The great soprano, 85, is having gallbladder issues.

Report here.

Wish her better.

The Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons will make a rare public appearance on his original instrument, the trumpet, when he goes KLASSIK underground in the Moritzbastei Club Leipzig after the official concert this Saturday.

Among other things, Andris will play duos with the night’s soloist Hakan Hardenberger.

Has he still got the puff? Looks like it.

Message from Elisabeth Christensen, Managing Director, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra:

We suspended Mr. St. George as soon as we were made aware of his alleged conduct yesterday evening.

Following a thorough review of the indictment and Mr. St. George’s alleged activities we have terminated his employment, effective immediately.

We know of no connection between Mr. St. George’s behavior and our organization. In addition, we are not aware of any actions that directly involve or impact any of our musicians or staff.

Katherine Hoover, a former Manhattan School of Music flute professor who wrote wildey-played works for her instrument, has died after a short illness.

Obit here.

Sixteen years after we sold the film rights in my first novel, principal photography begins tomorrow in London.

It has been a long haul, brought ultimately to fruition by the conviction of the Canadian producer Robert Lantos and director Francois Girard.

The cast includes Tim Roth, Clive Owen and Catherine McCormack. The score is by Howard Shore.

Filming in London, Budapest, Treblinka, Montreal and New York.

I can’t wait to get on set.

More details here.

The Berlin opera boss Barrie Kosky has created a stir in Zurich by taking his curtain call in a t-shirt emblazoned with the unmistakable image of the young Stalin (that’s before he murdered 30 million Soviet citizens).

Kosky, who was directing Franz Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, has refused to comment.

Would he have worn a picture of the young Hitler? Was he just trying to grab a headline?

History is not a toy, Kosky.

Photo: Christian Berzins

A man who sang for 30 years in the chorus of Washington National Opera has left it $1.1 million in his will.

The benefactor has been named as Clifford D. Thomson, who died on May 6, 2016 in Naples, Florida, aged 66. He had been a career-long teacher at Loudoun Valley High School from 1974 until his retirement in 2009.

His late partner was  John Goding, a founding dancer and balletmaster of the Washington Ballet.

Statement from the US Department of Justice:

BOSTON – An employee of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra was arrested today and charged in federal court in Boston with receipt and possession of child pornography.

David St. George, 71, of Arlington, was charged with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. 

According to charging documents, law enforcement in Boston received information regarding an online storage account suspected of containing child pornography. The IP address linked to the account was assigned to St. George’s internet account. Further investigation into the files revealed approximately 83 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including a one-year-old girl.

A search warrant executed at St. George’s residence today revealed thousands of files of child pornography, including the sexual assaults of children between six-and-eight years old. It is alleged that St. George has been receiving and downloading child pornography from the “Dark Web” and taking steps to conceal his identity.

According to court documents, St. George is employed by the Boston Philharmonic and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1979 by the British-born conductor Benjamin Zander. a youth orchestras was added some years later.

The orchestra has not responded to the charges against its artistic advisor. Zander has described St George as ‘my lifelong musical collaborator’. 

UPDATE: Boston fires advisor

The pianist Nick Van Bloss has obtained a sheaf of embarrassing emails about himself under Freedom of Information procedures. The embarrassment is not to Nick but to half a dozen British orchestras that he says have conspired to exclude him from their programmes.

The orchestras are the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Birmingham, Hallé Bournemouth and Liverpool, and Nick has gone to the Telegraph with complaints of collusion.

An email from one orchestra’s chief executive to another said: “I would cut and paste the response from [redacted] to show solidarity… and a message that we all think the same!”

An internal email between the directors of Philharmonia called van Bloss “trouble”. “Nick van Bloss is a protege of [redacted] and he is Trouble,” it said. “Switch off your phone, is my advice.”

Nick, 51, suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome, a disability that involves severe tics which, he says, do not affect his playing. He told the newspaper: ‘The emails display a hostile, mocking and pathological disregard for me and my complaint. The main point of my concern was diversity. The orchestras are funded to promote and celebrate it, but they reacted to my complaint by asking for me to apologise for having called them out.’

Is anyone surprised that there is collusion between public-funded UK orchestras? I wonder what the ABO has to say.

Message from the composer:

CITIZENS of BILBAO, PAMPLONA and VALLADOLID. ‘Agents for the Michael Nyman Band’ have cancelled our concerts two days ahead of our Spanish tour. I suggest you address any queries and anger to Julio Marti at direccion@sfmusic.es, and Antonio Convertini at antonio@kinomusic.it.

I apologise totally and totally innocently for the same sense of disappointment and inconvenience that all the players feel at this unjustified and belated cancellation.

More than 160 years after his death, the city of Düsseldorf s going to convert the former home of Robert Schumann into a permanent museum.

Schumann ended his relationship with the city, where he had been music director for four years, with an attempted suicide in February 1854.

The composer was carted off to an insane asylum and the city erased him from public memory, apart from a small placard on his house at Bilkerstrasse 15.

Now it is spending 3.2 million Euros on creating a museum, which will open in 2020. According to some estmates, Schumann composed about one-third of his mature works in the Düsseldorf house.

Munich’s former conservatory chief Siegfried Mauser has lost his appeal against a jail sentence of  two years and nine months for sexually molesting women.

Mauser had claimed procedural irregularities in his trial. The Oberlandesgericht threw this out and, significantly, allowed the state prosecutor to submit an appeal, arguing that the sentence was too short.

Mauser, 63, still enjoys extensive support in the music-educational establishment.

UPDATE: The SZ has printed a small correction:

Note: In an earlier version  the now rejected revision request by Mauser by by the Higher Regional Court (OLG ) was mistakenly related to the verdict in the second trial of Siegfried Mauser (May 2018, two years and nine months in prison) for sexual coercion. However, the Higher Regional Court rejected the appeal request which referred to the appeal judgment in the first trial against Mauser (April 2017, nine months imprisonment on probation).