Irina Zwiener, the Weimar violinist whose Gewandhaus cellist husband, Hendrik, was killed on his bike last Sunday, has expressed thanks and amazement at the outpouring of generosity from the music community worldwide.
A total of 389 donors have given 20,072 Euros to help Irina with expenses for her and Hendrik’s baby, which is due in the next week or two.
Irina has asked the organisers today to end the fundraiser.
If you still wish to help, please consider supporting Henrik’s anti-hate humanitarian foundation here.
We were at Garsington Opera yesterday for the final showing of the new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
The setting sun shone through the glass walls of the stage, the audience was gripped and the production was classical in the purest English theatrical tradition, albeit sung in Russian. The director was Michael Boyd, former head of the Royal Shakespeare Company (and no relation of Garsington’s excellent music director, Douglas Boyd).
But the clinch factor, for me, was the ensemble spirit of a company of mostly young singers who are just stepping out on the world stage. Roderick Williams made his role debut as Onegin and Natalya Romaniw as Tatyana, two stubborn characters on a one-way road to heartbreak. The all-English chorus, entering organically from the surrounding fields with the end of harvest, perfectly evoked an eternal Russia. The duel scene contained an indelible directorial innovation.
As we were leaving, a dickybird whispered in my ear that this was the first opera to be filmed at Garsington, and it was going to be shown in cinemas and on the BBC Arts Channel (which few know about and even fewer tune into).
Watch if you can (I don’t know if its visible in the US). There will also be some cinema screenings.
One opera veteran told me it was the best Onegin of her life. I can’t remember one I have enjoyed more.
Photo: Garsington Opera/Marc Douet
Latin America is mourning the loss of Airio Diaz, the Venezuelan classical guitarist whom Andres Segovia named as the best of his generation.
Alirio Diaz, who was 92, was the dedicatee of Rodrigo’s Invocación y Danza and other major works. He applied much of his time to exploring contemporary composers and Venezuelan folklore.
He was, as you can see below, an incredible virtuoso.
The violinist Nikki Chooi, 27, has been plucked from the offbeat Time for Three ensemble to be joint concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera. Its a trial contract, one year only.
Nikki is Canadian. So is the incoming Met music director, Yannick.
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, which has been slipping down the visibility ranks, has boosted next year’s judging panel with the retired German baritone Thomas Quasthoff and the Korean soprano Sumi Jo.
This should guarantee late nights and much merriment (first beer’s on us, Tommy).
The competition has also just changed its dates to avoid the idiotic 2015 clash with the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Cardiff will take place from 11-18 June 2017. Application deadlines have been extended to next Friday. Apply here.
The Federal culture budget will grow by almost six percent in 2017 to 1.35 billion Euros.
The increase was announced by the brilliant culture minister (and Merkel confidante) Monika Grütters.
The film industry alone will get an extra 15 million for promoting new work.
He has pulled out sick from tonight’s Walküre at Baden-Baden.
Stuart Skelton flies in.
Brazilian media are reporting the untimely death yesterday of Nicolau de Figueiredo, conductor, harpsichordist, professor and all-round baroque enthusiast. No cause of death has been given.
UPDATE: A heart condition has been reported.
A student of Kenneth Gilbert, Gustav Leonhardt and Scott Ross, Nicolau worked with leading European ensembles, including Europa Galante, the OAE and Concerto Köln.
What is it about Trifonov that sets him apart from all other pianists? He is, on first sight, the least modern of artists. He wears a dark suit, black tie, uncomfortably. On stage, he hunches over the keyboard, unaware of the audience. If he uses a score, he is quicker to turn pages than the fastest of attendants. He makes no pause between pieces, stifling applause for an hour or more.
In return, he delivers a modern benefice, the kind of concentration that has all but vanished from our tweet-shattered attention spans. The tension when Trifonov plays is breathless. And, within that grip, he finds narrative where none previously existed. He is the first pianist I have ever heard who plays a set of Chopin Études as if reciting for the first time a Tolstoy novella.
Things have got so bad they are letting out the architectural landmark for society weddings.
Newspaper Finansavisen reported last week that the Opera & Ballet reported a deficit of NOK 67 million that may well be much higher, because actual pension costs for dancers who can retire at age 41 and singers who can retire at 52, are believed to be higher than estimated.
The results for 2015 were much worse than for 2014. Opera & Ballet’s chief executive Nils Karstad Lysø confirmed the Opera and Ballet is in a “difficult and serious” economic situation. Lysø blames it entirely on pension costs.
The music director of Opera Omaha has pleaded no contest to abuse of a vulnerable adult after taking $113,669 from his elderly mother, Thelma Gawf, a dementia patient.
Lawyers for John C. Gawf Jr acknowledged in court that he wrote cheques on his mother’s bank account to pay for his own gambling debts between May 2015 and January this year.
They said Gawf, 53, visits his mother every day.
He faces a possible three years in jail and $10,000 fine.
