David Weiss, principal oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, collapsed and died last month while surfing off the Pacific Palisades. Today, colleagues and friends remembered David on his favourite beach.
Photos by Anahid Papakhian @ Music Academy of the West
Latest campaign poster from the opera musicians.
We have received confirmation from the intendant of la Monnaie that the company will not employ the Georgian soprano who is accused of uttering homophobic insults.
Dear Mr Lebrecht, I can confirm that la Monnaie will not be welcoming Mrs Iveri for the performances of ballo in maschera for which she had been planned in may 2015. I wish to stay loyal to my very intimate conviction that we cannot tolerate intolerance, of whatever kind. I feel this is a very honest reaction to a quite alarming kind of positioning which cannot be allowed in our theaters where harmony and striving for a true community experience remain our main mission. best wishes Peter de Caluwe
Our social secretary has just received this message from the Berlin Phil:
We congratulate Magdalena Kožena and Simon Rattle on the birth of Anežka, their first daughter, born in Berlin at 4.50 this morning, 21 June. The whole family is already at home meeting Anežka’s brothers, Jonas and Milos.
Wir gratulieren Magdalena Kožena und Simon Rattle zur Geburt ihrer ersten Tochter Anežka. Anežka wurde am 21. Juni 2014 um 4.50 Uhr morgens in Berlin geboren. Die gesamte Familie ist wohlauf und bereits zuhause, wo Anežka nun ihre beiden großen Brüder Jonas und Milos kennenlernt. (Photo: Sheila Rock)
The Guardian published a thoughtful, slightly counter-intuitive op-ed yesterday by the English economist and intellectual, Noreena Hertz.
Noreena supports Met Opera chief Peter Gelb’s cancellation of The Death of Klinghoffer relay ‘at this time of rising antisemitism, particularly in Europe’ and furnishes it with credible statistics. She quotes an ADL survey: ‘ 24% of people in western Europe (37% in France, 29% in Spain, 27% in Germany, 69% in Greece) and 34% in eastern Europe (41% in Hungary, 45% in Poland, 38% in Ukraine) harboured antisemitic views.’
However, in justifying the Met’s cancellation, Noreena Hertz promotes an artistic taboo that, in our view, cannot be helpful either for intellectual clarity or for the fight against racism. Here’s here conclusion:
The Death of Klinghoffer neither condemns nor condones the execution of the American Jew Leon Klinghoffer by Palestinian terrorists. In the world of opera this may be acceptable. This may be the prerogative of art. In the real world not taking a stand against antisemitism is categorically not an option.
Would that mean a ban on Merchant of Venice, Oliver Twist, Richard Wagner, T. S. Eliot and certain works of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie?
Isn’t it better to name the beast than to push it under the bed? Few stage works express Arab anti-semitism more directly than Klinghoffer. Gelb’s ban suppresses that recognition.
Nothing is gained by censorship except the closing of minds. Evil exists in this world and art must seek to confront it.
Anti-semitism is a resurgent evil. Let’s name it, shame it and keep it under discussion.
He’s singing Tevye at Grange Park Opera next summer. Believe that?
Tevye.
Terfel.
Believe in the resurrection.
San Diego Opera, recently pronounced dead by its board, is soaring out of the morgue with a world premiere share.
Jake Heggie’s new opera Great Scott, which Joyce DiDonato will open at Dallas in October 2015, and will be shared by San Diego the following season. No confirmation that Joyce will sing in SD, but the co-production is a mark of the ambition of the reborn ensemble.
The soprano has been associated with the composer all the way back to his first opera, Dead Man Walking.
This time round, the subject matter could not be more apt: Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie have set GREAT SCOTT in “an important American city” that boasts a respected but struggling opera company and a thriving football team. Arden Scott, the hometown girl who has become an international opera star, has returned to her roots to help save the company. San Diego, anyone?
Press release follows.
SAN FRANCISCO, JUNE 20, 2014 – The Dallas Opera proudly welcomes a co-producer, San Diego Opera, to the first major project in fourteen years by critically acclaimed American composer Jake Heggie (Moby-Dick) and Tony Award-winning playwright and librettist Terrence McNally (Master Class).
GREAT SCOTT will star world-renowned mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato in her eagerly anticipated Dallas Opera debut. The world premiere performances in Dallas, with support from The Eugene McDermott Foundation, The Hoblitzelle Foundation and The Carol Franc Buck Foundation, will be staged by Broadway legend Jack O’Brien (former Artistic Director of San Diego’s Old Globe Theater) and conducted by one of the fastest-rising young artists at the podium today:Maestro Evan Rogister.
GREAT SCOTT opens the Dallas Opera’s 2015-2016 Season with five performances scheduled from October 30, 2015 through November 15, 2015 in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Additional performances in San Diego will follow in the 2016-17 Season.
Composer Jake Heggie shared the big news today in San Francisco at the Opening Session of OPERA America’s Opera Conference 2014.
“I’m very honored and touched,” said Mr. Heggie, “to be a part of this magical, remarkable occasion.” Word of SDO’s commitment to the piece was followed by the first public performance of an aria from GREAT SCOTT by acclaimed American lyric soprano Heidi Stober, a principal artist at Deutsche Oper Berlin and a sought-after guest artist in opera houses around the world.
Previous co-commissions and co-productions by the two companies include the tremendously successful adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, brought to the opera stage in 2010 by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer and seen in Canada, San Francisco, Australia and, most recently, in Washington, D.C.; as well as an earlier world premiere production ofThérèse Raquin by composer Tobias Picker and Mr. Scheer.
