Nicole Paiement, who recently conducted Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers in Dallas, has been named principal guest conductor.

She will work closely with Music Director Emmanuel Villaume, taking on the January 2015 world premiere of Joby Talbot’s opera EVEREST. Her appointment is effective immediately.

Raised in Canada, Nicole runs her own opera company in San Francisco.

Nicole Paiement

 

 

How much longer before a woman takes charge at the Met?

Placido Domingo has announced he is giving a concert in Rio during the soccer World Cup finals. It will be the seventh time he has adorned the tournament, going all the way back to the original Three Tenors concert in 1990.

He will be joined by the pianist Lang Lang and soprano Anamaria Martinez.

domingo rio

After mass flight during the year-long lockout, some Minnesota players are coming back home now that peace is assured.

David Pharris, who has playing second clarinet in the Houston Symphony, has returned this week for Mahler’s Fifth.

Also on their way back are principal viola Tom Turner, viola player Ken Freed, trumpeter Robert Dorer, principal horn Michael Gast, and bass clarinetist Tim Zavadil. 

 

vanska and players

 

 

pictured yesterday: Pharris, conductor Osmo Vänskä, Zavadil.

The Harry Potter author J K Rowling today donated a million pounds to the Better Together campaign that seeks to persuade voters to reject independence in the September referendum.

The violinist Nicola Benedetti is releasing an album, titled ‘Homecoming – A Scottish Fantasy’. The title and timing cannot be a coincidence.

One artist’s response is pragmatic, the other romantic. Together they represent a dichotomy of head and heart that politicians are forcing voters to pull apart. It is an uncomfortable moment in British history.

 

nicola benedetti

BBC Radio’s flagship Today programme committed a howler this morning by referring to Russell Watson, a stadium belter, as ‘an opera singer’. Listeners phoned and mailed in to say that this was unacceptable. An opera singer is one who sings whole operas, not isolated arias. The presenter at fault apologised to some complainants. But that was not enough.

Tomorrow, in the coveted political slot between 8.10 and 8.20, the Today programme will ask Joyce DiDonato to explain to the world what a real opera singer is and does. Nobody can do it better, or more sweetly. Diva Joyce will put them right.

rejoyce

 

Ivo Vinco has died in Verona, where he made his 1954 debut as Ramfis in Aida. He was 86.

He sang in every major house and with most of the leading conductors of his time. He married the lustrous mezzo Fiorenza Cossotto, with whom he had a son. Although they divorced, she was at Ivo’s deathbed this week.

vinco cossotto

 

 

Gramilano photo: at La Scala, 1959. 



Bloomberg’s Manuela Hoelterhoff, in classically combative style, comes down on Peter Gelb’s side in the forthcoming showdown with Met unions, who – she says – get an easy ride and more vacation than she does. She has a point, but it’s not as clear as she thinks.

Before pitching into the interview, Manuela mentions that Gelb plays tennis at 60, despite having had three hip replacements.

Let’s assume the insurance paid for those operations. Every time he went under the knife, Gelb benefitted from past agreements that he signed freely and consesually. Next time he needs a new hip, it might not go so smoothly. The insurers may say ‘Hey, Mr Gelb, we see you’ve been hitting the tennis court pretty hard and wore out or new hips too soon. We want a new agreement at lower cost before we let you walk again.’

That’s not a million miles from what Gelb is saying at this moment to the musicians, choristers and backstage staff at the Met. You had an agreement, it costs too much, I want it cheaper next time.

The unions don’t like it – and Gelb doesn’t seem to understand why.

Read the interview with Manuela here.

 

GelbTV

Interesting piece by Iain Burnside on the poet and composer Ivor Gurney, who is supposed to have lost his sanity on the Somme. Apparently, his medical records show signs of insanity that predated the War. Read Iain here.

 

 

ivor gurney 2

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, the most successful Spanish conductor of the past century – perhaps of all time – died last night in Pamplona. He was 80 years old and had been suffering from cancer. Last week, he announced his retirement.

 

fruhbeck de burgos

 

 

Of Austro-German parentage, Frühbeeck was a favourite of General Franco’s (as was the present King) and was known early on as the Caudillo’s Maestro.  A law student, he learned to conduct military bands while serving in the Spanish Army.

He proved his worth as music director with such diverse orchestras as Berlin Radio, Montreal, Vienna Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon and, latterly, Danish National. He was a much esteemed guest conductor of many US and European orchestras. He made many recordings for various labels.

Discreet, well organised and unpolitical, he was never easy to pin down. ‘You have to be very careful, nice, inspiring, ‘ he told Hilary Hahn (below).

fruhbeck



The American Federation of Musicians, which is at war with some of its own composer members, has reached a new deal with Microsoft. Composers get paid $300 for three hour stints and own no further rights in their work for an extended period.

Doesn’t seem like much of a deal to us. Details here.

austin wintory

He was born 150 years ago today. This must be his most covered song.





 richard strauss elisabeth schumann

Richard Strauss, Elisabeth Schumann. photo: George Grantham Bain

 

Now try this at home:
Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen,
Und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde,
Wird uns, di Glücklichen, sie wieder einin
Inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde.

Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen,
Werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen.
Stumm warden wir uns in die Augen Schauen,
Und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes Schweigen.

And tomorrow the sun will shine again,
and on the path that I shall tread
it will again unite us in our happiness
in the midst of this sun-breathing earth.

And to the shore, broad and blue with waves,
we shall climb down, softly, slowly.
Silently we shall gaze into each other’s eyes,
and upon us will fall the wordless silence of happiness.

The St Martha church in the old town of Nuremberg where Meisteringer contests were held from 1620 to 1778 has been consumed again by fire.

It was previously bombed out in 1945 and then painstakingly reconstructed.

meistersinger church