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A second breath for the Opera House, silencing the MP3, and more
Clear Channel pumps life, and cash, into the Opera House on Washington street, new tactics in the music industry's war on digital downloading, and more


OPERA-TIVE?

An impressive crowd of city officials, theater execs, preservationists, and media types dodged crumbling plaster last week as Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Clear Channel Entertainment made official — after six years of jumping through hoops that included neighborhood objections — the $31 million revitalization of the Opera House on Washington Street. Standing at the top of the grand staircase in the once-magnificent foyer of the decaying theater, Menino presented the official building permit for the project to Clear Channel executives including Scott Zeiger, president of the entertainment behemoth, and David Anderson, president of Clear Channel’s theater-management arm.

Originally named for "father of vaudeville" B.F. Keith, the 1928 theater was designed by famed architect Thomas Lamb, and from 1978 to 1990 it was home to Sarah Caldwell’s fabled Opera Company of Boston. But it’s been shuttered — and rotting — since 1991. Its revitalization, along with that of its Washington Street neighbors the Paramount and the Modern, has been a priority of the Menino administration — which now has bigger fish to fry. In presenting the permit, the Mayor emphasized that the Opera House is set for a grand reopening in the summer of 2004, just in time for the Democratic Convention. Clear Channel intends to use the rebuilt Opera House as a 2300-seat venue for musical theater. But if it decides to reopen the joint with an opera, we don’t recommend Nixon in China.

Speaking of Clear Channel: the Abbey Theatre of Dublin production of Medea — which CCE’s local arm, Broadway in Boston, brought to the Wilbur Theatre last month — did Mamma Mia! business, selling out its final weekend, so we can probably look forward to more such higher-brow entertainment in the Theater District. But if you missed Fiona Shaw’s searing take on the Corinth celeb driven to infanticide by sexual desperation, you’ll have another chance. Following stints in Washington, DC, and Berkeley, California, the Abbey production has been scheduled for a 12-week limited engagement, commencing in early December, at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

Across the river, the American Repertory Theatre doesn’t open its 2002-2003 season until next Saturday (November 30), with Hungarian director János Szász’s production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. But the theater, in its inaugural year of new leadership by artistic director Robert Woodruff, executive director Robert J. Orchard, and associate artistic director Gideon Lester, is already at work developing its next season. Chinese director Chen She-Zheng, who drew considerable acclaim for his 18-hour The Peony Pavilion at Lincoln Center, has been teamed by Woodruff with playwright Charles L. Mee, author of the 2000 Elliot Norton Award-winning ART production of Full Circle, to develop an adaptation of the 14th-century Chinese ghost story Snow in June. The pair are in town working with students of the ART/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training on the first of two workshops of the piece, which will open the ART’s 2003-2004 season. The process is part of the theater’s ongoing endeavor to provide theater artists with the kind of development and rehearsal periods that are standard at better-subsidized European theaters.

ABOUT THAT MP3 PROBLEM . . .

It’s no secret that the music industry has been spooked by the emergence of the MP3 format for downloading music on-line. And none of the five major labels has come up with a compelling response to the brave new digital world. Sure, they put Napster out of business, but as most pundits predicted, digital downloading hasn’t gone away. So as a short-term solution, the five majors are keeping a tight rein on new product prior to its date of release, making it increasingly difficult for publications to obtain advance copies of major-label albums. In some cases, the labels have held "listening sessions" at their New York and LA offices so that critics won’t be left with anything that could make its way online. For the most part, though, they’ve simply declined to make the music available. Nonetheless, singles and album cuts continue to make their way onto the MP3 black market days and even weeks before official release dates — which would suggest that music critics aren’t the problem.

Now Epic has come up with an effective if not exactly economical way of providing advance copies of the eagerly awaited debut of Audioslave, whose line-up has former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell fronting Rage Against the Machine minus departed singer Zack de la Rocha. The label has sealed copies of the CD inside Discman players, replete with headphones, and mailed the entire apparatus out to reviewers. This may not be a long-term solution. But we’re betting we can get at least $50 for our Audioslave Discman on eBay.

