Speight Jenkins, General Director of the Seattle Opera since 1983, is stepping down this weekend. But not before he sent the following handwritten note to his stage crews:

seattle opera letter

Research summary:

Do you thrive on adrenaline – or crumple?

Why do some performers thrive on adrenaline whilst others crumple? New research suggests that it’s to do with the performer’s behaviour: increased adrenaline sees the thrivers open their arms ready for action, while the crumplers close them up in fear.

Scientists from the University of Birmingham dotted the left arms of performing cellists with tiny reflective discs, so that motion-capture cameras could monitor the angles of their left elbows as they played. Special ear-clips simultaneously measured their heart rate, so indicating their adrenaline level.

The data showed that all 24 cellists had much higher heart rates when performing in public compared with when performing alone. But different players displayed different behaviour during this adrenaline rush, according to how anxious they felt.

The faster the non-anxious players’ hearts beat the more open were their elbows. They were adrenaline thrivers, and the more open elbows better enabled them to reach high notes in the music they were playing. In contrast, the faster the anxious players’ hearts were beating the more closed their elbows became – they crumpled under adrenaline.

These findings back up the idea that an adrenaline-charged performer is not necessarily experiencing stage fright – for those who thrive on adrenaline it’s quite the opposite.

Writing in Frontiers Psychology the researchers suggest that stage-induced adrenaline symptoms like racing heart and sweaty palms should be termed ‘performance arousal’, arousal which in some is associated with the performance taking flight. It is only when performance arousal is accompanied by elements of frightened behaviour, such as closing up elbows in arm withdrawal, and the experience of dread that high adrenaline levels are a symptom of stage fright, they claim.

Co-author Alan Wing says: “This study is important in exploring the nature of performance anxiety using advanced analysis techniques in a realistic musical context. Future research should seek to generalize the findings, for example, to other instruments.”

Co-author Adrian Bradbury adds: “We would also be interested to see if these behavioural findings are replicated in other disciplines, for example sport. And it would be fascinating to judge performance anxiety therapies by testing their success rates using this motion-capture technology.”

 

 

adrenaline

 

 

“This excerpt (without sound) is a representation of data collected during the performance of one of the participants.  The ball top left represents sweat levels (galvanic skin response) – the redder the ball the more sweat on the fingers of the cellist.  The red box top right represents the participant’s Heart Rate.  The skeleton is a reconstruction of the cellist’s movements as detected by the motion capture technology.  The music the participant was playing is shown bottom right.”

Jan Nuchelmans, 64, co-founder and director of the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht from 1982 to 1999, has been sacked as artistic director of the Dordrecht Bach Festival, according to a report in NRC Handelsblad. A rough translation follows.

 

jan nuchelmans

 

 

This is very hard – I am totally baffled ‘

The artistic director of the Bach Festival Dordrecht is fired. The Board finds that he no longer functions properly after a stroke in 2012.

The reason for his resignation has not yet got through to the man who was co-founder of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. He worked for the biennialfestival Dordrecht since the first edition in 2010 Nuchelmans think it is looking for a different profile. But the festival itself mentions another reason. “It is not appropriate to burden the efforts associated with a festival to him,” says CEO Jannie van der Loos. “He can not do it anymore.”

In November 2012 Nuchelmans suffered a brain hemorrhage. His left arm is paralyzed, as his left leg. He can only walk short distances. Mental arithmetic became difficult.

“They think I can not handle great emotions,” he says at home in Utrecht. He points to his head. “I have a mobility limitation, yes, but that does not mean it does not work here. I am totally baffled. ”

Do you understand why you were fired?

“No.. They are too vague. They say they want me to stay involved as a consultant. I recently sent a proposal for the new artistic profile, they didn’t talk about ir. That could mean that they do not coincide with mine. In the previous edition, the number of visitors fell against. But that’s not something you now can change. “…

Van der Loos said in response to have “deep respect” for Nuchelmans“We have two years taken the time to look at how its healing process would go,” she says. He would not give examples of dysfunction“It just did not work anymore. This is for all dramatic. “

 

 

The US whistleblower, granted an extra year’s asylum in Moscow, celebrated with a visit to the opera – The Tsar’s Bride, at the Bolshoi.

He passed mostly unnoticed, having shed his spectacles and worn a dark jacket.

 

edward snowden bolshoi

Snowden betrayed classified US information in protest at US surveillance of citizens. In Russia, everyone knows, there is no such surveillance.

Susan Bender, who has worked with Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, Yuri Temirkanov, Simon Rattle. Phillippe Entremont and others, wrote a letter to the New York Times about the injustice that is being done to the Met’s musicians. She makes some valid points, not raised elsewhere. The Times wouldn’t publish the letter. So we will.

