Daniel DeGennaro, who played with Bob Weir in Grateful Dead tribute band Kingfish, has been shot dead in his Bucks County home. Police are treating it as homicide. First reports here and here.

Danny DeGennaro

The Royal Danish Theatre has announced budget cuts of 100 million kroner ($16.5 million) and 100 job losses. The chorus alone could lose 16 singers.

The Theatre has had a turbulent year, with a cover-up of drugs abuse in the ballet and the loss of artistic director Kaspar Holten to Covent Garden. Nevertheless, the end year cuts have come out of the blue.

Here’s a cri-de-coeur from staff conductor Jesper Nordin. Do send him messages of encouragement. We don’t like the Danes to be gloomy.

 

 

La Monnaie have just posted the complete video of Massenet’s Cendrillon, which has provoked heated discussion on this site and elsewhere in the past week. Judge for yourselves – try for instance, the opening of Act 3.

The entire opera lasts two and a half hours.

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Our social correspondent has received an urgent message from the responsible authorities at forumopera.com.

Apparently the site owner and chief editor Camille De Rijck is not – as posted on his Facebook page – married to Hélène Mante, nor she to him. Or so they say. Ms Mante has taken down her Facebook page and Mr De Rijck, while maintaining his married status has deleted Ms Mante’s name as the object of his fidelity. All very odd.

What is not contested is that Mr De Rijck is owner and editor in chief of forumopera while also operating an artists agency that represents singers and soloists. As such, his site is in a position to influence careers. I do hope he has set up a very strong firewall between them.

Internal sources insist that the owner is not Editor in Chief (rédacteur en chef), just Directeur de la Publication, which means that he has no editorial role  – although that’s not the impression he has given with direct interventions this past week.

Slipped Disc will, as expected, keep a watch out for abuses of the kind that first triggered this issue.

Matyas Seiber (1905-60) was a Hungarian exile who came to grief in South Africa when a steering wheel came off in his hands in Kruger National Park and he smashed into a tree. Although he wrote a James Joyce opera in 12-note rows, he also loved jazz and all things Magyar.

This upcoming release from Somm – and there are five separate tracks to download herehere, herehere and here – also has the fubkiest cover of the season so far. I just wish they’d spelled the composer’s name phonetically – so much more 21st century.

Our social correspondent reports:

On behalf of Andris Nelsons and Kristine Opolais, we are thrilled to bring you the news that Adriana Anna Nelsons was born on 28th December at 13:50 in Riga, weighing 3.8 kilograms.
All three of the Nelsons Family are doing well and Andris is a very proud Father. Many greetings from the Nelsons Family to you. 
Readers will recalls that Andris has taken a month’s paternity leave from conducting, perhaps the first maestro to do so.