The ROH has announced it is streaming 12 productions of opera and ballet to Russian cinemas this season.
It’s not clear what, if anything, the Met is doing in Russia. Click on their website for overseas webcasts and you get directed to cinemas in the New York area.
Press release, just in:
The great Siberian baritone Dimitri Hvorostovsky will give a rare recital this Remembrance Sunday, the 13th of November in the stunning surroundings of the Raphael Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Dimitri will perform songs by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss accompanied by Ivari Ilja on the piano.
This gala evening is being given to raise funds for the ArtPointFoundation’s work providing bursaries at the Royal College of Musicians.
To purchase tickets please email 13november@artpointfoundation.org.
Jean-Michel Damian died in the night of November 1. He was 69.
The most erudite and unassuming of French radio presenters, he was loved by generations of listeners who discovered music through his programmes.
The South Bank’s CEO, Alan Bishop, announced his retirement today, effective next year.
A former Saatchi ad man who was inserted by the Gordon Brown government in 2008, Bishop has maintained an invisible profile while steadily diluting the arts centre’s offer from high culture to general recreation.
Tributes are trickling in for his outstanding achievement.
Bishop’s successor is more likely to be recruited from industry than from the arts, more’s the pity.
The solo flute of Russia’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Shamidanov, was attacked by three men in a Moscow subway station, robbed of his instruments and money and beaten badly, according to local music media.
He suffered a dislocated shoulder and has issued a desperate appeal for the return of his instruments.
He said one flute, made in Boston was bought for him by the conductor Vladimir Spivakov for the specific purpose of playing Shostakovich symphonies. Its estimated value is half a million rubles ($16,000).
There’s a man in Mosul who listens to Perlman playing while he writes a secret underground journal of life under the murderous so-called Islamic State.
Yesterday, he wrote:
Quietness and calm are still dominant in Mosul. I will not write about fear tonight. I will write about my dreams that might not happen, may be not in my life time, because they remain dreams and imaginations, and I very well know that the greatest inventions were born from imaginations.
I listen to Itzhak Perlman, and learn about his wonderful relationship with his instrument, The Soil Stradivarius, that was made by the Italian Antonio Stradivari, I have always asked myself how a human being is capable of creating such a beauty from the ruins. Hence, Perlman’s, Yehudi Menuhin’s and Richard George Strauss’s concertos were there for me
I remember when I come back home after hours of wondering Mosul’s streets to witness ISIL absurdity and the destruction that ravaged the city, nothing could have helped me more than listening to those concertos, lighting a candle, resting on my chair and listening to Yehudi Menuhin playing “Mozart’s Violin concerto No. 3”.
Read the full post here.
The excellent Michael Torke, now in his 50s, assesses the way the cookie crumbled for Frank J. Oteri:
“All those industries have collapsed,” he claims. “Boosey is a ghost of what it was. If you’re a composer signed by Boosey, the kind of promotion that they would do for you today is a fraction of what they did for me back in the ‘80s. They worked hard on my behalf and I’m so grateful. It was just thrilling what they did. … And at one time, there were the big record labels. They still exist, but thanks to the digital revolution that all has collapsed, too. … There were these big institutions that were gatekeepers and it was highly criticized, because there were the select few and if you were a Boosey & Hawkes composer, you were suddenly promoted around the world. If you had a record contract, people knew of you. If you didn’t, what options did you have? So it seemed really undemocratic. It seemed unfair. It seemed like there were tastemakers making these decisions that could be wrong. It seemed almost corrupt. Now we have the democracy of the digital world. Everyone is on equal footing. The problem with that is that who are the tastemakers?”
Full, frank, fascinating interview here.
She’s the in-flight live entertainment on British Airways, along with a couple of Bolshoi dancers, on a new Moscow service inaugurated this week. This official video is close-miked.
Passenger videos (below) indicate there is no way she could make herself heard for long above the engine noise.
The Met has released to the New York Times the text of a letter it has received from Roger Kaiser, the Dallas fan who scattered his friend’s ashes in the orchestra pit on Saturday, causing the abandonment of one opera performance and the cancellation of another.