 

It’s not the fault of the unions

As we approach the deadline between the Met and their unions it is time for concerned opera lovers to weigh in on some of the issues that are currently haunting negotiations.

Grand Opera, as enjoyed by opera lovers at the Met, is the result of a collaboration of artistic entities that strive to do their collective best to present live performances of the highest caliber.

Some years ago, when Peter Gelb, the General Manager of the Met, arrived at the opera company, he wanted to use HD Performances to provide subsidiary income which was meant to, supposedly, increase the public appreciation of the art form.  Yet, HD performances, while
convenient, do not present the art form at its best.

Any opera lover can tell you – Opera is meant to be seen on a stage and heard live! It is to be experienced with the best singers in their respective roles and to be accompanied by the best orchestra to convey the musical intentions of the composer.

In some cases, composers were also involved in stagings and direction of productions.  No great composer like Mozart, Verdi, Wagner or
Puccini ever intended for opera to be seen on a screen with vocal and orchestral scores limited to the speaker capability of a movie theater.  Nor did they think that the director of the drama  or a set designer should take precedence over the music.  Yet, this is what has happened over the past years to the fabulous Metropolitan Opera in New York.

I assert that these new productions were planned with the intention of increasing the income stream through the HD productions. Hopefully, a subsidiary aim was the thought that new productions will attract ticket buyers in the house. BUT to achieve these HD presentations action needs to be centralized and thus the action on the largest stage in the world has been contracted. To continue the income stream are we bound to a constant flow of new productions to provide it?  Are any past HD productions going to be viewed again?  Is there any income from that?

I wish that HD were as great a force for the current viewer.  Instead, the viewer probably thinks that what he got for the price of a movie ticket is what they would get from a live performance.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The sound quality cannot be imagined unless you have been in the opera house.  Why else would performing arts institutions worldwide be so focused on acoustics.

So, I now ask, why is the Met spending all this money on new productions instead of directing it to the music making? The Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera is one of the finest in the world.  One  should recognize that musicians are able to move on – in other words, get a job elsewhere. Singers enjoy singing with the Met Orchestra and Maestri enjoy conducting it.  Likewise, the wonderful chorus and stagehands who can handle anything!!

 

zeffirelli tosca



What was wrong with the fabulous collection of Zeffirelli productions?  The Tosca of today is a paltry substitute for the former production. Likewise La Traviata.  We now have matching upholstery and costumes, surely not the atmosphere Verdi intended.  I am frightened to think what the new Der Rosenkavalier will look like.

Really, the people in charge of what is going on at the Met need to get their heads on straight.  It’s simple math. If they have overspent on HD then try cutting the number of new productions.  If the contractual obligations prevent that right now, then set a time limit and cut new productions after that.  Perhaps, the Met could allow those of us who attend the Opera a chance to choose which productions we would like to see.  So, you could have a series of old productions and a couple of the new productions.  If the previous union obligations need to be changed then that is a separate negotiation. It is not the unions of the orchestra, chorus, and stage hands etc that spent the money on new productions.  It was the management that made those decisions.  How many more new productions are we going to see?  Are the current HD productions able to provide income stream or, are we only going to continue repeating the formula of new productions each season?

Unfortunately, ego is winning the battle at the Met right now and it’s time for Peter Gelb and the board to choose – what is our Met going to be in the next 10 years. A Hollywood studio or the home of the greatest opera company in the world?  It’s time to pay the artists and the production team what they deserve and keep putting on great opera.


susan bender
Susan Bender

Former VP External Affairs, Manhattan School of Music

The Met has reached agreement with the 32BJ SEIU union representing security guards, office staff and other auxiliaries.

The Met had sought a five-year wage freeze, with reduced pensions and health plans. The new deal increases wages by 5.5 percent over five years.

A Met spokesman said it would save the company 3 percent, or $1m, over its previous deal.

This is still small beer. The deals to watch are the musicians, the chorus and the stagehands.

 

metropolitan-opera exterior

Adrian Brendel, Alfred’s son, has been appointed cellist of the long-running Nash Ensemble.

Congrats both sides.

adrian brendel

press release:

CELLIST ADRIAN BRENDEL APPOINTED MEMBER OF NASH ENSEMBLE

NASH CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON AT WIGMORE HALL FROM 18 OCTOBER

The Nash Ensemble is happy to announce the appointment of Adrian Brendel as its cellist. His first performance with the Ensemble in this capacity is at the Nash Ensemble’s 50th Anniversary Concert at Wigmore Hall on 18 October.

