The Italian Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini has appointed a state commissioner for the Arena di Verona in a last-ditch attempt to save the bankrupt opera site.
The commissioner is Carlo Fuortes, who is credited with saving Rome Opera by means of severe economies and job cuts.
The veterinary authorities in Dusseldorf have prohibited the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from presenting large rooster on stage in Rimsky-Korsakov’s little-seen opera.
The bird had been shuttled for weeks from its farm to and fro in a limo to get him used to the stage atmosphere, but animal activists raised a protest and a ban was issued before the Friday premiere.
Have they no soul, these vets? Don’t they know that Cockerel without a cock is like Tosca without… a soprano?
This does not happen often. Jonas handled it as best he could in Tosca at the Vienna State Opera.
Where was Angela? On the phone to Bucharest?
UPDATE: Italian press report with more details here.
And Update 2: A semi-official explanation.
The international operatic bass Sir John Tomlinson will become president of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester from January.
One of the friendliest professionals on the opera circuit and a unique artist, John Tom (as he’s widely known) was born in Oswaldtwistle and regards the northwest of England as his home turf.
He said today: ‘I have been associated with the College since 1966 when, as a young engineering undergraduate, I pinned on the noticeboard a card with the words ‘singing lessons required’. The next day Patrick McGuigan (later in the 90s to be Head of Vocal Studies) replied and I began singing lessons with him which led to me becoming a full-time student. Since then it’s been my pleasure to return at regular intervals for recitals and masterclasses and more recently to come and work with the students for a couple of days each term. Now I am privileged to become President of the RNCM for a five-year term and as such it is an honour for me to continue my association with this great institution.’
We have been informed of the death on Saturday night of Theo Lap, vice-president of A&R at vEMI Classics from 1997 to 2007.
Theo, a record-biz lifer, went on to found Newton Classics, a reissue label.
The cause of death appears to have been a heart attack. Theo was in his mid-50s.
Our sympathies to his family.
Update: Message from Brilliant Classics:
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our colleague Theo Lap.
Theo worked in the Music Industry for more than 25 years, starting in a Dutch retail shop. Theo’s hard work, passion and commitment to classical music, saw his career blossom, and he proceeded to become Account Manager at Harmonia Mundi Nederland, Product Manager at Warner Music, VP Marketing at Deutsche Grammophon, VP A&R and International Marketing at EMI Classics and Jazz, Managing Director at Foreign Media Music, CEO at Newton Classics, President at ArkivMusic.eu, Counsil member at Gemeente Franekeradeel for D66, Director A&R and Sales at T2 International and Label manager at Brilliant Classics.
The violinist Mari Kimura shares this exceptional story of a sweet airline attendant:
I flew in from Tokyo into JFK on ANA (All Nippon Airlines).
A very nice ANA flight attendant offered to WRAP my violin with blankets and told others not to put anything else into the same storage bin. She said, ‘This could only be for your comfort, and I’m sorry it might not serve as a real protection.’
I was so stunned and thanked her; this was absolutely the first time this has ever happened to me. As I am usually quite nervous about anything involving international travel with my instrument (I carry ‘ivory letter’ saying my bow tip is plastic and not ivory, I carry a copy of instrument insurance policies as well as appraisal letters), I thought this was worth remarking.
However…
I find the treatment of musicians differs vastly from agent to agent. Today, an agent at the same ANA check-in counter told me that if there is no room for my violin in the overhead bin, I will have to gate check. Then she proceeded, without my permission, held my violin case to see the weight. I told her there is now a USA regulation to permit musical instruments to be carried on, which she was skeptical. I should now carry the copy of the law.
The flight attendant who helped me on the plane yesterday, treated my violin like a treasure.
ANA, give this lady a bonus and employ her in staff training
The violinist Anne Akiko Meyers suffered a fall on Friday, hours before her concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at Washington’s Kennedy Center.
In considerable pain, she made her way to the concert hall and was brought onto the stage in a wheelchair. Standing, she played a concerto by Mason Bates, her disability unnoticed by reviewers.
Later, she said she was so caught up in the music that she didn’t feel the pain.
After the performance she had the foot x-rayed and was told it was broken. She will be in a plaster cast for the next 6-8 weeks, when she is recording and performing in London, New York, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Syracuse.
Anne says: ‘Travel, recordings, and concerts will be a little more challenging over the next few weeks, but I am so grateful nothing happened to my hands and wrists’.
Anne icepacking her foot before the concert
The former Manchester violin teacher Wen Zhou Li has been speaking about his three-year ordeal after being accused of sexual offences by a former student. The charges were dropped three weeks ago, but Zhou Li was threatened with having his children taken away.
He says: “It was a feeling like the end of the world. I can now understand why people kill themselves.”
Full story here.
It has emerged that Siegfried Mauser has been relieved of his duties in Salzburg after being charged with offences against two women in Munich. The alleged offences took place when he was head of the Munich Academy of Music. Mauser denies the charges.
It has further emerged that the complainants were not students but faculty members.
More here from Salzburg.
The Dresden Philharmonic has announced it is opening an academy for young orchestral players in the name of Kurt Masur.
Two local banks are backing the project, to which Tomoko Masur has given her patronage.
Lovely idea, totally appropriate. And Dresden got in first, ahead of Leipzig where Masur spent much more of his conducting years.
Gina Bachauer died in August 1976, on her way to give a concert with Antal Dorati beneath the Acropolis in Athens.
She left her house in the suburb of Halandri to the Athens Conservatory, to be developed as an education centre for young Greek musicians.
Here is what has become of it.
The new Lebrecht Album of the Week:
The question is, what took them so long? Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim, born a year apart in Buenos Aires to Jewish mothers of Russian extraction, have left it until their mid-seventies to discover common ground. Both prodigious pianists, they sailed for Europe where their paths diverged….