Here’s the overture to Kaiser’s explanation:
Dear Mr. Gelb and the entire Metropolitan Opera community,
I never imagined I would ever need to sit down and write an apology to several thousand opera goers, to all the people behind the scenes and in the productions, to the staff of such a beloved arts organization, and to New York’s emergency responders. Yet I find myself needing to extend a heartfelt apology to all concerned for inadvertently creating a disturbance at the Metropolitan Opera last weekend.
By way of making amends, please allow me to share a bit of my story, and that of Terry Turner, under whose tutelage I became an avid opera lover.
Terry was a regular customer at the restaurant where I worked for many years. He sat in another waiter’s section, so I only knew him by face. After I went to my first opera in 1999, one of our mutual friends told me Terry really loved opera. So I gave him my number and we chatted a little bit….
You may read the full letter here.
According to his updated website, the German tenor will return to the stage after a prolonged break with a recital on November 22 at Madrid’s Teatro Real.
He will then fly to Japan for three concerts, returning to sing at the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm on December 8, followed by the opening of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
From its own pages:
Editor in chief Gerard Baker announced … the paper will feature fewer pages with less space dedicated to coverage of arts, culture and local news.
The restructuring of the print paper will result in the elimination of some positions. The paper has already offered buyouts to all staffers and warned of possible layoffs.
Here’s the relevant part of Baker’s memo to staff:
– Our uniquely engaging lifestyle, arts, culture, entertainment and sports coverage now featured in Personal Journal and Arena will be combined in a section named Life & Arts, and included in the main news section of the paper every day from Monday to Friday. This new part of the A section will also feature the cultural commentary and criticism written by the Editorial Page’s team of critics that currently appears in PJ and Arena. The name Life & Arts not only better captures the range of this combined content but also aligns more closely with the relevant sections in our digital products.
– Greater New York coverage will be reduced in size and will also move into the main section of the paper in the New York region. GNY has added greatly to our appeal in the metropolitan region and our readers appreciate our distinctive coverage but the new approach in print will enable us to produce a more concise, focused daily report on life and business in the New York area.
Thomas Gould is leaving Aurora, the enterprising start-up, to join Britten Sinfonia as joint leader.
Sudden flurry of ripples in a competitive pool. Press release below.
Thomas Gould to become Leader of Britten Sinfonia, alongside Jacqueline Shave
Thomas Gould has been appointed Leader of Britten Sinfonia, sharing the position with Jacqueline Shave. In order to fulfill his increased role with Britten Sinfonia, Thomas will step down as Leader of Aurora Orchestra.
In his previous role of Associate Leader of Britten Sinfonia, Thomas led and directed the orchestra to critical acclaim, most recently at the BBC Proms conducted by Thomas Adès, and in the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater, and has directed various widely-acclaimed projects including performances and a recording of Sitkovesky’s string arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and world premieres by Nico Muhly, Thomas Coult and Joey Roukens. As a soloist with Britten Sinfonia, Thomas has performed Thomas Adès’s Violin Concerto (conducted by the composer), the London premiere of John Woolrich’s Violin Concerto, and Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed at the Barbican.
Jacqueline, described by her colleague, cellist Caroline Dearnley, as a “musical force of nature” has been a central part of Britten Sinfonia’s development for ten years, as Leader, director and soloist. As one of the country’s leading chamber musicians, she is also well known for her wide ranging musical interests and, following her successful 10th anniversary season with the orchestra, will now complement her role at Britten Sinfonia with other external projects.
This season, Thomas will lead the orchestra in concerts that include celebrations of Steve Reich at 80 (at the Barbican on 5 November and on tour) and John Adams at 70, Thomas Adès’ Beethoven Symphony Cycle and as director, alongside soloist Mahan Esfahani, of a focus on music by De Falla and the world premiere of a new work by Francisco Coll. He has also directed Britten Sinfonia Academy, the orchestra’s ensemble for outstanding teenage musical talent from the East of England. Jacqueline’s Britten Sinfonia 2016/17 highlights include directing, with Mark Padmore, an Easter performance of Bach’s St John’s Passion, and leading the orchestra in the UK premiere of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (Barbican – 28 November), Thomas Adès’ Beethoven Symphony Cycle and the premiere of new chamber works by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Brian Elias as part of the orchestra’s At Lunch Series.
