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A record year for... Mozart? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sold more CDs last year than Beyonce, according to Smithsonian Magazine. In October, Decca Classics and Deutsche Grammophon, in partnership with the Salzberg Mozarteum Foundation, released a massive box set that is perhaps responsible for this peculiar honour. As compact discs head towards extinction in this age of digital downloads, the classics have trumped pop in terms of sales of actual physical discs. Mozart 225 - the most complete and authoritative edition of Mozart’s works as performed by the world’s leading classical artists - commemorates the composer’s 225th anniversary. The 200-disc set comes at a hefty price tag at just under $500 (USD), and at the numbers of units sold as provided by Universal Music (6,250 in the first five weeks), it all shakes down to 1.25 million CDs. Pink is the new black A kind of bizarre revenge is being enacted upon artist Anish Kapoor. The British painter caused a stir in the art world recently after he managed to secure exclusive rights to the “blackest black” pigment in the world, Vantablack, angering fellow artists with a penchant for exotic materials. One of those jilted artists, Stuart Semple, hit back by developing the world’s “pinkest pink.” Unlike Kapoor, who is the only person legally allowed to use Vantablack, Semple is selling his LONDON COMMUNITY PLAYERS PRESENTS Directed by Debra Chantler By Norm Foster Jan. 12 - Jan. 22 SEASON 2016/17 Presented by special arrangement with Gary Goddard Agency. 710 DUNDAS STREET, EAST, LONDON, ON N5W 2Z4 TICKETS: 519.432.1029 | www.palacetheatre.ca 26 ARTBEAT pink pigment to anyone who wants it - that is, anyone except Kapoor. Purchasers must sign a disclaimer stating they are not Kapoor nor are they affiliated with him, and they certainly will not obtain the pink pigment on his behalf. Apparently that hasn’t deterred Kapoor, who just uploaded a picture of his middle finger - dipped in Semple’s pink - to his Instagram. New OAC grant application system in effect The Ontario Arts Council’s (OAC) new online grant application and management system, Nova, is now operational. Announced last fall, Nova is a user-friendly and standardized system that will eliminate much of the paperwork associated with the granting process. Interested parties are now able to apply online to 2017 granting program deadlines. In preparation for Nova, OAC has also developed a new funding framework organizing all of its programs under four funding streams: Creating and Presenting; Building Audiences and Markets; Engaging Communities and Schools, and Developing Careers and Arts Services. OAC’s six priority groups remain a key focus in all programs and streams (Artists of colour, deaf artists and artists with disabilities, Francophone artists, Indigenous artists, new generation artists, and artists living in regions outside Toronto). The new system was developed in response to feedback by applicants requesting that the granting processes be significantly simplified. Produced by Jim Chantler Sundance: focus on the environment For the first time ever, the Sundance Film Festival is focusing on a specific theme: climate change and environmental preservation, which will undoubtedly have an impact on the estimated 30,000 people set to descend upon Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance Mountain Resort from January 19-29. “The films in this year’s festival show the human sides of issues, people and places we don’t often see. Independent filmmakers, with their fearless, bold perspectives, are challenging us to witness our world’s whole story. These artists, armed with their films, will lead us into the future,” remarked John Cooper, festival director. The fest will showcase 113 feature-length films representing 32 countries and 37 first-time filmmakers, including 20 in competition. The films were selected from 13,782 submissions including 4,068 feature-length films and 8,985 short films. Of the feature film submissions, 2,005 were from the U.S. and 2,063 were international. Ninety-eight feature films at the festival will be world premieres, including a sequel to Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning climate change documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. thearts ACTOR AND WRITER CARRIE FISHER – BEST KNOWN FOR HER PORTRAYAL OF PRINCESS LEIA IN THE ORIGINAL STAR WARS TRILOGY – DIED ON DECEMBER 27 Obituary – Carrie Fisher She was born a child of Hollywood royalty who became a kind of royalty herself. Carrie Fisher – the actor and writer known to millions the world over as Princess Leia - died on December 27 after a heart attack. She was 60. Daughter of celebrated actors Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, young Carrie grew up in the spotlight, and after her parents’ highly publicized divorce in 1959, the stage was set for a turbulent childhood. In 1975, Fisher made her brief but memorable film debut, propositioning Warren Beatty in the satire Shampoo, before landing her big break on the original Star Wars movie, where she sported a hairstyle she described as “hairy earphones”. Ultimately, Fisher would go on to reprise her role as Leia Organa in four franchise films, including Episode VIII, which won’t be released until Christmas 2017. Fisher’s feisty personality, however, resisted the stereotyping that came along with Star Wars’ immense popularity. She spoke and wrote insightfully about her own addiction and mental health issues for years while working as a memoirist, script doctor and screenwriter. RIP Carrie Frances Fisher, actor and writer (1956- 2016). Obituary - Debbie Reynolds On December 28, when the news broke that Debbie Reynolds had passed away mere hours after her daughter, Carrie Fisher, one could almost hear the world gasp. The iconic actress followed her daughter - to whom she had a complex yet very close bond - to the great beyond after suffering a stroke. She was 84. Born in El Paso, DEBBIE REYNOLDS IN SINGINʼ IN THE RAIN, 1952 ESTABLISHED IN 1989 JANUARY 12 - FEBRUARY 28 • 2017
