http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin RSS Feed for Inq Col Peter Dobrin en-us Fri, 25 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120525__ArtsWatch_.html Inquirer critic and culture writer Peter Dobrin tells you who's making news, noise, and splash in the Philadelphia arts world and beyond at www.philly.com/philly/blogs/artswatch. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120524_Orchestra_files_plan_for_exiting_bankruptcy.html Thirteen months after entering Chapter 11, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association on Wednesday night filed its plan for exiting bankruptcy. With consent - sometimes hard-won - now in place from key creditors, the orchestra's blueprint for recovery will be considered by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the coming months. If the plan draws support and no objections from creditors, and Judge Eric L. Frank approves it, the orchestra expects to be out of bankruptcy by July 31. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120523_Kimmel_cuts_costly_programs.html More entertainment, less art? The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, grappling with a series of discrete financial pressures, is shifting away from being a distinct presenting entity, relying more on partnerships with commercial outfits such as AEG and Live Nation, while giving breaks in rent to its own resident companies. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120522_Kimmel__orchestra_agree_on_rent_reduction.html In further progress toward a new lease agreement, leaders of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and Kimmel Center Inc. have signed an amendment to their existing lease that reduces the base rent, a Kimmel spokeswoman said. The new terms were not entirely clear; a copy of the amendment was not filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court as of Monday evening. Details are expected in the orchestra’s forthcoming reorganization plan. According to a statement released by both groups, the deal calls for a reduction in the rent the orchestra pays to the Kimmel, from about $2.5 million to $1.5 million annually. The rent will increase each year through 2017, to $1.74 million. Starting in 2018, the Kimmel will have the option of collecting an increased base rent or 16 percent of ticket revenues from orchestra concerts in Verizon Hall. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/Glitterati_ablaze_for_the_Barnes.html The general public gets its first views of the Center City iteration of the Barnes Foundation Saturday, but cultural leaders and donors to the new building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway saw, and feted, their handiwork Friday night. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120518_Review__Dutoit_bids_a_dazzling__lsquo_Au_revoir_rsquo_.html Keen listeners might find a poignant layer or two around Charles Dutoit’s final stroke as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé ends on a nearly unbearably brilliant A major chord — the key German poet Christian Schubart believed messaged the hope, upon parting, of seeing one’s beloved again. Verizon Hall’s Thursday night capacity audience seemed to be yearning already. A standing ovation for the conductor began gathering even before the music’s start, just after he glided on stage and neared the podium. But Dutoit had already pivoted for the upbeat to Glinka’s Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila and apparently missed his admirers’ incipient gesture. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120520_Barnes_move_to_Parkway_is_progress__but_a_quirky_something_has_been_lost.html When Judge Stanley R. Ott ruled in 2004 that the Barnes Foundation’s collection of paintings and sculpture, worth billions, could be extracted from its Merion home and remounted in a new building downtown, the Barnes set out to replicate the original galleries, in scale and configuration, exactly. This much now is an accomplished fact. And yet, as the new Barnes Foundation opens this weekend, everything is different. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120518__ArtsWatch_.html Inquirer critic and culture writer Peter Dobrin tells you who's making news, noise and splash in the Philadelphia arts world and beyond at www.philly.com/philly/blogs/artswatch http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120515_Curtis_rsquo__year-end_crescendo__with_a_melancholy_note.html Most schools might prefer that graduating students show up to collect their diplomas. But at Saturday’s ceremonies launching 36 graduates into uncertain futures, the Curtis Institute of Music noted a no-show with some pride: Canadian violinist Nikki Chooi sent his regrets, as he was busy being a finalist in Belgium’s prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20120511_Virtuosic__ldquo_Elektra_rdquo__from_orchestra_and_singers.html In a way, it’s a shame that opera has been consigned to the opera house for so much of its four centuries. The two sides of the form, visual and musical, were of course conceived as a synergistic whole beneath the proscenium. But almost as rebuttal to the Metropolitan Opera’s $16 million Ring cycle and its 45-ton set, the Philadelphia Orchestra put on an Elektra on Thursday night in Verizon Hall that, by omitting costumes and sets, burned a deep hole in the theory that the eye has any legitimate claim on the genre. The orchestra has never before played Richard Strauss’ 1906-08 score, an astonishing fact given the group’s proto-Straussian role, Stokowski’s penchant for shock value, and the ensemble’s golden decade with Strauss specialist Wolfgang Sawallisch.