AS THE WEB SPINS

posted by James Reel

    A few days ago, a fellow in Canada was surfing the Web and stumbled upon my old Timid Soul’s Guide to Classical Music. This surfer sent the link to a music enthusiast (and attorney) in Washington, D.C., who subsequently contacted me with some kind words and hopes that I would be able to update the site as time goes by. Well, that’s not possible, because The Timid Soul’s Guide is maintained by a former employer of mine, a newspaper that’s not likely to update 15-year-old material by somebody who’s gone on to bigger and better things.
    The good news, though, is that the D.C. music enthusiast, Peter Gutmann, has a splendid site of his own. It’s called Classical Notes, and he bills it as “classical music reviews, articles and commentary by a deeply devoted fan.” The material is aimed primarily at intelligent entry-level listeners, and includes extensive discographic surveys. I'm very impressed by what he’s put together, in terms of content and design. I also tend to agree with many of his evaluations, and where our tastes differ, he makes a very good case for his point of view. Do spend some time at his site.

UNDER WRAPS

posted by James Reel

    National Public Radio is ashamed of classical music, its cultural mainstay since the network’s beginnings in the early 1970s. How can I say that? The classical presence is severely downplayed on the home page of the new NPR Music site. NPR describes this as “a free, multi-genre Web site that presents the best of public radio music. … NPR Music aims to be as diverse as our audience's interests and curiosity. That's why Jazz Profiles lives alongside World Café and Classics in Concert, and why we feature everyone from Aaron Copland and Aaron Neville, to Dan Zanes and Joe Zawinul. We want to surprise you with new artists, new music, and things you didn't know you would enjoy until you discovered them. The site is organized by genre and by type of musical content including live concerts, studio sessions, artist interviews, profiles, reviews, blogs and podcasts.”
    Apparently NPR is confident that we already know a lot about classical music, and the only things left to discover are jazz and the various popular genres.
    In reality, NPR Music does have a halfway promising classical section hidden away, although the content producers are so unsure of the appeal of classical music that they are compelled to pimp pianist Christopher O’Riley’s unbearably dull transcriptions of Radiohead songs, which is old news indeed. Perhaps in time the classical content will improve, but for now it seems embarrassed and half-hearted.

BACK IN BUSINESS

posted by James Reel

    For the latest edition of the Tucson Weekly, I decided not just to preview a new production but look into the condition of the company that’s mounting it:

    After several months of production hiatus and an administrative makeover, Beowulf Alley Theatre is switching off the ghost light and illuminating the stage with a new show, Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets. The Irish comedy has won several awards since its premiere in 1999, and it garnered three Tony nominations in 2001.
    Last spring, insufficient fundraising led the theater's board to let go of two employees--including artistic director and founder Stephen Elton, who has since gotten a theater job near San Diego—and assign operational supervision to committees. "It's a model that's been used successfully by theaters all over the country," says board member Mike Sultzbach.
    Even so, the board jumped at the chance to reinstate Beth Dell as day-to-day operations manager when a donor came forward in July to fund the position, and within a year or two, it hopes to have an artistic director back in place. First, though, the board intends to craft a new strategic plan—which could take several months—and do some heavy-duty fundraising with the help of additional board members with ties to the business community. "Our goal is to do a good job of fundraising in the next year or so, so we can get back to having an artistic director," Sultzbach says.

QUINZAINES DE PELERINAGE: SUISSE

posted by James Reel

    Back to work for me, after two weeks in Switzerland (off season, but still pricey). There, I trod upon a glacier, dined with an official from the Swiss ministry of culture, looked at books that are more than a thousand years old in a beautiful old library, and ate more fondue than I ever expected to encounter once the 1970s were over. I saw several impressive-looking organs in bright rococo churches decorated like birthday cakes, but heard none of them. Indeed, I didn’t make it to any concerts at all; there was talk of going to a performance of sonatas and cantatas marking the 300th anniversary of the death of Dietrich Buxtehude, but friends decided we should throw ourselves into a dinner party instead.
    So much for relaxation. On my first day back in the studio, not only do I find myself involved in a little fund-raising campaign I hadn’t heard about when I left, but I’m scheduled for an additional shift of pledge breaks this afternoon. Looks like I won’t get my now-laundered travel clothes ironed today. More blogging later.

DEPARTURE LOUNGE

posted by James Reel

After my morning shift on KUAT-FM and an afternoon of fund-raising on KUAZ, I’m going home for some last-minute packing, then departing tomorrow morning for two weeks in Switzerland. Yes, it’s a strange time to mingle with the Swiss; the weather won’t be especially good, but it’s not yet ski season. But it’s the only mutually agreeable time when we could visit a couple of friends who are spending the fall semester in Zurich. I’m definitely ready for a vacation, having worked frantically to, among other things, stockpile enough installments of the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music broadcast series to see us through to Thanksgiving. The morning hours will be in good hands during my absence, so don’t touch that dial!

HOLD THE BUS

posted by James Reel

    My theater review in the current Tucson Weekly begins like this:

    Sometimes it pays to write yourself into a corner--or at least write your characters into one. Take a small group of flawed people who have little in common. Make them interact in unexpected ways by trapping them in a lifeboat or a jury room or, if you're writing a low-budget sitcom script, an elevator. Sit back and let the comedy and drama write themselves.
    Well, it isn't quite that easy, but it is a quick way to force characters into confrontation, and William Inge put the technique to good use in his 1955 comedy Bus Stop. Just outside Kansas City, a snowstorm strands eight people overnight in a diner, and even though this is the Midwest in the 1950s, the evening's dominant subject is sex. Maybe even love, but mostly sex.
    The UA's Arizona Repertory Theatre has revived the play, once a great Broadway and cinematic success but now relegated mainly to community theaters. As this Brent-Gibbs-directed production shows, the play still holds up very well in all respects but one: In a script that has many interesting and subtle things to say about coupling, the two central characters are utterly repellent.