A thoroughly researched piece by Elisabeth Braw on the irresoluble Italian opera crisis yields this incomprehensble statistic.
How did anyone in authority allow them to run up such a huge deficit? And how will it ever be paid off?
Read the excellent article here.
It contains, inter alia, a snarky remark by Peter Gelb to the effect that since Italy won’t take Met broadcasts the country must have lost its love for opera….
KLEIN–David, The Juilliard community mourns the death of David Klein, an active member of this nation’s art world and the husband of Heidi Castleman, a distinguished member of the School’s viola faculty. An engaged and knowledgeable supporter of the arts, his presence added immeasurably to the quality of life of our students. Our condolences go to his beloved wife Heidi and the members of his family. Joseph W. Polisi, President Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean Adam Meyer, Associate Dean.
Our sympathies to Heidi, family and friends across the viola playing community.
The glamorous and indomitable Marta Eggerth breathed her last, in New York, on December 26.
Budapest born to a Jewish mother, Marta was on stage at 11 and in a Max Reinhadt Fledermaus at 17. Note perfect and good looking, she was the darling of the leading operetta composers Lehar, Stolz and Oscar Strass
A 1930s film star, she married the Polish tenor Jan Kiepura in 1936 and made the rest of her carer in the US. Kiepura died in 1966. They are survived by two sons.
Peter Vujica, the influential culture editor of Der Standard and a composer and novelist under the pseudonym Peter Daniel Wolfkind, died on Christmas of leukemia, aged 76. He held the reins at Standard for 13 years from 1989 and ran some of the liveliest arts pages anywhere in world journalism. Before that, he was director of the Styrian Autumn Festival, one of the standout new music venues.
Vujica, whom I dealt with occasionally on the phone, was a contrarian. No-one could predict what he wanted since he changed his mind from one day to the next. Infuriating as this could be, he was also stimulating and sometimes downright funny. I enjoyed working with Der Standard and think of Vujica with a nostalgic smile. Characters of his ilk do not survive in the journalism of the 21st century.
The Palau de les Arts in Valencia has been shut and all performances suspended after heavy storms brought ceramic tiles down from the roof. The centre opened in 2005, with Lorin Maazel as artistic director of the Valencia Opera.
The Moscow theatre has a hole in the pit and needs to fill it fast.
Three names have been leaked to the Russian press as leading contenders:
– Tugan Sokhiev, a Gergiev protégé, presently head of the DSO Berlin and the Capitole orchestra in Toulouse;
– Vasily Petrenko, chief of the Royal Liverpool and the Oslo Philharmonic and principal guest at the Mikhailovsky in St Petersburg;
– Dmitry Jurowski, younger brother of Vladimir who has repeatedly shunned approaches from the Bolshoi.
Of the three, only the last would be available in the immediate future.
Clemens Hellsberg, the erudite violinist who has steered the Philharmonic through multiple pitfalls through the past two decades, has broken his arm and will miss the annual showpiece concert for the first time in memory.
Hellsberg, 61, slipped while walking on an icy road and underwent surgery on a complicated fracture of the elbow. It will be three months before he can play again. He managed, however, to collect Daniel Barenboim from the airport last night and will appear at the pre-New Year’s press conference. We wish him a full recovery.
