A fascinating blog in the LA Times fills in some of the gaps as to how Arnold Schoenberg came to write an atonal version of the opening Yom Kippur invocation, Kol Nidrei.
Recordings needs to state clearly on the can: This is the Schoenberg version. Not to be mistaken for Bruch.
Read all about it here.
The Metropolitan Opera was all cockahoop a few weeks back when Russia, China, Israel and a host of other nations joined its cinema beam-up from Manhattan central to 1,600 theatres around the world.
But international relations come with a snag. Peter Gelb has just admitted that the Jerusalem Cinematheque will not take two Wagner operas in its package – Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.
Wagner is regarded in Israel as an antisemitic antecedent to Hitler.
‘This is not censorship,’ said the cinema manager.
The German magazine Opernwelt has chosen its opera house of the year.
Any guesses? It’s La Monnaie in Brussels. Check it out. Here’s why.
Oh, and it gets best production of the year for Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots.
Following a spate of negative responses in the JC, I have posted some final thoughts on its op-ed page on what I believe to be the historical importance of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Auschwitz opera, The Passenger.
It is unfortunate that English National Opera has scheduled several performances for the nights of Jewish holy days, depriving the work of a significant part of its natural constituency. Next time, they should check a multicultural diary.
