Wendy White, who fell eight feet from an insecure Met platform in Gounod’s Faust has been sent home after a night in St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.  She suffered extensive bruising but no broken bones.

The Met, however, has some safety questions to answer. These accidents are far too frequent.

The following statement was read last night at the National Theatre in Prague by its director Ondrej Cerny, before the curtain went up on Dvorak’s Rusalka:

 

Václav Havel has died. The greatest spiritual authority of our young democracy has left us for ever. An extraordinary human, a true citizen, a great politician, a splendid playwright. Undoubtedly the greatest figure this country has had since the time of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. One it has given to the world. His bust, unveiled  at the National Theatre on this  anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, on 17 November, will for ever remind us of his unpretentious  yet magnificent legacy. And serve as a constant source of inspiration in our lives. Now it is up to us.

The flamboyant violin dealer Dietmar Machold will not face the mercies of Swiss justice.

Machold, who declared bankruptcy last year, was arrested in Switzerland ten months ago on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Five Stradivarius and four Guarnerius are among 17 instruments, worth $50 million, that the authorities in both countries would like to trace.

Machold lived the high life in a Schloss. His expectations will be rather lower now. He was transferred at the weekend to Vienna, where he will face trial.

Arrested: Dietmar Machold, pictured in his Austrian castle, has been taken into custody in Switzerland after going on the run when prosecutors announced he was being investigated for fraud

Wendy White is stable in hospital, according to latest reports. She was singing the role of Marthe in Gounod’s Faust when her platform collapsed.

(Wendy is bottom right)

(René Pape (left) as Méphistophélès duets with mezzo Wendy White.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.)

UPDATE: more details here.

Earlier this year, Deborah Voigt and Eve Gigliotti narrowly avoided serious accident in Die Walküre. On another occasion, Robert Lepage’s set jammed in mid-turn, endangering Ms Voigt.

Time for Mayor Bloomberg to send in his healthy and safety inspectors? The Met’s becoming quite an insurance risk for singers.

One balmy summer’s evening in 1990, I went for a stroll in Prague and found myself drawn by a surging crowd into Wenceslas Square.

Flags were being held aloft in desultory fashion and people around me were switching between chatting among themselves to listening to the speakers on the dais. They told me, in that shrug-shouldered Czech fashion, that it was the six-month anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and they were getting on with their lives, pretty much as before. There was plenty complain about.

All of a sudden, the attention level changed.  A different speaker had taken the microphone and, insteaqd of exhorting the crowd, seemed to be grumbling along with it. Vaclav Havel had a growly voice, colourless and without much by way of emphasis or inflection. He did not orate: he flatlined.

The people around me explained that he was not making a political speech. There were no promises of better times ahead, no gloating at the fall of tyrants. He was just reflecting, in his own roundabout way, on the historic events they had shared and on the difficulties that lay ahead – the likelihood of a split with the Slovaks and an economic recession.

He did not receive the biggest cheer of the evening – that was reserved for Alexander Dubcek, who ruled during the 1968 Prague Spring – but Havel did not seem bothered as he shambled off. He had spoken, done his bit, and was off for a beer. For an intellectual and an artist, he had an unusual grasp of the concerns of the ordinary man and woman in the square.

That’s the image he imprinted on my ear. He was the voice of the Czech people.

He died today, aged 75.

Hear the voice, and the ideas, in an interview here.

Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident who became post-Communist president has died, aged 75. His great achievement was to lead a revolution without bloodshed, usually with a smile.

Former Czech President, dissident and playwright Vaclav Havel speaks to media during the filming of a movie based on his play ''Leaving'' in Ceska Skalice, July 20, 2010. REUTERS/Petr Josek

He was, of course, a playwright of world renown.
He had suffered respiratory problems for many years and died peacefully in his sleep. His wife, Dagmar, and several nuns were in attendance, his secretary said.
Personal tribute here.

 

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/breaking-early-music-giant-calls-it-quits.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/yale-professor-hungary-could-be-going-fascist.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/just-in-mezzo-confirmed-as-new-head-of-finnish-opera.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/angelas-night-in-an-oil-well-with-vangelis-first-pictures.html

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/is-sibelius-sending-messages-from-the-great-beyond.html

 

Some stunning results are reported from a voluntary pilot scheme in Melbourne. It would seem that one hour’s instrumental teaching a week has increased literacy rates among disadvantaged kid to 90%, compared to 65% in schools where no arts teaching was provided.

Essential reading for education ministers and policy makers. Good to see the Mayor of London has got the point.

Read on here.

Nakier Chol

Hildegard of Bingen has been waiting nine centuries for the nod from Rome, but her fellow-German has finally seen the light of her holiness.

She is to be named a Doctor of the Church in October, and a saint some time sooner. And about time, too. Report here.

Boyd Lee Dunlop, a Buffalo legend, is 85.

The jazz pianist has just cut a trio disc, his first. Jeff Simon tells how and why. I can’t wait to hear it.

He is best known outside France as the founder of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBTD) who lost his job by incurring ‘excessive costs’ in redecorating its London headquarters. It all seems rather tame in comparison to future bank behaviour, and he certainly made some sound investments in the art that that was bought for the directors’ dining room. Still, Jacques Attali had to go.

Today, he runs PlaNet Finance in Paris and is regarded locally as the epitome of renaissance man. He has written about 40 books, including novels, advises President Sarkozy on various matters and conducts a university orchestra in Grenoble.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met to discuss Barbara. It was Attali who obtained the access to President Mitterand

that enabled Barbara to visit Aids patients in prison.  He later wrote a song for her and was given, as reward, the original manuscript of  L’aigle noir, her greatest hit.

You can hear Attali on Barbara in Sunday’s documentary on BBC Radio 3, and all week on the iplayer.

And this is Barbara singing L’aigle noir.