The Purcell School has finally come out into the open about the dismissal of the head of music and his deputy. Questioned by the local newspaper, the Watford Gazette, head teacher David Thomas said: ‘Quentin Poole left the school by mutual agreement at the end of the last academic year.’

Really? Then why do we hear he’s pursuing a case for unfair dismissal?

Stephan Herheim’s Covent Garden production opens with a man sitting in the left-hand corner of the stage reading a newspaper while the French invaders prepare for mass rape. He is visible once more at the opening of Act four. One of Herheim’s production team fills seven pages of the programme book, explaining the ‘concept’ behind this show, which is set inside the Paris Opéra where the opera had its 1855 premiere.

He does not mention the newspaper, but the metaphor is easily understood: nothing is real, all is a mirrored reflection of something else. We, the audience, are watching the audience who are watching the cast who are watching… and so on…. at the original production. That’s what concept opera does: it distances you from the work.

There is much in the show that is scenically brilliant – the shifting wall of mirrors, the execution block – and much that is infuriating and irrelevant.

A troupe of ballet girls served chiefly to tamp down whatever emotion might have been aroused. A child executioner is a blatant joke at our expense. At the climax, a massacre, the Norwegian director cuts to silence and blazes the stage lights at the audience. Get it?

Concept opera, like adolescence (and, perhaps, senescence) is a phase through which opera is passing. It may already be growing out of it. Herheim, sensationally fashionable in Germany, does not travel well.

The singing and acting were world class. Bryan Hymel as Henri could have done with a touch more volume and Erwin Schrott as the destructive revolutionary Procida hurled himself about too much to give vocally of his absolute best, but Michael Volle as the governor, De Montfort, was  imposing in every sense and Lianna Haroutounian was sweet-toned and affecting as Hélène. It’s tough for singers when the director does not allow them to develop character and this cast performed splendidly under some adversity. The orchestra played as amply as we have come to expect when Antonio Pappano conducts and the chorus were in fine voice.

A larger chorus might have been even finer, but they’d spent the money on those trippy ballet dancers and saved on the musical essence.

photos: ROH

In what looks alarmingly like a copycat trend, the classical radio station in Houston, one of the richest US cities, has conducted a morning of the long knives, getting rid of all its established presenters. Apparently the last fundraising drive was ‘a colossal failure’. Who cares? Not Houston.

The Finnish pop singer Anssi Kela has a hit on his hands. Called Restless Girl, it got one million plays over four months on Spotify (total number of Finns in the world: 5 million).

Anssi has decided to go public on his Spotify earnigs. At 0.02 Euroe cents per play, he was paid 2,300 Euros (US$3,200) before tax. Anssi has now joined the bandwaggon of Radiohead-led musicians who are pulling their tracks off the music-sharing service.

UPDATE: Industry sources say Anssi’s figure may be the amount he received after his record company, Sony Music, took its cut. Even if it were ten times as much, however, it would still be pathetic for a million-play hit. In other news, Spotify is trying to raise fresh tech investment in California.

photo: Gianluca Mezzofiore

IB Times reports:  Up to 40 demonstrators held the protest outside the Barbican in London before a performance of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. Human rights protesters held up sparklers with the message: “Sparkle for freedom in Russia. Putin suppresses, we sparkle”, shouting “Gay rights for Russia”, “Some Russians are gay get over it”, “Shame on you Gergiev, stop supporting Putin”.  A minor scuffle erupted when a friend of Gergiev argued with the protesters.

The demo appears to have been fairly inconspicuous. Several people who attended the concert report that they failed to notice it.

A review in the Times this morning speculates that Gergiev may be asked to leave the LSO sooner than announced, in 2015, in order to protect the orchestra’s brand. As far as we can tell, this line of thought is completely unfounded.

Lee E. Erickson, 58, director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s chorus, has been suspended from work following his arrest in a city park.

He is alleged to have followed an undercover deputy sheriff into a lavatory, where improper activity is said to have taken place. Presumptions of innocence apply, as always before trial. Report here.

The rights campaigner has set out his stall in the Guardian’s comments section, ahead of tonight’s demonstration at the Barbican.

Sample text:

In response to the protests, Gergiev yesterday issued a public statementin his defence: “I do not discriminate against anyone, gay or otherwise, and never have done, and as head of the Mariinsky Theatre this is our policy. It is wrong to suggest that I have ever supported anti-gay legislation and in all my work I have upheld equal rights for all people.”

While his affirmation of personal non-discrimination is commendable, Gergiev’s statement does not renounce his support for Putin, whose regime does discriminate against gay people. Moreover, contrary to his protestations, he has defended Russia’s anti-gay law, reportedly claiming that it is solely concerned with stopping paedophilia. The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant quoted him as stating: “In Russia we do everything we can to protect children from paedophiles. This law is not about homosexuality, it targets paedophilia.”

The ongoing American adventures of Alma Deutscher. Apparently, she’s about to meet the Dude.

It’s part of a campaign by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, one of the best in southern China. Captions, please? More here.

Sarah Billinghurst is leaving at the end of the season. There has been  no announcement, but the word is out on the street.

The New Zealander has been at the Metropolitan Opera for 20 years as artistic general manager, effectively buffering between the music director, James Levine, and the general manager, Peter Gelb.

She could have been a contender at Covent Garden in the late 1990s, but the board went for Michael Kaiser instead.

Yutaka Sado, 52, will replace the new Houston music director Andrés Orozco-Estrada as chief conductor of the Tonkünstler-Orchesters Niederösterreich in mid-2015.

Beat that!

Frank Glazer studied with Schnabel, made his NY debut in 1936, played a concerto with the Boston Symphony under Koussevitsky and taught at the Eastman School of Music.