thearts Texas, in 1932, Reynolds burst onto the Hollywood scene in 1952 as a 19-year-old ingénue in Singin’ in the Rain. With seemingly boundless energy and optimism, she went onto enjoy an incredibly successful career in musicals and other motion pictures including Bundle of Joy, The Tender Trap, How the West was Won, The Singing Nun, and Charlotte’s Web. She was also an accomplished singer, with her 1957 single ‘Tammy’ reaching number one. Reynolds’ high-profile marriage to Eddie Fisher in 1955 produced her famous daughter the year after, and a son, Todd, in 1958. She received an Academy Award nomination for her title role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964 and a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Reynolds is survived by her son, and granddaughter Billie Lourd. Picks for this year’s Oscar season Nominations for the 2017 Academy Awards won’t be released until the end of January, but a couple frontrunners have emerged. It’s a sure bet that Moonlight - written and directed by Barry Jenkins, and based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue – won’t leave the ceremony empty-handed. The film, which stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali, chronicles the life of a young black man as he struggles to find his place in the world. Romantic musical La La Land is also set to win big on Oscar night. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the film tells the story of two young lovers – played by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone – who hope to become successes in Hollywood, despite being down on their luck. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on February 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Zsa Zsa Gabor: 1917 - 2016 Farewell, dahlink. The original “famous for being famous” socialite - Zsa Zsa Gabor - passed away in Los Angeles less than two months from her 100th birthday. The iconic star died of a heart attack on December 18 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after years of suffering from dementia. Though she appeared in dozens of films and TV shows throughout the 1950s right up until the ‘90s, Gabor was known more for her beauty queen looks and headline-grabbing glamorous lifestyle - not to mention her many marriages - than her entertainment career. Born Sari Gabor in 1917 in Budapest, she left Hungary for the United States just prior to the Second World War, marrying her second husband, hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, soon after. The union would produce Gabor’s only child, a daughter, Francesca Hilton, who died in 2015. Gabor appeared in such movies as Moulin Rouge, Touch of Evil, and the camp classic Queen of Outer Space, later moving onto the talkshow circuit and lending her bubbly personality to many film and television cameos - often parodying herself. Gabor is predeceased by her sisters Eva and Magda, who were also tabloid-famous in their own right, and survived by her 9th husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt. La La Land, Streep at Golden Globes Awards season got underway with the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards, broadcast live from Beverly Hills on January 8. With his sweeping opening number parodying La La Land, host Jimmy Fallon foretold the night’s big winner. The romantic musical was the darling of the evening, taking all seven awards it was nominated for, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Director for Damien Chazelle, and Best Actor and Actress for Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The film set a record for most awards won during a single Golden Globes ceremony. Moonlight won Best Motion Picture (Drama), while the Netflix original The Crown took Best Television Series (Drama). Casey Affleck won Best Actor (Drama) for Manchester by the Sea; Isabelle Huppert took Best Actress (Drama) for Elle. The evening’s most poignant moment, however, came courtesy of Meryl Streep, who called out US President-elect Donald Trump after accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Streep expressed her heartbreak at Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter at a 2015 rally. “This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose,” Streep said. Richard Adams: 1920 - 2016 English author Richard Adams, who penned the classic children’s adventure novel Watership Down, passed away on Christmas Eve at the age of 96. Adams didn’t write the book - which follows a group of wild rabbits who must find a new home after their warren is destroyed - until he was in his 50s, and even then, it was at the insistence of his family. Adams had made up the story to entertain his bored daughters on a long car trip, and they enjoyed it so much they insisted he publish it. Initially rejected by several AUTHOR RICHARD ADAMS IN 1974 publishers, Adams’ first novel became a bestseller and went onto win the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. It was later made into a (notoriously scary) animated movie and has been adapted for the stage multiple times. The success of Watership Down enabled Adams to leave his job as a British civil servant and become a full-time writer. More novels followed, including Shardik, The Plague Dogs, Traveller, and The Days Gone By. LONDON COMMUNITY PLAYERS PRESENTS Lorraine Hansberry Directed by Martin McIntosh Feb. 9 - Feb. 19 - Amie Ronald-Morgan Produced by Diane Haggerty SEASON 2016/17 Presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. 710 DUNDAS STREET, EAST, LONDON, ON N5W 2Z4 TICKETS: 519.432.1029 | www.palacetheatre.ca JANUARY 12 - FEBRUARY 28 • 2017 <strong>CELEBRATING</strong> 27 YEARS 27
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