José Omar Davila is an orchestra conductor.
He differs from the rest of his profession by the nature of his disability.
José Omar, 26, was born with Down Syndrome. He conducts the Children’s Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and, in his own country, may well be the best-known maestro after Gustavo Dudamel, such has been the wave of publicity that is presently following his career. Like Dudamel, he has risen through the Simon Bolivar Music Foundation, established by José Antonio Abreu.
Judging by reports, his repertoire consists mostly of showstoppers – Hallelujah chorus, Ode to Joy and suchlike. But his ability is being taken seriously and responsibly by the media.
I find it nothing short of magnificent that a national foundation charged with developing musical potential among deprived kids can also take into account the musical aspirations of a young man with Down’s. Abreu is an even bigger man than we thought.
Here’s the first of five Spanish-language youtube TV segments on José Omar’s story. Prepare to be challenged, uplifted and moved.
It’s not a famous band, nor a big-city trophy, but the closure announcement of the Bellevue Philharmonic in the state of Washington brings to four the number of American symphony orchestras that have gone out of business this season.
Honolulu, New Mexico and Syracuse have been liquidated altogether. Louisville and Philadelphia have filed for bankruptcy protection. And I keep hearing rumours of more to come. At the current conference of the League of American Symphony Orchestras, I’m told, everyone was talking about the crisis and refusing to address the historic causes.
Bellevue, like Syracuse and Honolulu, has been around for half a century. The board cited ‘long-term realities’ for giving up. In other words, there isn’t the audience, the funding base or the civic pride to sustain an orchestra in Bellevue, Wa.
The music director, who will bow out on 4 July, is Michael Miropolsky. See also here.
photo courtesy Eric Linger, all rights reserved
The Birmingham Mahler cycle ended last night with a late substitution when Magdalena Kozena, Simon Rattle’s partner, pulled out of Das Lied von der Erde with a demonstrable lack of voice. She started losing it in rehearsal at Aldeburgh on Friday, prompting Jane Irwin to drive five and a half hours down from Preston, only to be left on the sidelines as Madge struggled bravely through the piece.
By Birmingham, however, she had no voice left and a vacancy was declared. Good sport Jane stepped up in a green satin number and with notable aplomb.
First, though, we heard hubby conduct one of his fave pieces, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum by Messiaen, a work that has as much colour in common with Mahler’s as a zebra with a peacock. It was like seeing Waiting for Godot before a performance of Othello.
The tenor in Das Lied, Michael Schade, could have done with more punch at the top and the orchestra seemed unsettled at two or three moments by the last change of cast and the lack of a full rehearsal with the new mezzo. But Jane Irwin is a singer of immense character and daring who dropped on occasion to pianissimo, drawing feather-light sounds from the orchestral soloists, outstanding among them the flute (Marie-Christine Zupancic), piccolo (Andrew Lane), bassoon (Gretha Tuls) and leader (Zoe Beyers).
The Abschied achieved a stark cohesion. Rattle played down the agonies of parting with a practised flutter of bucolic beauty spots. But Irwin somehow found the perfect tone for Mahler’s intentions and, at the close, her fadeout ‘ewig’ melted into Ulrich Heinen’s solo cello with an organic aptness I have never heard before. Rattle maintained 23 full seconds of silence before he dropped his arms for applause.
Glyndebourne has announced the withdrawal of French soprano Sandrine Piau from Handel’s Rinaldo because she has a bad knee.
That’s a new one to me. I’ve known singers to pull out for anything from polyps to pregnancy, but the knee has very little to do with the vocal apparatus – at least, it didn’t the last time I checked a soprano’s anatomy.
Think of Joyce DiDonato who sang her way through Barber of Seville on a broken leg. Joyce would not have broken stride for a twisted knee.
So why’s Sandrine pulling out of Glyndebourne? What’s the real story?
All credible submissions will be treated with the appropriate discretion.
Press release follows:
Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2011 – Cast Change Announcement
Owing to an unfortunate injury to her knee, Sandrine Piau is unable to rehearse the role of Almirena in the new production of Rinaldo. The role will performed by Anett Fritsch, except for the performance on 9th July which will be sung by Miriam Khalil. Glyndebourne wishes Ms Piau a speedy recovery.
Anett Fritsch Soprano
Almirena/Rinaldo
Glyndebourne debut
Notable engagements: Mimi/La bohème (Stadttheater Bielefeld); Frasquita/Carmen (Oper Leipzig); Marzelline/Fidelio (Tiroler Festspiele); Valencienne/Die lustige Witwe, Pamina/Die Zauberflöte, Gretel/Hänsel und Gretel, Constanze/Die Entfuhrüng aus dem Serail, Blanche/Les dialogues des Camélites, (Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf); Pamina (Tiroler Festspiele); Gianetta/L’elisir d’amore, Flower Girl/Parsifal, Sandman, Dew Fairy/Hänsel und Gretel (Opera Leipzig); Flower Girl (Anhaltinisches Theater Dessau);
She has been a soloist in oratorios and cantatas by Bach, in Haydn’s Creation, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Zelenka’s Magnificat, Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Elias and Orff’s Carmina Burana. She was a prize winner at the International Chamber Opera at Schloss Rheinsberg and in 2001 she won the first prize at the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. She has sung Messiah in Bonn, Brahms’ German Requiem at the Tiroler Festspiele and was part of a Handel live broadcast with MDR Kultur (MDR German Radio).
She was born in Plauen, Germany. She studied at the Plauen Musical Conservatory and the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Music Academy in Leipzig.
Miriam Khalil Soprano
Almirena/Rinaldo 9th July
Glyndebourne debut
Notable engagements: Musetta/La bohème (Edmonton Opera); Susanna/Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Lyra, Ottawa); Mimì/La bohème (Opera Hamilton), Laura/Luisa Miller, Confidante/Elektra (Canadian Opera Company), Leah/Swoon (World Premiere), Pamina/Die Zauberflöte (COC Ensemble Studio); she created the role of Elizabeth D’Aulnières in Charles Wilson’s World Premier of Kamouraska (Opera in Concert, Toronto). Other roles include; Rosalinde/Die Fledermaus; Governess/The Turn of the Screw; Micaëla/Carmen; Dido/Dido and Aeneas; Electress Marie/Der Vogelhändler; Carolina/Luisa Fernanda. Concert and Oratorio works include Ravel’s Shéhérazade; Brahms’ German Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Bach’s Christ Lag in Todesbanden; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Mozart’s Requiem; Pergolesi’s and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater; Handel’s Messiah.
Forthcoming engagements: Highlights for her 2010-11 season include singing Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, Canadian composer Omar Daniel’s Neruda Canciones with The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Governess/The Turn of the Screw with Against The Grain Theatre (Toronto), and her debut with Pacific Opera Victoria as Frasquita/Carmen.
She studied at The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Ottawa. In 2007 she won first place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions for the Great Lakes Region. She is a recent member of The Steans Institute for Young Artists in Ravinia, The Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, and the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.
Rinaldo opens on 2 July and runs until 22 August. The new production Rinaldo is currently sold out, please call the Glyndebourne Box Office for returns 01273 813813.
For press enquiries please call the Press Office on 01273 812321 or email pressoffice@glyndebourne.com
