Following yesterday’s murderous bombing in Mansoura – 16 dead, 134 injured – the Cairo Opera House has pushed back its Christmas concert with Gala El Hadidi to next Sunday.
The time has come around again to ask you to guess which was our most-read story of 2013.
Was it, for instance, orchestral misconduct in Vienna?
The unending miseries of Minnesota?
Rumblings in Berlin?
Death of a record label?
Or a human emotion to touch all souls?
Send in your thoughts. We’ll publish the full list in a week.
Robert Wilson, a hedge-fund mogul who used to be chairman of New York City Opera, jumped to his death from his 16th floor apartment in Central Park West.
Wilson, 87, had suffered a stroke six months ago. Detroit born and divorced for the past 35 years, he had given much of his fortune to charities, the arts and Roman Catholic causes. The full extent of his gifts is believed to reach half a billion dollars. Aside from his chairmanship of the ill-fated City Opera, he was also a member of the boards of the Metropolitan Opera and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Photo: Andrew Toth/PatrickMcMullan.com
Vasily Sinaisky’s walkout as chief conductor three weeks ago has left a huge hole in the schedule. There’s a signature new production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s royalist opera coming up in February and no-one’s available to conduct it.
Ria-Novosty reports that the embattled chief exec Vladimir Urin has asked the veteran Vladimir Fedoseyev, but he’s too busy. Anyone care to volunteer?
It seems incredible that the Bolshoi Theatre should end 2013 in a worse state than it began.
We didn’t make it up. It’s an official Dutch stat. Read here.
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Be safe. Be warm. Be happy.
