Chorégies d’Orange has lost its Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

 

The indisposed Spyres, suffering from laryngitis, will be replaced by a promising Romanian, Ioan Hotea.

 

 

Reinhard J. Brembeck in the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports a symphony of colours:

Third act is increasingly orange. Lohengrin lives out his sadistic passions on Elsa. And she mutates from the frightened waif to a self-determined orange-clad woman, it is she who dumps her husband. At the end, her brother comes back… a green man, he is like Elsa a bearer of hope in the world of uniform grey men….

Im dritten Akt dann zunehmend Orange. Lohengrin lebt an Elsa seine sadistischen Leidenschaften aus. Und dabei mutiert sie vom verschreckten Angstwesen zu einer in Orange gekleideten selbstbestimmten Frau. Sie ist es, die ihren Gatten abserviert. Am Ende kommt ihr Bruder wieder, den sie angeblich ermordet haben soll, weshalb sie zu Beginn fast auf dem Scheiterhaufen verbrannt worden wäre. Der Bruder ist der grüne Mann, er ist wie Elsa ein Hoffnungsträger in der Welt der uniformen Graumenschen. Deshalb sinkt hier dann auch nicht Elsa wie bei Wagner am Ende entseelt zu Boden, sondern die frauenfeindlichen und kriegslüsternen Heerscharen. Und im Hintergrund bleibt auch Ortrud stehen. Den beiden Frauen wird die Zukunft gehören.

 

Berhnard Neuhoff, BR-Klassik:

While the energy on the stage gets stuck in the transformer box, music director Christian Thielemann chases high-voltage flashes through the Festspielhaus. He lures and directs, drives and stretches, spins infinite lines, reveals exciting details and unleashes explosive impulses. What is designed so pleasurable, impulsive and inspired from the moment, is at the same time technically admirably implemented safely: calculated state of intoxication, precise magic. The singers are never covered, and the brilliantly performing festival orchestra follows Thielemann with audible joy of playing.

Während die Energie auf der Bühne im Trafohäuschen stecken bleibt, jagt Musikdirektor Christian Thielemann Hochspannungs-Blitze durchs Festspielhaus. Er lockt und lenkt, treibt und dehnt, spinnt unendliche Linien, legt aufregende Details frei und entfesselt explosive Triebkräfte. Was da so lustvoll, impulsiv und inspiriert aus dem Augenblick heraus gestaltet wird, ist zugleich technisch bewundernswert sicher umgesetzt: kalkulierte Rauschzustände, präzise Zauberei. Die Sänger werden nie zugedeckt, und das brillant musizierende Festspiel-Orchester folgt Thielemann mit hörbarer Spielfreude.

 

Augsburger Allgemeine: An uneven Lohengrin

RP-ONline: A discount Wagner

We are shocked to hear of the death of Glen Roven, an activist composer who was in regular touch with the Slippedisc community.

Glen died after 12 days in a coma and is grieved by his thousands of musicians whom he helped in varying capacities.

Among other things, he composed and produced records for Julie Andrews, Aretha Franklin, Leon Fleisher, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. He wrote film scores, concert works and musical satires such as this:

He conducted Frank Sinatra’s last TV concert on television and four presidential inaugurations.

He had his own label, Roven Records, and was always available to musicians who needed a studio session.

Glen was indispensable.

UPDATE:

There will be a funeral for Glen Roven
Friday, July 27th 2018 at
Riverside Memorial Chapel
180 West 76th Street, NYC
11:00 a.m.

For those who cannot attend, the details for a memorial tribute to the man and his music will follow this fall.

 

We hear that the Singapore conductor Kahchun Wong will make his New York Philharmonic debut next February 6.

Wong, 32, won the 2016 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and has gone on to become music director in Nuremburg.

Press release, just in:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the selection of four Honorees who will receive the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, and a special Honors distinction for a work of art and its co-creators. Recipients to be honored at the 41st annual national celebration of the arts are: singer and actress Cher, composer and pianistPhilip Glass, Country music entertainer Reba McEntire, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. This year, the co-creators of Hamilton—writer and actorLin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, and music director Alex Lacamoire—will receive a unique Kennedy Center Honors as trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category.   

Do not expect the President to attend.

 

The outgoing music director of the Orchestre de Paris has been named artistic director of the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa, Italy.

He succeeds Sir John Eliot Gardiner who held the post for 12 years.

 

The Israeli-American director is discussing ambivalence in a DW interview:

It may sound diplomatic, but honestly, I feel wonderful here. That difficult history was of course a terrible tragedy, and it affected my family as well. But it’s clear that people here are coming to terms with that history and probing ever deeper into it. That wonderful exhibition Silenced Voices just below the Festspielhaus for example, right next to the bust of Wagner. It portrays Jewish artists and theater personnel who once worked at the Bayreuth Festival and describes their fates. Every day I go by there and look at another one. I feel so honored to be able to stand on their shoulders and work here as an independent stage director without it being a major issue. My religion and heritage are irrelevant to my work anyway. It only comes up in conversation.

That’s not quite right.

When I was in Bayreuth, I was strongly assured by Festival staff that the Silenced Voices exhibition was put up by the town hall, and that the Wagners and the Festival had nothing to do with it.

 

The German violinist Julia Fischer now runs her own streaming service.

She tell the NZZ: ‘I’m not interested in this format either as an artist or as a consumer. Of course, there are still people who shove a CD into a player at home. But I do not know if they will be around in twenty years’ time. All I know is that I have not bought a CD myself for ten years. And that goes also for my whole circle of acquaintances – musicians and non-musicians alike.’

Sagen wir, es interessiert mich in dieser Form nicht. Weder als Künstlerin noch als Käuferin. Es gibt natürlich noch Menschen, die sich eine CD zu Hause in den Player schieben. Aber ob es sie in zwanzig Jahren noch geben wird, weiss ich nicht. Ich weiss nur, dass ich selbst seit zehn Jahren keine CD mehr gekauft habe. Und in meinem ganzen Bekanntenkreis – bei Musikern wie Nichtmusikern – ist es ähnlich.

Read on here.

 

At a fundraiser last night.

 

 

Mr Kelce is a noted saxophonist among football players.

 

UPDATE from Peter Dobrin: ‘We have the Philadelphia Orchestra, the epitome of high culture, sophistication, art, celebrating a bunch of grown men beatin’ the crap out of each other,’ Kelce told the audience.

From 4pm Germany/ 3pm London/ 10am New York today.

Click here.

Let’s hear your comments, too.

 

Having refused to appear in tonight’s new Lohengrin, Anna Netrebko will sing two performances next summer – according to Katharina Wagner.

Anna knows the role, having sung it with Beczala and Thielemann at Dresden (below).

Whether she will do it again is another matter.

Bayreuth’s bookies are not taking bets.

Angela Merkel is expected tonight. She has seen a few Elsas in her time.