Richard Morrison publishes a diatribe today in favour of sacking lots of chorus and orchestra members at English National Opera to save it from insolvency. His justification:
Over the past 20 years ENO has had an astonishing £33 million in taxpayer-funded bailouts, over and above its annual grants and not including the present £7 million. So I find it ludicrous for ENO’s grand former stars — and Tony Pappano from his cushioned position at the Royal Opera House — to call for a “public debate” before the new management makes cuts. We’ve been debating ENO’s future for decades. It will be bankrupt in two years if action isn’t taken now.
What this proves is that ENO has been underfunded by an average £1.65 million over the past 20 years. Still £33 million is a lot of money to lose. He has a point.
But hang on: isn’t Richard Morrison also the chief cheerleader for the London Symphony Orchestra’s campaign to build a new concert hall for Simon Rattle? That hall, on prime City land, will cost half a billion pounds.
That’s 15 times ENO’s losses over 20 years. So much that the Government hasn’t dared publish the feasibility study it commissioned from Sir Nicholas Hytner. Half a billion pounds for the wrong building.
If anyone can spot an inconsistency in Richard’s position, please let us know.
In this week’s Spectator magazine, I chart some remarkable similarities between soccer managers and the music directors of major orchestras.
You don’t have to be a follower of Liverpool Football Club, or football at all, to spot the difference. Two months ago the Reds were running about headless as a newly-wrung chook; today they are putting the fear of perdition into the best teams in the land
Or take Leicester City. Last season they were locked in an epic, desperate small-town struggle for Premiership survival. Today, they are top of the League.
What changed? Both teams have same players as before, same strip, roughly the same formation. The only new face is the manager’s. Change the boss and – presto – the mood picks up, tempi get faster, goals are scored, confidence rises and everyone charges around with a smile on their chops.
Just how that transformation is effected is a mystery even to those who take credit for it. The closest comparison is what happens when a symphony orchestra gets a new music director. Boston, for example, nearly dead in its seats under Seiji Ozawa and James Levine, is suddenly cock of the walk with young Andris Nelsons. The LSO, so used to Valery Gergiev’s absences that players learned to conduct just in case, have a new spring in their fingers since Simon Rattle was elected. La Scala’s orchestra plays in an altogether different Liga with Riccardo Chailly in command.
And then I start identifying the idential twins. You can read the full article here.
Max rebooted classical music at Universal after years of dereliction and was on the way to saving English National Opera when he was struck down by encephalitis. We wish him a continued recovery.
DiDonato is live from Juilliard at 4pm New York time, 9pm London, 10pm Paris/Berlin.
DOT Reminds Airlines that Passengers Should be Compensated For Most Damage to Baggage Wheels, Straps, and Other Parts
(This should affect instrument cases and other musicians’ travel accessories. NL)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a notice today reminding airlines that they are required to compensate passengers for damage to wheels, straps, zippers, handles, and other protruding parts of checked baggage beyond normal wear and tear. The notice also reminds airlines of their obligation to accept all reports of mishandled baggage from consumers even if an airline’s agent believes the airline is not liable. This notice is a result of recent airport inspections which uncovered the fact that certain airlines routinely exclude liability for damage to specific parts of checked baggage.
“These inspections demonstrate the Department’s commitment to protecting consumers when they travel by air,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “While we are proud of the progress we’ve made so far, we will continue to strengthen how we monitor and enforce compliance with air travel consumer protection and civil rights rules.”
The Department’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings discovered that certain airlines may be refusing to accept reports of such damage when it inspected U.S. and foreign airlines at 16 airports nationwide in a two week period in September 2015. The notice warns airlines to immediately review and revise their baggage policies to ensure compliance with the law. The Aviation Enforcement Office intends to take enforcement action against airlines that are not in compliance by January 9, 2016.
The airport inspections are part of the Department’s commitment to strong oversight of airlines’ compliance with Federal rules protecting the rights of air travelers. The nationwide inspections conducted in September ensure that frontline customer-facing airline employees, not just managers and executives, understand how the law requires airline agents to treat air travelers. The inspections have been helpful in determining whether airlines are treating consumers fairly and providing them the services to which they are entitled under the law.
