ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

ARCHITECTURE

Moss Kirov Design Triggers Opposition

Los Angeles-based architect Eric Owen Moss has entered a minefield with his redesign of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre--the home of the esteemed Kirov Opera and Ballet.

The internationally acclaimed Moss, newly appointed director of the experimentally oriented Southern California Institute of Architecture, presented his ideas to the Kremlin last week.

Ultimately, Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide whether his hometown will make the jump from the architecture of the 19th century to that of the 21st, according to the Sunday Times of London. If he favors the project, he faces tough opposition from the city’s cultural elite, as well as from local architects and city planners.

“This is an imposition of completely different culture, and not the best kind of culture,” said Oleg Kharchenko, the city’s chief architect. “They say, ‘You, who have lived in this city for so long, your ancestors who created this city, you did it all the wrong way. The right way is this empty nonsense.’”

The new premises are intended to bring the cramped theater, built in 1860, in line with international standards and stop Russia opera singers and ballerinas from defecting to the West. Another goal: giving St. Petersburg an architectural showpiece along the lines of London’s Tate Modern or Paris’ Pompidou Centre.

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MUSIC

Vonk Cancels L.A. Performances

Conductor Hans Vonk has canceled his concerts this week with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The Dutch conductor, now in his sixth season as music director of the St. Louis Symphony, had to halt a concert on Nov. 1 and canceled his appearances with the orchestra in New York last week because of a recurrence of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a central nervous system disorder that he first experienced in 1988.

He doesn’t want to jeopardize the success of treatment for the disorder by returning too soon to the podium, according to a Philharmonic spokesperson. A replacement will be announced today.

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MOVIES

UA Bringing ‘Nickleby’ to the Big Screen

United Artists has given the go-ahead to a new film version of “Nicholas Nickleby,” the classic Charles Dickens novel that only last month was shown on Bravo in a British television adaptation.

According to Variety, Douglas McGrath (“Emma”) will write and direct, and Charlie Hunnam (“Adaptation”) will star. Nathan Lane, Christopher Plummer and Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliott”) have also been cast in for the film, which is budgeted at less than $10 million.

The story, an eight-and-a-half-hour version of which ran on Broadway in 1981, tells the story of a destitute orphan whose greedy uncle (Plummer) finds him a teaching job at a Yorkshire school. He flees to join a troupe of actors (headed by Lane).

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POP/ROCK

Ian, Dylan Make List of Grammy Hall-of Famers

Janis Ian’s “Society’s Child” and Bob Dylan’s pivotal 1965 rock album “Highway 61 Revisited” are among the 55 new inductees into the Grammy Hall of Fame, chosen by a panel of music professionals.

There are 585 titles in the hall, selected because they are considered timeless and influential forces in music history.

Selections this year ran the gamut in terms of eras and genres. They include Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (on the Bayou),” Rufus Thomas’ “Walking the Dog,” Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy” and Leadbelly’s folk single “Goodnight Irene,” recorded in 1936.

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Rock, Spoken Word Festival Rescheduled

All Tomorrow’s Parties, a four-day festival of indie-rock and spoken-word performance, has been rescheduled for March 14-17 at UCLA and will include a performance by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and a reunion of the seminal New York band Television.

The traveling British festival of alternative arts had been slated to visit the Westwood campus in mid-October but was postponed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Tickets sold for the original dates will be honored, and more tickets are available through the UCLA Central Ticket Office.

This year’s edition of the festival is curated by the members of pioneering indie-rock band Sonic Youth, which will perform on the final day of the event, and other acts include Wilco, Stereolab, Stephen Malkmus, Sleater Kinney, Aphex Twin and Big Star.

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TELEVISION

Fox’s Van Susteren Off to a Strong Start

Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren handily beat CNN’s Aaron Brown in her first week since quitting CNN for the competition.

In the 7 p.m. hour last week, Van Susteren drew an average 999,000 viewers to Brown’s 684,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures. MSNBC’s Alan Keyes was a distant third, averaging 231,000 viewers Monday through Thursday.

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QUICK TAKES

Bernardo Bertolucci told La Repubblica, a Rome newspaper, that his next film will explore Paris in 1968, the year the French capital was rocked by protests by students and workers.... In honor of the 25th anniversary of The Band, there will be a limited theatrical run of “The Last Waltz”--Martin Scorsese’s classic documentary of the group’s final concert--beginning April 12 in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. A $60 four-CD box set arrives from Rhino Records four days later, and the special DVD version of the movie will be issued on May 7.... Tenor Placido Domingo, artistic director of the Los Angeles Opera, will help Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino celebrate its third anniversary by performing there March 16.

Elaine Dutka