In the latest salvo of a long-running battle of words, politics and money involving Berlin’s three opera houses, Daniel Barenboim has handed the cultural authorities an ultimatum. Musical America correspondent Paul Moor quotes an article in Berlin’s Bunte Illustrierte in which Barenboim, artistic director of the city’s oldest opera company, the Deutsche Staatsoper, vows he will remain in charge after his contract expires in 2002 only if the Berlin Senate gives him $5 million to augment his presently available funds. “I have said what the Staatsoper needs,” he is quoted as saying. “Either it receives that. Then I will stay. Or it does not receive that. Then I will go.”
The ultimatum leaves the Senate, which controls Berlin’s cultural purse strings, in a quandary. The mayor has proclaimed his wish to keep Barenboim in Berlin no matter what–even though the Senate has refused to increase the Staatsoper budget. A recent compromise proposal to merge two of Berlin’s three opera houses, the Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper with Barenboim as general director failed when Barenboim rejected the offer. Now, it appears that only a miracle would keep him in Berlin. As he recently told the Berlin magazine Focus: “I lived 47 years without Berlin. After 2002 I can easily live without Berlin and Berlin without me.”
John von Rhein
TECHNOPHOBIC FEST
Suffer from severe technophobia? Let celluloid calm your fears. That’s the prescription being handed out at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where the first “Computer Fear Film Festival” kicks off this weekend. The University of Illinois, home to a top computer science programs as well as the fictional birthplace of Hal, the cyberhero-turned-cyberpsycho in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” has launched the festival as a means of exploring people’s fear of robots, hackers, computers and other technology. Nicknamed CF3, this year’s festival theme is robots, with Robin William’s “Bicentennial Man,” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator” and Harrison Ford’s “Blade Runner” slated for screening Sept. 9. Panels on computer fears as well as robotic demonstrations are part of the festival, an idea launched by UI computer science lecturer Marsha Woodbury.
Judy Hevrdejs
KLEZMER DANCING
Pilobolus Dance Theatre, celebrating its 30th season, is coming to the Auditorium Theatre Nov. 10 and 11 with “Klezmer,” a new piece by company co-artistic directors Robby Barnett and Jonathan Wolken. Advance publicity states that the work has original music by the Klezmatics, a New York City group that “plays soul-stirring Jewish roots music for the 21st Century.”
Richard Christiansen
BEAUTY IN `CABARET’
Kate Shindle wore a tiara in her role as Miss America in 1998 and schlepped pastrami on rye in Artie’s New York Delicatessan during a stint as a waitress at the Upper West Side eatery in 1999. Now she will be stepping on stage in Chicago as Kit Kat Klub headliner Sally Bowles in a touring production of “Cabaret.” The production, with its Sam “American Beauty” Mendes staging, will run Dec. 13-17 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St. Veteran British actor Jon Peterson will portray the infamous Emcee in the Kander and Ebb musical.
More Top Picks How Long Does Vision Therapy Take To Show Results
J.H.
PAVAROTTI’S EX SPEAKS
Tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s ex-wife has broken her vow of silence regarding the operatic supernova. Adua Veroni, his former wife and manager, disputes the singer’s public allegations that she is trying to destroy him financially. “He has always needed a scapegoat. For 40 years I was his safety valve; he obviously hasn’t found a new one,” she is quoted in Milan’s Corriere della Sera. Pavarotti’s 35-year marriage broke up in 1996.
J.v.R.