Word: musicalities
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...Music Hall's success wasn't lost on New York's merchant-entrepreneurs. Today the city is clogged with live entertainment for the holidays: Lincoln Center alone has two offerings - the New York City Ballet's annual production of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (which ends Sunday) and the yearly visit of the Big Apple Circus (through Jan. 13). Of the shows that say, "I like New York in Yule," we've chosen three - the newest, the oldest and one in between...
...Gergiev was great, the performance was immaculate, and the acoustic effect of the theatre is truly amazing," says Liu Xuefeng, a music critic and editor of the Chinese edition of Gramophone, the British classical music magazine. But there was a downside to the perfect sound system. "I could hear every word from the stage as well as from my fellow audience members ten seats away from me," says Liu. "Chattering, eating, children crying, camera flashes going off here and there... It was the worst audience I have ever seen!" The four-hour opera had already been shortened to slightly over...
...close to $50, a huge amount for ordinary citizens) to 122 VIP seats (at the Olympiad-alluding price of 2,008 RMB or $250). Almost all sold out in no time, apart from those set aside for government officials. "I think only 10% of the audience are true music lovers," said a man surnamed Song, who hovered around the theatre in freezing temperatures hoping to find a cheap ticket from the scalpers. "People think going to western operas and classical music concerts is a sign of a certain social status, and the National Grand Theatre is also a novelty...
...Xuefeng is hardly able to hide his chagrin. Such dilettante and often crass audiences are giving the music he loves a bad name. "People think of classical music lovers as pretentious dabblers," says Liu. Successful ticket sales for performances by international groups in China are hardly based on the audience's passion and understanding of music - just on the prestige of the performers. Tickets to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic in January were snatched up as soon as they became available. In fact, the high cost of tickets for top-quality concerts keep many music lovers away...
...something the people who run the "egg" recognize. The National Grand Theater has launched a project entitled "Opening the Door to Art Education," consisting of a series of lectures on western classical music. "It will take time," Liu says, "Maybe China is developing a bit too fast," on the track to a sizzling economy and unheard of wealth. "Art is having a hard time keeping...