It is estimated that 43 percent of US musicians carry no health insurance. If you are, or know, one of the uninsured, read this.

The all-American diva singing Marschallin for the first time in Vienna and they are streaming the full Rosenkavalier. Mojca Erdmann sings Sophie, Sophie Koch Octavian. The Vienna Philharmonic is in the pit, Adam Fischer conducting.

How will that play on the Met’s cinema audiences? Vienna’s entry into livestream mode changes the dynamic of how opera is received internationally.

Announcement below.

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“Der Rosenkavalier” an der Wiener Staatsoper ab 20. Oktober 2013 *

Start von WIENER STAATSOPER livestreaming am 27. Oktober 2013

Vier Vorstellungen von Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” in der

Inszenierung von Otto Schenk stehen ab 20. Oktober 2013 auf dem

Spielplan der Wiener Staatsoper. Renée Fleming ist erstmals im Haus am

Ring als Marschallin zu erleben, Mojca Erdmann gibt als Sophie ihr

Hausdebüt an der Wiener Staatsoper. Sophie Koch verkörpert den Octavian,

Peter Rose bzw. Wolfang Bankl* den Ochs. Weitere Rollendebüts an der

Wiener Staatsoper geben Adrian Eröd als Faninal, Thomas Ebenstein als

Valzacchi, Hila Fahima als Modistin und Jinxu Xiahou als Sänger

(anstelle von Norbert Ernst).

Am Dirigentenpult: Adam Fischer.

Reprisen: 23., 27. und 30.* Oktober

 

In a tremendous coup for the incoming intendant, Alexander Pereira, the hometown maestro Riccardo Chailly has agreed to become music director from January 2017 – or so Pereira leaks to Corriere.

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The coup, if true, is a terrific boost for the unsettled opera house. Chailly, 60, grew up at La Scala when his father, Luciano, was sovrintendente and Claudio Abbado was music director. It was a golden age and Riccardo became Abbado’s assistant.

He went on to lead the radio orchestra in Berlin, the Teatro Communale in Bologna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and, for the past decade, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. For technique, expertise and respect among musicians, his credentials are unrivalled.

Daniel Barenboim is music director at La Scala until mid-2016. There are suggestions in the report that Chailly might start sooner (although he is committed to Leipzig until 2020). He has been repeatedly wooed by La Scala since Riccardo Muti’s resignation in 2005. His return would end a prevalent sense of stasis and interregnum.

This is interesting, potentially important research, essential reading for independent minded musicians.

A study by a Microsoft researcher, Nancy K Baym, examines how musicians and the music industry can use social media metrics to analyse and identify an audience for specific performances and products. Nancy has been talking to successful players of online media, such as the world’s most-followed cellist Zoe Keating and the singer-songwriter, Erin McKeown.

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Zoe Keating has learned from hard experience how to differentiate and discount click-stats: ‘I know that all of those people are not really following me,’ she says, ‘I’m certainly under no illusions that they are all my fans.’

The English solo bass player Steve Lawson says:

I’ve had people with millions of followers on Twitter recommend me, and it result in 70 clicks through to my Web site. And I’ve had people with a couple of thousand followers recommend me on Twitter and it result in 300 clicks. […] I could stand on a couple of buildings shouting at the entire town and if they ignore me it doesn’t matter, but I can, you know, sit on a park bench and talk to three people and if they’re listening then it can change things. Attention is the currency, not the number of people you’re throwing the information towards.

Baym concludes that it’s too early to offer a precise formula how to turn online followers into an active audience but… we’re getting there. Here’s a summary of her research and here’s the full paper.

The 13 year-old ex-child singer who has topped the US ‘classical’ charts has announced a label switch on her Facebook page. She was formerly with Columbia and Syco, Simon Cowell’s joint label with Sony. The immediate significance of the shift in terms of charts categories is imperceptible.

"David Foster and Friends" at Mandalay Bay Events Center

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The French political establishment paid tribute to a great director at the church of Saint-Sulpice. Details here.

Waltraud Meier sang Wagner’s Im Treibhaus and Träume (Rêves) in memory of one of the great Ring directors, followed by a reading of a Shakespeare sonnet.

E. Randol Schoenberg, grandson of the great composer and a lawyer specialising in restitution of art stolen by the Nazis, has drawn our attention to a Klimt portrait in the current National Gallery show,  “Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900.”.

The portrait is of Amalie Zuckerkandl, member of a newspaper family with whom Gustav Mahler was notably friendly. It was given by Amalie to her friend, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, another Mahler acquaintance, and was stolen from him by the Nazis when he was forced to flee Austria in 1938.

The Austrian authorities have refused claims to return it to the legitimate owners. Randol Schoenberg has posted the family’s case for restitution here. It’s a powerful case. The National Gallery should search its conscience.

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We have been informed that Andrew Thompson, contrabassoonist and bassoonist for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has died suddenly of a heart attack aged 27. He was reportedly with friends at the time. They described him as ‘a home-grown, world-class talent’. Here’s the notice.

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Television tributes here:

The Paris instrument maker Frédéric Levi has been following with professional interest the story of Wallace Hartley’s violin that supposedly went down with the Titanic. M Levi does not dispute the various tests that have been carried out on the instrument over the past seven years, but he poses a simple question:  why has the object not been presented for examination to a qualified luthier?

Titanic-Violin

 

M Levi has been in touch with the auctioneers and told them that he finds various inconsistencies with the story of the violin – the state of preservation, tempering of the  varnish and more.

He adds that, in his experience, immersion in water would not cause cracks on the front , and that traces of glue suggest  attempts at repair that were not connected to any immersion. His concerns add a further dimension of doubt.

The mass media, meanwhile, continue to repeat unfounded claims and speculative values.

 

 

He may have presided over the collapse of City Opera, but New York’s super-rich are not letting George Steel go without a party. It’s being given by donor Rita Mehos and it’s so private no-one is allowed to say they’ve been invited.

Slipped Disc’s informant has declined to attend.

Last one to leave turns out the lights.

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Our mole in the box-office says the season is not selling well.

Onegin and Norma are selling out and James Levine’s return in Cosi fan tutte has guaranteed a strong house. But the more adventurous stuff – Two Boys, The Nose and Midsummer’s Night Dream – are selling so slowly they are going for discounts.

The economy is taking its toll. Individuals are buying fewer tickets in half-season batches.

For the season so far, the Met is playing at 65%, we hear. That may explain why Peter Gelb has mislaid his usual cheery smile.

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An interview with Dave Porter, who wrote the soundtrack for the cult TV series, reveals that he started out – like so many others – in the Philip Glass studio, mastering the frugal craft of repetition. Read here.

Nico Muhly, whose Two Boys is about to be staged at the Met, is another Glass protégé. The influence is everywhere.

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