The $22 million estate of Richard Adler, composer of The Pyjama Game and other Broadway hits, has become a battleground between the great man’s son and grandchildren and his ‘high-living’ fifth wife.

Counsel for the kids says the wife, Susan Ivory, 70, went on a spending spree in the years before Adler’s death in 2012, aged 90. Ms Ivory and her lawyers are saying nothing. The case is coming into court any day now.

More of the story: Spend it while you’re alive. Don’t leave it to the lawyers.

richard adler

The festival has already lost two sponsors this year and more are threatening to go when Alexander Pereira clears his director’s desk at the end of the month.

There was reassuring today, though, that the German car-makers Audi have signed on again for the next four years. That’s what they call Vorsprung.

 

salzburg audi.

press release:

Salzburg/Ingolstadt, August 1, 2014 – Audi today signed a new four-year agreement as main sponsor of the Salzburg Festival. The carmaker has been a partner to the festival since 1994. Both parties want to work even more closely together in future and intend to launch joint projects with an international reach. To mark the partnership’s 20th anniversary, Audi has funded a new wireless microphone system for the festival, allowing audiences at “Jedermann” to enjoy a listening experience without interference.

 

Shortly before today’s premiere of Richard Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier”, Rupert Stadler, CEO of AUDI AG, and Festival President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler announced that the collaboration will continue until 2018. “The Salzburg Festival and Audi are united by a partnership that dates back 20 years. As the brand with the credo ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’, we are absolutely committed to creativity, which allows us to excel time and again. We will continue to pursue our partnership in this spirit,” explains Rupert Stadler.

 

“Audi is an irreplaceable partner for us in many respects. As main sponsor, Audi allows us to present programs that we would be unable to finance from our normal budget. The festival’s guest appearance in Ingolstadt is one example of the close cooperation in the artistic domain and a glittering finale to the Audi Summer Concerts in the city. And the Audi Night in Salzburg exudes the glamor that even the founding fathers desired for the Salzburg Festival. We want to consolidate this fruitful cooperation by means of new projects,” reports Rabl-Stadler.

 

 

 

 

This is ABT’s Misty Copeland in her first network sportswear ad.

misty-copeland-1

The State Opera Museum, opened nine years ago on the Hanuschhof, has made a continuous loss. It was never much of a tourist attraction and of scant use to scholars, so few will mourn the culture minister’s decision to pull the plug.

Vienna has a thriving museum of music and a brilliant theatre museum. A third such place was unnecessary.

vienna opera museum

 

Heavy rains and occasional floods have prompted the town’s mayor to say he’s absolutely determined to put a lid on the opera. At least half of this summer’s performances so far have been called off. Wimbledon has rooofed itself successfully for the tennis.

But critics say a lid will kill the Arena’s charm and ruin the heritage site. Your thoughts, please? (Especially if you have sung there.)

 

arena-di-verona

 

kissin poster

 

A proof-reader’s nightmare.

(Genij, in Russian, is genius).

 

UPDATE: One of our sources in Munich suggests the typography is part of a war between rival agents:

The promoter Winderstein and his hopelessly old-fashioned agency decided it’s time to compete with his rival, Bell’Arte, run by Dr Schreyer, who has made a habit of putting up posters like

IVO
POG
ORE
LIĆ



So it’s actually a typographical riposte!

 

 

We’ve heard from Laia Martin, the young Spanish pianist who, for the past 11 years, has been pursued through the courts by a litigious neighbour who tried to have her jailed for noise pollution.

This week, the supreme court threw out the neighbour’s appeal against the Gerona court’s original verdict in favour of Laia. It seems likely that years of legal costs will be awarded against the prosecution.

Dear Norman (writes Laia), I want to share with you that I am happy because the appeal from accusation has been rejected by the Supreme Court! Thank you Norman! Best, Laia

She now hopes to travel to Baku, in Azerbaijan, where she will study for a doctorate with Oxana Yablonskaya.

laia martin1

The first German-language version of the Walt Disney musical will hit Vienna at the beginning of October. It’s a transfer of the Cameron Mackintosh 2004 London production, which has sold over 11 million tickets on tour. Annemieke von Damm stars in the Julie Andrews role.

We hope the text is better – a lot better – than the film dub below.
sandra piresannemieke von damm
photos (c) Rolf Bock 

We’re hearing that negotiators on both sides of the Metropolitan Opera dispute went to bed last night happy. A single source close to the Met management tells us ‘it’s a done deal’.

Peter Gelb himself described the 72-hour hiatus as a ‘one-time only extension’, designed to give Federal negotiator Allison Beck a chance to reach a deal. In fact, we’re told, the deal is done. The negotiator’s job is to save face for both sides.

The unions, meanwhile, are claiming a moral victory in averting the lockout that should have begun this morning.

‘Our goal was to avoid a lockout tonight, said (AGMA) singers union chief Alan Gordon. ‘We achieve(d) that goal.’

Tino Gagliardi, president of the Met Orchestra’ union, Local 802, AFM, said: ‘Peter Gelb announced that he will not declare a lockout tonight. That is a constructive move. We will return to the bargaining table tomorrow, and we are prepared to do so every day after tomorrow if the mediation effort is proceeding in good faith. Why then would Mr. Gelb once again threaten a lockout if negotiations are moving forward?’

metropolitan-opera exterior

Here’s a little sliver of life from the music biz:

Some time in 2010, I was contacted by a young artist who was frustrated at his agent’s inability to get him a date at the BBC Proms. He had a brilliant idea – to perform the Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord, never done before at the Proms – so I told him to get in touch with the Proms director Roger Wright, who knew his track record as a BBC Young Generation Artist.

Too shy himself to make the cold call, I emailed Roger and asked if he’d like to hear from the young man. He did, and the rest is on the record.

Months later, at the launch party for the 2011 Proms, I was chatting to a peer of the realm when an incandescent little man butted in and yelled into my face: ‘Norman, you have just ruined that young man’s career.’

‘Go away,’ I said.

‘Who was that?’ asked the noble Lord.

‘An agent,’ I replied.

‘Ah.’

Before the week was out, the apoplectic agent fired his young harpsichordist. Another agent stepped in without much delay. The young man has since gone from strength to strength, with recordings on the niche Hyperion label and many international engagements.

 

mahan esfahani nl

His name is Mahan Esfahani. This afternoon, I am thrilled to reveal, he is going to sign a record contract with Deutsche Grammophon, a summit moment in any artist’s career. Tonight, he will play Bach at the Bristol Proms with Avi Avital – an Iranian and an Israeli in blessed perfect harmony. ‘As a musician I like to think out of the box,’ says Mahan, ‘and here is a label with the same attitude.’

And the agent? …. He’s still an agent.

UPDATE:

mahan signing

Signing scene.