The Aviation Enforcement Office is investigating a number of carriers based on information obtained during the airport inspections for potential violations of the Department’s consumer protection and civil rights requirements. Any enforcement action that results from these investigations will become public.
– See more at: https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/dot-reminds-airlines-passengers-should-be-compensated-most-damage-baggage-wheels#sthash.3tPKxIiY.dpuf
The cancer-battling baritone was today awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky (ff to 5:30 and 24:40).
We’re delighted to hear that Dennis Russell Davies, felled two months ago by a horrendous knee injury, is back on the rostrum, conducting Salome in Vienna this week. Streaming tonight.
There has been discomfort in Salt Lake City since music director Thierry Fischer displaced Ralph Matson from the concertmaster’s seat after 30 years’ service.
Fischer has now appointed Madeline Adkins, associate concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony, as Utah’s new #1.
Adkins, 38, is a hiking enthusiast who has fostered more than 100 kittens (that’s what it says here.)
Ralph Matson, whom she won over on the open trail, will be her associate concertmaster.
Peace in Utah.
Joseph Peters grew up with the Minnesota Orchestra and first played with them at age 18 when he was a finalist in the Minnesota Idol contest.
He’s coming home now as principal oboe, after a year in that position at the Buffalo Phil – as well as being music director of the SUNY Buffalo State Philharmonia Orchestra
Dear Chris,
Last night in Paris first time in my life I assisted to your concert.
Last night first time after the attack in Paris I felt the heartbeat of the city that was on hold not knowing what to choose – love or hate.
Last night first time since 13th of November I felt blood reaching my tensed heart to open, to be able to give and receive again. Your music, your infinite capacity of loving everything and everyone made it happen. Standing in the public with the strangers feeling so close to them,we danced, we cried, we weren’t thirsty of revenge but of love. There was nothing to share as we were one. Last night it happened in Paris…
Can you imagine there are countries where people are not allowed to love, to dance, to lough, to feel freedom because dictators and terrorists would not allow them. They are punished, killed, tortured just because they let out the scream of freedom that human as a new born experiences from the first second of the moment they leave mother’s internal world and feel the air of this magic universe. I know you fight against this brutality not with a sword but with love.
While I was listening “a head full of dreams”, me all frozen inside, entered a world of different emotions.You mixed different musical styles, in result you erased style and let the music be eternal without frames. You didn’t try to make this emotions all positive, you let everything in – despair, hope, disappointment,anger,love. Without despair hope wouldn’t appear and without darkness light wouldn’t be appreciated.The music awaked all of them in me without realizing which one of them was more important and at the end I felt how blood started to circulate. I was happy -I was alive. I felt that while being alive there is always a hope.
Thank you for letting me be part of this album. When you proposed to collaborate you opened the door of your profound musical universe and helped me, as a genius mentor, to open mine. You convinced me that when two musical universe open to each other and create, it could never be so called”cross-over”, it can only be a real “music making.”You showed me your music as a beautiful bud and taught me how to make it blossom. Do people know how you love,feel and know classical music? Do they know how you feel phrases, harmonies and how you make a dramaturgy of each song and album? Probably not but they feel it. Behind each word and sound you produce is a profound, sophisticated meaning but you never complicate,because you speak directly to each human soul. As all wisdom your language is simple.
In Georgia we have a tree that we call “a tree of wishes” where children leave the pieces of tissues to make their dreams come true. As a child I left my wish on this tree- world piece and love. In your head full of dreams,in Kaleidoscope,on a very short sequence of harmonies, with Rumi’s poetry revived by Coleman Barks’s voice and grace of President Obama, my childhood dream, as well as many kids from Georgia and all over the world, is embedded forever.
Thank you, Chris! Thank you Coldplay!
Love,
Khatia
The ruling Labour council of Britain’s second city has announced swingeing cuts to the performing arts, including the world-renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Graham Vick’s Birmingham Opera.
The timing could not be worse for the CBSO, which is on the point of choosing a new music director.
The Russian president’s musical spokesman has told Ria Novosti that Vladimir Putin has come up with the idea of making next year the year of Prokofiev. It will be the 125th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Russian musicians are being urged to adapt their programmes accordingly.
Gergiev has ‘warmly and sincerely’ thanked the president for his brilliant suggestion.
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