The first is Brigitte Fassbender, magnificently versatile, attempting Sondheim auf Deutsch.

Wo sind die Clowns, indeed? 

And who’s this? It’s the mighty Marlene Dietrich singing … in Hebrew. ‘It’s a song I bwought back fwom Iswayl.’

Still, you can’t fault either of them for enterprise.

French media are running with a story that Tony Jazz and Mathieu Billon, two musicians from Bordeaux, have been commissioned to write one of Barack Obama’s re-election themes. The pair are founders of the On Air agency. ‘Very gratifying,’ they say.

Read on here (in French). And here on video is what you can expect from On Air.

Stefano Scodanibbio has died in Mexico at 57 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

A close friend of Luigi Nono’s, he also worked with many other modernists – Bussotti, Donatoni, Estrada, Ferneyhough, Frith, Globokar, Sciarrino, Xenakis – and composed much of his own. His website is here. A longer Italian report here.

Stefano, with Xenakis

Hot on the heels of Alex Klein’s initiative in Paradise province, Die Zeit has a report today on a German-backed initiative called Neojiba, run by the pianist and conductor, Riccardo Castro. The artistic input comes from Germany, the knowhow from Venezuela. Maria Joao Pires is a big supporter.

Read on and watch video here.

The great tenor got his first professional break at an opera company in Tel Aviv.

He is now being honoured by President Shimon Peres and the Knesset with the country’s largest arts prize. Details still coming in.

In this news report, he describes his memories of singing in Tel Aviv and his favourite foods. He even sings a line in Hebrew.

He stepped in last minute for Joseph Calleja in Faust.

Tonight he’s singing Cavaradosi in Tosca. The man’s in peak form and hungry for work.

Send us a mail if you heard him.

photo: (c) Lebrecht Music & Arts

Tourist dollars are hard to come by in Wisconsin, so they sent the Symphony out to stage a snow fight in the hope of attracting good custom. Hollywood director David Zucker is the talent behind the cameras.

And this Austrian resort stages opera in the snow:

Bridie Gallagher, sometimes described as Ireland’s first international singing star, has died, aged 87.

Her biggest his was A Mother’s Love’s a Blessing. RIP.

And this one is probably the pub favourite:

The Brahms Institute of Lübeck reports an important find.

In a job lot of 20 boxes of musicalia bequeathed by a deceased music tracher, it has found an original letter by Beethoven. It is dated 1823 and mailed to Paris, addressed to a Herr Stockhausen.

As usual, Beethoven complains about his health and living conditions. He does not, sadly, offer analysis or criticism of Gruppen.