Corporate art collections are nothing new these days, but that a company started it 27 years ago is quite extraordinary. At that time, to bring art into the workplace was an act of breaking through conventional understanding of the working environment. "It is quite a challenge," revealed director of Deutsche Bank Art Director Dr. Ariane Grigoteit at the launch of the anniversary show of the Deutsche Bank's collection in Singapore early this month.

Bringing to reality the vision that art can be an alternative form of currency, steady acquisitions by the Deutsche Bank have brought its collection to an impressive number of 50,000 works. The bank originally focused on art from German-speaking countries, but as its offices branched out around the world, its collection also increasingly moved away from its original focus. While art in the workplace became part of the bank's working environment worldwide, to seek new forms of communicating the art has become an integral part of the bank's collecting.

In this sense, commissioning the inventive Bangladesh born-London based Zaha Hadid to create "new" spaces for the anniversary traveling exhibition of the bank's art collection is another visionary move.

Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, who designed the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and has been commissioned to design the National Center of Contemporary Arts in Rome, the Guggenheim Museum for Taichung, Taiwan, and an extension of the Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, U.S., is an architect who knows what art is. Her spectacular design for Singapore Art Museum (SAM)'S exhibition spaces indicates a new vision in architectural intervention.

From

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20060924.H01&irec=22

Simons has at his disposal an almost ideal cast of singer- actors, all of whom hurl themselves into the task. Thankfully, the director does not forget that this is a comedy, and his team gives us plenty of laughs.

Kurt Rydl's Osmin is a hilarious ham, sonorous and self- assured, light on his feet, with just the necessary edge of latent thuggery.

Mojca Erdmann, rake thin and waspish, sports a red riding coat, latex boots and a belt that she isn't afraid to use, playing dominatrix to keep Osmin at heel.

Yet she never falters on her silvery lines of coloratura. Michael Smallwood, her Pedrillo, plays his role with wit and a wonderfully light touch.

Laura Aikin's Konstanze is an altogether more serious character, as she should be, torn between passion and obligation, showing us a vast range of human emotion with kamikaze honesty. As Belmonte, Edgaras Montvidas has a less complex part, though he, too, experiences a coming-of-age, sung with clarity and charisma.

From

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=abOIc0YnWeIw&refer=muse