Taking Names

Slatkin to leave NSO

Leonard Slatkin, 60, music director of Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra since 1996, yesterday announced his intention to step down from that position at the end of the 2007-08 concert season.

Though the announcement seemed sudden, some suspicion had been aroused in 2000 when he took on the additional post of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. There, he won plaudits for becoming the first American to lead the orchestra in the “Last Night” concerts of the popular Proms series. He recently left that post, however.

During his tenure at the NSO, Mr. Slatkin dramatically raised the caliber of the once-anemic orchestra, adding superb new musicians, substantially expanding the ensemble’s once-tired repertoire and regularly premiering new works by American composers. He has championed the controversial notion that symphonic film music should be more frequently heard in the concert hall and recently filmed a TV series for the BBC on the migration of serious European composers to Hollywood.

Mr. Slatkin’s and the NSO’s future moves are uncertain. He has recently been a regular guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, pumping up the rumor mill in the Big Apple. But current Philharmonic music director Lorin Maazel seems firmly ensconced in that orchestra’s top slot.

By T.L. Ponick

Virtual lawsuit

Let’s play a game of geographical connect the dots: Fugitive director Roman Polanksi is trying to sue the New York-based magazine Vanity Fair by using British courts and testifying via video link from France, where he now lives.

Mr. Polanski, who fled this country in 1977 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, could be handed over to the United States if he comes to Britain, the BBC reports, because of an extradition agreement between the two countries.

His beef with Vanity Fair is over an article it published in 2002 claiming that Mr. Polanski seduced a woman while on his way to the funeral of his actress wife, Sharon Tate, who was murdered in 1969.

So far, the defamation suit has been unsuccessful, but Mr. Polanksi’s lawyer, Richard Spearman, recently appealed to the House of Lords, saying, “This leaves the case in a mess and a situation where a defendant can get away with libel scot-free.”

Viva Anjelica

If it were up to Anjelica Huston, more Latin American films would be shown in U.S. theaters.

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