pick up a sub right now for only 2 bucks a week for a year (billed every four weeks) for a year and cancel any time. Student discount also an option.

Well as entertainment goes, it's far cheaper than driving into the city and hoofing it around town to see all these wonders of the Big Apple.

 

[lizkat]

File under best laid plans: the stage sets for the opera Il Trovatore, to be performed in LA on September 18, are enroute from Monaco, but they're currently somewhere among 38 containerships hanging offshore the port of Los Angeles, during ongoing covid-related shipping congestion. Who knows when they'll be offloaded.

So... yeah, new sets are being constructed from scratch right now, with a crew of 45 working 14-hour days to crunch 90 day's worth of work into about ten. The main challenge was laying hands on $35k of raw lumber but that's in the rear view now and work has begun. Fortunately they do have the props and costumes, which were shipped by air long ago, or the rollout of this presentation of an already highly dramatic opera would really be over the top.

L.A. Opera set gets stuck at the port, so crews will build a new one — in just 10 days

COVID-19 disruptions in shipping have stranded a European opera set at sea, so LAO will build another. Three months of work are crammed into 10 days.

www.latimes.com

So how does a team — even a highly seasoned team such as this — pull off this operatic hail Mary in 10 days? Well, Kleeman and Hemmings said, the set doesn’t have to last 80 days. It just needs to last for six performances. Corners can be cut when durability isn’t an issue.

Hemmings estimated that this massive pandemic pivot will cost an additional $300,000, but he said it’s well worth it. “It’s important for us to proceed because all of our artisans and chorus members have been out of work for so long that we are committed to spending the money and getting back to work,” he said, adding that everything — from building the set to rehearsing the show to bringing audiences back is made more complex by layer-upon-layer of COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

A mandatory vaccination policy is in place for all employees, and a comprehensive testing policy is supported by a COVID-19 compliance company.

This is not an entirely new experience for Kleeman. Twenty years ago a Russian set for “Lady Macbeth” was diverted from L.A. because of a dock strike. Building that set was not nearly as complicated as the set of “Il Trovatore,” said Kleeman, but the sense of adrenaline is familiar. Hopefully, too, will be the feeling of pride when it’s completed and the first spotlight shines onstage.

Kleeman holds very strong memories from that long-ago moment during “Lady Macbeth.” When the curtain opened, he said, the scent of sugar pine filled the theater.

“We had cut 10,000 board-feet of lumber in 10 days, and you could smell it in the auditorium, it was visceral,” Kleeman said. “I’m looking forward to it. That’s how fast and fresh and huge this is: It comes with its own aroma generator.”

 

[SuperMatt]

File under best laid plans: the stage sets for the opera Il Trovatore, to be performed in LA on September 18, are enroute from Monaco, but they're currently somewhere among 38 containerships hanging offshore the port of Los Angeles, during ongoing covid-related shipping congestion. Who knows when they'll be offloaded.

So... yeah, new sets are being constructed from scratch right now, with a crew of 45 working 14-hour days to crunch 90 day's worth of work into about ten. The main challenge was laying hands on $35k of raw lumber but that's in the rear view now and work has begun. Fortunately they do have the props and costumes, which were shipped by air long ago, or the rollout of this presentation of an already highly dramatic opera would really be over the top.

L.A. Opera set gets stuck at the port, so crews will build a new one — in just 10 days

COVID-19 disruptions in shipping have stranded a European opera set at sea, so LAO will build another. Three months of work are crammed into 10 days.

www.latimes.com

Awesome story! Opera is not an inexpensive art form.

In other opera news, the Metropolitan Opera reached a deal with the orchestra Union so their season will be starting in the fall!

Metropolitan Opera and Orchestra Reach Deal, Allowing Season to Start