Manuela Hoelterhoff has a revealing interview with Sheila Nadler, who played Mrs Klinghoffer in the first production of John Adams’s broadcast-banned opera. Read what she says here.
‘ I don’t think I ever told you this, but I met … the real Mrs. Klinghoffer, on Amsterdam Avenue before I sang in the opera….’
The silly season is clicking in.
By way of ‘experiment’, Eivind Gullberg Jensen wore a video camera wound his neck while conducting the Hague’s Residentie orchestra in a concert of Nielsen, Respighi, Debussy, Dukas and Canteloube.
Not sure what scientific knowledge was obtained through the fish-eye lens. Not sure many orchs would agree to it.
The shot that shocked the world on June 28 1914 will be remembered by European leaders in a ‘ symbolic concert performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO)‘ and broadcast via Eurovision.
Official jargon:
The concert conducted by Franz Welser-Möst will feature music by composers from Austria, Germany and France: Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Alban Berg, Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel and Josef Strauss.
“We have created a musical programme with strong connections to the historical events of 1914–1918, to invite the audience remember this era-defining conflict,” said Clemens Hellsberg, President of the VPO.
We’ve received two reports that a well-known newspaper critic was seen asleep in the Grange Park production of La Traviata. We won’t name him, or link to his review, but the well-fed man must have been having sweet dreams because his review referred to Claire Rutter’s Violetta with a demeaning and altogether inappropriate porn-industry term.
That, in our view, was more objectionable than a little snooze.
photo: Robert Workman/GP
An inflammatory speech by Uthman Bader, a justifier of honour killings and other outrages, has been dropped from a ‘Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House.’
Bader tweeted: ‘Hysteria wins out. Opera house cancels my session at #FODI. Welcome to the free world, where freedom of expression is a cherished value.’
Festival co-curator Simon Longstaff tweeted: ‘Have not the ‘Islamophobes’ already won the day when a person dare not speak on controversial matters because he is Muslim?’
Merkur has a lovely piece this morning about Joseph Ilg, 65, who is coming up for his 1,000th performance at the Vienna State Opera. All seen from the third row of the standing places. ‘Here stand I,’ he says, quoting Martin Luther.
Joseph has clocked up another 1,000 operas at Munich and elsewhere.
Where does he find the time?
‘I don’t watch TV.’
Read here (auf Deutsch). A truly dedicated follower of opera.
The president of the federal republic, Joachim Gauck, has announced himself as patron of a scheme that will stream Dvorak’s New World Symphony into classrooms across the country on September 19.
Schools will be sent teaching materials well in advance with a view to involving children of all ages in the preparation and interpretation of a musical masterwork. The initiative comes from the main TV channel, ARD, and the NDR orchestra, conductor Thomas Hengelbrock.
Statement from the president’s office: ‘Dem Bundespräsidenten ist die musikalische Bildung als Teil der kulturellen Bildung von Kindern und Jugendlichen sehr wichtig. Aus diesem Grund begrüßt er Projekte, deren Ziel es ist, jedem Kind – gleich welcher sozialen oder ethnischen Herkunft – den Zugang zur Welt der Musik zu ermöglichen. (The President thinks it’s very important for music to be part of the cultural education of children and adolescents. He welcomes projects that will give every child – regardless of social or ethnic origin – access to the world of music.’
Why can’t more countries be a bit like Germany? And more broadcasters like ARD?
Just in. No resemblance to any living characters, &c.:
Wednesday 25 June
GREAT BRITAIN, a new play by Richard Bean, directed by Nicholas Hytner, opens at the Lyttelton Theatre on Monday 30 June, playing until23 August
Tickets on sale now
GREAT BRITAIN, a new play by Richard Bean, directed by Nicholas Hytner, will open at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre on Monday 30 June (which will also be its press night).
Richard Bean’s fast and furious new play is an anarchic satire about the press, the police and the political establishment. Billie Piper plays Paige Britain, ambitious young news editor of The Free Press, a tabloid newspaper locked in a never-ending battle for more readers.
Tickets for the first two weeks of performances (until 12 July) go on sale this morning, with the rest of the run (14 July – 23 August) on public sale from 26 June.
The full cast is: Sarah Annis, Ross Boatman, Robert Calvert, Oliver Chris, William Chubb, Dermot Crowley, Jo Dockery, Robert Glenister, Ian Hallard, James Harkness, Scott Karim, Barbara Kirby, Nicholas Lumley, Maggie McCarthy, Iain Mitchell, Miles Mitchell, Aaron Neil, Billie Piper, Nick Sampson, Kellie Shirley, Kiruna Stamell, Harriet Thorpe, Rupert Vansittart, Joseph Wilkins and Andrew Woodall.
Two days of frantic phone-arounds have resulted in a promising, if untested, Desdemona at Opera Australia.
Having dropped Tamar Iveri over homophobic sentiments posted on her facebook page, the company is calling in Lianna Haroutounian, an Armenian who made her Covent Garden debit last year as a last-minute sub as Elisabeth in Don Carlos.
She’s good.
Message from the maestro:
51 years ago today !
My first Don Jose in Tel Aviv.
¡ Hoy, hace 51 años !
Mi primer Don Jose en Tel Aviv.
