Casting troubles at Houston Grand Opera. Asian actors want more parts.
“This is not OK,” said Cecil Fong, president of OCA-Greater Houston, the local branch of the national Asian advocacy group. ‘It’s a negative stereotype of Asian-Americans. I’m surprised this still happens nowadays.
Fong is among the members of Houston’s Asian-American community objecting to HGO’s decision to cast white actors in ‘Nixon’…
Read on here (if you can access it).
The effervescent trumpet soloist Alison Balsom married the Hollywood director Sam Mendes at the weekend.
Balsom, 38, was previously involved with the conductor Edward Gardner, with whom she has a son.
Mendes, 51, was formerly with the actor Kate Winslet.
We wish them well.
Gorden Kaye, star of the unmatchable BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo!, has died in a care home aged 75.
Damian Thomson in The Spectator has launched a List of Topics We’d Rather Avoid On Radio 3.
Here’s one:
The career of Alan Davey, controller of Radio 3. His Wikipedia entry mentions that he was previously director of culture at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport — but not that he reported to secretary of state James Purnell. Nor does it record that Purnell backed Davey to be head of the Arts Council and — when Purnell slid from parliament to the BBC — beckoned him over to Radio 3.
More here.
Martin Anderson as republished a fascinating interview he recorded with the important Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, who died on Saturday.
First I wanted to be an organist and then later a choir-master. But then in ’48 the organ class was closed on ideological grounds; it was Stalin. Then I had to choose another profession! What could I do in my situation? Then I tried choral conducting, but that didn’t work: there weren’t any churches. Then my choir professor said: ‘It’s not for you – choose another profession”. So composition was the third possibility!’
Read on here.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Jonas Kaufmann is polishing his dancing shoes, it was announced this morning.
This will be his first invitation to the exclusive annual event, scheduled for February 23.
We have received sad news of the death last Friday of Max Wilcox, who worked in the record industry for half a century and was Arthur Rubinstein’s producer at RCA for 17 years. Max, winner of 17 Grammy awards, was 88.
He would conduct orchestras in studio from time to time. Rubinstein heard about it and arranged for Wilcox to be his conductor at a concert with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Having secured him the date, he found the producer had nothing to wear. So the pianist took him to his tailor in Rome, the celebrated Caraceni, to order a beautiful set of tails.
You can listen to an interview with Max Wilcox here.
A former assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle at the summer festival, Peter Ewaldt apent the last 35 years as first Kapellmeister of the Salzburg Landestheater, where he looked after stage musicals and operetta.
He was the local Sound of Music expert.
The formidable choral composer Veljo Tormis died on January 21 at the age of 86.
More performed in his homeland than his famous contemporary Arvo Pärt, Tormis rooted his work in pre-Christian, shamanistic rituals, evading the worst excesses of Soviet censorship and oppression.
Some maintain that he was as important for Estonia as Sibelius was for Finland.
Interview here.
From a crowdfunder by Carrie Miller:
I am currently in the graduate music program in cello performance at Florida State University. During the winter break I traveled back to California to visit my family. I took my cello as I’ve done many times in the past. I wanted to be able to play with my friends, practice for my recital, and earn some extra money teaching students.
Whenever I fly, I always gate check my cello to ensure that it is properly handled. When I flew back to Tallahassee, United airlines did not allow me to gate check my cello. I pleaded with them saying that I have checked the cello many times in the past and was allowed to do so on my initial flight to California. They were completely unsympathetic refusing to allow me to be present during the checking process. There were no extra seats on the plane so I could not buy a seat for my cello. I couldn’t cancel my flight and was forced to check it through normal baggage procedures.
When I got back to Tallahassee, my instrument was completely broken. Not just parts of it. The whole instrument was in pieces as well as the case. Clearly the airline completely mishandled my cello. This incident has been incredibly traumatic. I’m currently using a loaned instrument that is inferior to my cello. This instrument negatively impacts my ability to perform at a high level causing my work at school to suffer and jeopardizing my livelihood.
Read on here.
The maestro returned this weekend to Milan with his Chicago Symphony Orchestra, his first performance at La Scala since his angry resignation as music director in 2005.
Graham Spicer reports:
Muti strode to the podium with cries of “Welcome back Maestro!” from the auditorium. He picked up a microphone, though not to comment on his return, but to dedicate the concert to those who have lost their lives during the recent earthquakes. The last big quakes were two days before the concert. There was a minute’s silence.
Suitably, first on the programme was Catalani’s Contemplazione, “…a sad and melancholy piece by a man who would be dead at 39”.
After the closing work – Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony – there was an ovation and, after five minutes of applause, Muti lifted his baton for an encore, the same piece he chose after his last concert in the theatre, with the Vienna Philharmonic in 2005:
In 1986, when my hair was still black, and rumours were going around that I dyed it, I began my wonderful years in this theatre with Nabucco. We’d now like to play the overture from that opera.
A standing ovation crowned the evening a true triumph.
Full report here.