ROCK AND ROLLS?

Pure, raw, hot, savory, sweet, and satisfying all describe the rock and roll at the Paradise. And those same adjectives (except maybe raw) will now describe something else at the Comm Ave institution. Last night, November 20, the new Paradise Lounge opened its doors to the public; tonight is the first night you’ll be able to order a meal. Under the direction of executive chef KC O’Hara, the Paradise Lounge will offer salads, sandwiches, gourmet pizzas, a variety of hot appetizers, and nightly dinner specials. And did we mention cocktails? What’s more, the kitchen will be open late, from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. And while you’re eating, you can admire the output of local artists: the work of former Weezer member Mikey Welsh will be up through Christmas. It’s all at 969 Commonwealth Avenue; call (617) 562-8814.

FREE BEETHOVEN!

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, which under Charles Ansbacher has been giving very creditable free concerts in the summer, is now going to brighten your winter with a program of free Beethoven. On Thursday January 30, at Sanders Theatre, the Harvard University Extension School Alumni Association will present the BLO in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, his Symphony No. 1, and his Emperor Piano Concerto, in which 24-year-old Russian pianist Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan — the granddaughter of famed violinist Leonid Kogan — will make her Boston debut. She played the Emperor with Ansbacher and the Moscow Symphony in 2000, so he must have liked what he heard. The concert will begin at 8 p.m., and as of this Friday, November 22, you can get tickets by going to the Harvard box office in the Holyoke Center Arcade, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square, or calling the box office at (617) 496-2222. To learn more about the BLO, visit

www.LandmarksOrchestra.org or call (617) 520-2200.

DO IT YOUR DAMN SELF!!

No, we’re not throwing a hissy fit — that’s the name of America’s only teen-curated film festival, and it’s coming to MIT’s Bartos Theatre this weekend, November 22 and 23. For the seventh annual Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Video and Film Festival, Cambridge teens from the Community Art Center sifted more than 100 entries from across the country down to the final 15. In "Now It’s Our Turn: Forgotten Voices of 9/11," 16-year-olds from the Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Crown Heights sections of Brooklyn look at how their neighborhoods paid the price for the terrorist attacks. "Holla Back Dubai!!" finds sixth-graders in New York’s Washington Heights talking to their counterparts in Dubai and examining the media’s post–September portrayal of the Arab world. And in "Fresh from Da Desh," first-time teen filmmakers from England and Bangladesh talks accepting differences, resolving conflicts, and remaining true to your culture.

Major funding for the DIYDS!! National Youth Video and Film Festival is provided by the Cambridge Arts Council. This Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a free screening for school groups; the public screening, reception, and discussion will take place on Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. The Bartos Theatre is in the Wiesner Building, just two blocks from the Kendall T station. For more information visit the www.doityourdamnself.org Web site or call (617) 868-7100 extension 16.

NO TROMBONES, PLEASE

Talk about an unfriendly way to start your press release! But there it is: trombonists will, once again, not be welcome at TubaChristmas 2002. All players of "conical low-bore instruments," on the other hand, are invited to present themselves on Saturday November 30, first for rehearsal from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Boston Latin School and then for the concert, under Roger Voisin, at 2 p.m. on the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market plaza. We’d guess that said instruments would include tubas, ophicleides (the ancestor of the tuba), sousaphones (named of course for John Philip Sousa), Wagner tubas (created for the Ring), and tenor horns (the instrument that starts off Mahler’s Seventh Symphony). Lunch and a parking discount will be provided for participants, who will find further details at www.tubachristmas.com and www.phrfne.org/tuba. The rest of us have only to show up at Faneuil Hall and enjoy. Just leave the trombone at home.


Issue Date: November 21 - 28, 2002
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