After telling us that the artists of the decade are four young men from a barbershop on the wrong side of town, guess who’s up for Best Male Artist of the Year?

A major singer on top of his form? 
Er, no. It’s Rolando Villazon.
Now it’s sad and common knowledge in the opera world that something’s not right with Rolando. He cancels often and, when he does sing, the zest has gone out of the voice.
So why exalt him with an award? It can only hurt his genuine efforts to recover a manageable relationship with his failing talent.
These, however, are not the concern of the pop suits who Classic Brits. They like Rolando because he appeared on a reality show, Popstar to Operastar.
Best artist of the year? Gimme a break.
Give him a break, too.

Two of the national’s leading dancers have cancelled this weekend’s performance with the strife-torn Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, which has sacked half its musicians and is using the youth ensemble in their stead.

Ana Botafogo (below) and Alex Noral have joined a growing boycott.

Earlier story here.

Rub those eyes.

Yes, it’s a genuine offer and it’s exclusive for the moment to slipped disc.
Thanks to subsidy from an anonymous donor, 80 seats are being given away for free at Grange Park Opera, in rolling Hampshire meadows, for an opera of your choice.
Well, not much choice: it’s Rusalka (Dvorak) or Tristan und Isolde (Wagner). 
But I wouldn’t grumble. Think: an hour’s preable in afternoon sunshine with Pimms in hand, an interval picnic, a night at the opera…. oh, heaven.
And it’s free.
There’s only one catch: you have to be aged 14 to 25.
If you’re under 16, you’ll need to bring an adult, but he or she will also get in for free.
It’s first come, first served – so get in fast.
Email jan@grangeparkopera.co.uk or phone her on 01962 73 73 66 and tell her why you want to see a country house opera for free.

I think she can work it out herself, but you’ll need to persuade her.

And if you mention slipped disc, I might even get the boss to buy you a non-alky drink beneath the chandeliers.



An authoritative market report by IBISWorld lists the 10 fastest dying industries in the US.

They are:
1 Manufactured Home Dealers
2 Record Stores
3 Photofinishing; 
4 Wired Telecommunications Carriers; 
5 & 6 Apparel Manufacturing (men’s and women’s); 
7 Newspaper Publishing; 
8 DVD Game and Video Rental; 
9 Mills
10 Formal Wear and Costume Rental. 
The list is a snapshot of how high streets have changed over the past decade, and how they might change further over the next. If record stores have gone – the second biggest casualty -book outlets cannot be far behind. If anything to do with photography and printing is now self-op, what hope for publishers?
Worrying times.

If you want to ask someone to leave the room in 2011, you tell them – apparently – to transition off.

That’s what Fox News has just done, without prejudice, to its appallingly prejudiced and more than mildly fantasist presenter, Glenn Beck.
Here’s the Wall Street Journal headline:

Glenn Beck To Transition Off Daily Fox Program

I’m finding this a particularly useful coinage. I have used it twice today on cold callers and I think Wayne Rooney may have been searching for the phrase when he last faced the cameras.
Further applications warmly welcomed, along with any other neologisms that have entered your daily usage.

Deutsche Grammophon has signed the Seoul Philharmonic to a 10-CD deal, the first by any major label with an orchestra from the Far East – and, I suspect, not the last.

Seoul is a special case.
South Korea has the highest classical share of the record market on earth, around 17% of all record sales, and the consumers are overwhelmingly young and upwardly mobile. This is a demographic to die for.
The Seoul Philharmonic has Myung-whun Chung as music director. He has been a DG artist for much of his career, notably at the Opéra de Paris, the Radio France orchestra and the Santa Cecilia academy in Rome.

It also has Michael Fine as artistic adviser and chief producer. Michael is a former President of DG. He was spied upon and hounded out of the job by his Universal boss, Chris Roberts, a story I told here. Roberts has since gone. Michael’s return must feel very sweet indeed. 
And there’s is one more cherry on the cake. The Seoul Philharmonic are starting to tour. They will be at the Edinburgh Festival this summer. Good time to release a record.