“For months now, the San Diego Opera saga has been the most closely watched story in the western opera world,” saysDallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny. “It is incredibly gratifying to be able to welcome the company as a partner in this exhilarating project. SDO’s involvement sends a powerful message to our industry—and the message is this: San Diego Opera is here to stay and planning for an exciting future!
“We have tremendous confidence in the leadership exhibited by Carol Lazier and the San Diego Opera Board, as well as William Mason, SDO’s new artistic advisor, and we are certain that San Diego Opera will play a vital and productive role in bringing Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s original concept to life for the enjoyment of audiences everywhere.”
“Jake Heggie is no stranger to San Diego Opera,” shares San Diego Opera Board President Carol Lazier. “After his wildly successful Moby-Dick in 2012, when we heard that Jake was working on a new opera we knew we had to be part of it. At its heart, Great Scott asks ‘What is worth fighting for?’ a question that resonates with us here in the San Diego community.
“This opera also gives us the opportunity to work again with The Dallas Opera, who have been champions for our continued survival since day one, offering advice and logistical support during these transitional times. They are a great partner to work with, having been co-producers on Moby-Dick, co-commissioners on Thérèse Raquin, and partners on productions ofMadama Butterfly and Aida over the years. Our participation in Great Scott is a show of support for Jake and The Dallas Opera, a commitment to the future of great American opera, and a statement to let the world know that San Diego Opera is still here and we are not going anywhere.”
“It is extremely gratifying to learn about this co-production of Jake and Terrence’s next opera,” wrote Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO of OPERA America. “The collaboration of these artists promises to add another important work to the American opera repertoire. It is equally exciting that The Dallas Opera and San Diego Opera will work together as co-producers of the piece, demonstrating that bold artistic plans that include new American operas can and should be part of a an opera company’s strategy for long-term success.”
“What a triumph on every level,” said Jake Heggie. “I couldn’t be more grateful to all parties involved.”
“At the heart of GREAT SCOTT are big questions about artistic and personal sacrifice, picking our battles and the kind of cultural legacy we want to leave for the future, as well as our personal responsibility in that legacy. How appropriate that the Dallas Opera and San Diego Opera—two companies that have recently triumphed over adversity—have now become two of the standard bearers in this challenging dialogue! Loyal audiences, staffs and highly motivated leadership are embracing artistic collaborations to keep these companies vital—eyes on the horizon—as they construct a future based on fresh ideas, new works and different perspectives.”
Joanna Wallfisch, our surprise guest last weekend, is back at even greater heights. How does she do that?
We have received a reasoned, sensitive and gently moving post from a British-Israeli opera singer, criticising the Met’s cancellation of the global simulcast of John Adams’ opera, The Death of Klinghoffer.
Darren Abrahams writes:
In my opinion the controversy about this piece shows exactly why it should be performed and broadcast. It forces debate, brings out buried feelings and makes us examine ourselves as individuals, as artists, as members of the human family. I myself have an intimate history with Death of Klinghoffer. I am a British born Jewish man, with an Israeli mother, a Grandfather who escaped the Holocaust and Grandmother whose family fled Yemen…
Read the full post here.
La Monnaie Opera in Brussels has cancelled next seasons contract with Tamar Iveri, a Georgian soprano who is accused of making extreme homophobic comments on her Facebook page. She was to have sung there in Ballo in Maschera. Monnaie intendant Peter Caluwé notified a Dutch website that he dropped her and confirmed the sacking to slippedisc.com.
Opera Australia, where Ms Iveri is due to sing Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello in two weeks time, is resisting social pressure to replace her, saying she has apologised for remarks published in her name.
It issued a statement saying: ‘Opera Australia has become aware in the past 24 hours, of the media and social media coverage of comments reported to have been made by soprano Tamar Iveri … Tamar Iveri has sought to clarify her views on this important issue, and has issued an apology and explanation on her own Facebook page … Rehearsals and performances at Opera Australia are continuing as planned.’
Ms Iveri has sought to dissociate herself from the published remakrs, saying they were issued by her husband without her knowledge.
Here’s what she writes on her Fb page:
I am shocked and saddened by the reports in the internet and in the Australian media calling me a homophobic.
For my entire career I have been working with gay people and some of them are very dear friends. All of them can confirm that I never lost a word that might associate me with homophobic ideas. I respect every single human being and I am against all kind of descrimination and violence.
Please let me explain what lead to the recent articles that you might have read:
On the 17th of May 2013 a gay parade was supposed to pass directly in the yard of an Orthodox Church in Tiflis. At the same place and for the same date a commemoration for Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan had been announced. For that reason and because Georgia is a country where 90% of the population are deeply religious, conservative Orthodox Christians I wanted to express my sincere doubts that a parade made sense under these circumstances, in the yard of an Orthodox church. I was worried that this would provoke people and lead to violence. Unfortunately this is what happened then.
Besides myself my husband was using my Facebook account at that time and he is a very religious man with a tough attitude towards gay people. He copied my text, changed it considerably and posted it under my name. You might imagine that I was not happy with that at all and I immediately deleted it when I saw the text about half an hour later. This text does not express my own opinion. I’m afraid it was too late and the text was already spreading in the internet.
I explained the situation and officially apologized to the LGBT community in Georgia a year ago and they accepted my apology.
I would also like to point out that it was not Paris Opera that cancelled my recital on the 1st of June 2013 as stated in some of the articles, but that I had to cancel it due to a indisposition.
Furthermore I never wrote an official letter to the Georgian president on this matter, it was a Facebook post that was copied and used for the article a year ago.
Best regards,
Tamar Iveri