Adrian Brendel said: “I am delighted to be joining the Nash Ensemble, whose reputation as the UK’s leading chamber music collective has been so admirably developed during its first 50 years. The musicians are of the highest calibre, and Amelia Freedman’s inspiring direction and programming – including her incredible commitment to a wide range of contemporary music – make this a wonderful project to be a part of.”

Amelia Freedman, Founder and Artistic Director of the Nash Ensemble said: “I am truly delighted that Adrian Brendel has agreed to become a member of the Nash Ensemble. Adrian is a fine cellist and has a wide ranging interest in a diversity of repertoire, including embracing with enthusiasm, the Nash’s commitment to new music. This appointment augers well for the future of the Ensemble and for the wonderful players Adrian will be joining. I look forward to working with him on many happy and fruitful musical collaborations”

The concert on 18 October at 7.30pm features music by Debussy, Fauré, Ravel and Berlioz. It is preceded at 6pm by a free concert featuring works by David Matthews, Gordon Crosse and Mark-Anthony Turnage, all commissioned by the Nash Ensemble during its 50 year history and introduced by the composers.

Born in London in 1976, Adrian Brendel studied at Winchester College, Cambridge University and with Frans Helmerson at the Cologne music conservatoire. His other important teachers have included Alexander Baillie, Miklos Perenyi and William Pleeth, with whom he developed a strong attachment to the chamber music repertoire from a young age. He attended masterclasses with members of the Alban Berg quartet and Gyorgy Kurtag and was also a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious CMS2 scheme for two years from October 2002.

The Nash Ensemble, Resident Chamber Ensemble at Wigmore Hall since 2010, is acclaimed for its adventurous programming and virtuoso performances, presents works from Haydn to the avant-garde, and is a major contributor towards the recognition and promotion of contemporary composers: by the end of the 2014/15 season the group will have premiered over 300 new works, of which 193 have been specially commissioned.

The Residentie orchestra of The Hague has been cleaned out of 75,000 Euros.

The theft came to light during the annual accounting procedure.

Curiously, it was almost the same amount as the concurrent payoff to the last chief executive. The police are looking into it.

Story here (in Dutch).

 

logo_residentieorkest

I went last night to see my first Norma for 20 years and found myself wondering all over again why Bellini had put his best aria just 20 minutes into the piece, leaving the rest of the first act hanging in limbo.

During which time I tried to think of a more persistent earworm than Cast Diva, and couldn’t.

Can you?

CallasNormaSP069



Greatest of all?

joan sutherland norma

 

 

We regret to report the death of Frank Shipway, a British conductor of vast experience. Frank, who was 79, was killed after a to-vehicle crash on the A342 at Wedhampton, in Wiltshire.

He was driving  a Jaguar XJ8 that collided with a Vauxhall Astravan travelling in the opposite direction on Tuesday, around 5pm. He died of his injuries yesterday at Southampton General Hospital. The driver of the van was discharged from hospital on Monday night.

frank shipway1

 

Assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1973, Frank Shipway formed the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Italy in 1993 and was its chief conductor for four years. Between 1996 and 1999 he was chief conductor and artistic director of BRT Philharmonic Orchestra in Brussels, then on the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. He guest conducted with the Cleveland Orchestra, Teatro alla Scala Orchestra, and the Moscow, Helsinki and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestras.

A recording of Mahler’s fifth symphony that he made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1990s is highly prized among Mahlerians.

 

In an otherwise thoughtful piece on the new-production aspect of the Metropolitan Opera dispute, chief music critic Anthony Tommasini has a typically wimpish conclusion: On the whole, one hopes that the unions will tone down the rhetoric. In his public statements, Mr. Gelb has consistently praised the artists and technicians at the Met, whereas many company members have denigrated their boss as overbearing and clueless. How can these put-downs not engender serious doubts about the Met among the very public the company needs to court right now? Never mind that the Times is, as usual, way behind the Times. There has not been a peep from the unions, or any of their outspoken members, since the federal mediators stepped in at the weekend. A nervous peace prevails. Wagners Das Rheingold Metropolitan Opera 2010 The false note here is Tommasini’s blind eye. Here’s what he failed to point out: – Peter Gelb has spent way over his budget. – He admits that box-office and donations have fallen way below target. – But Gelb blames high wages for the deficit and demands that the people who make the music take a 17 percent cut. Are they supposed to remain silent while Gelb threatens them with a lockout, loss of health cover for their sick children and a period of existential difficulty? What Tomassini ignores is that the Met dispute has become, in part, a discussion of Peter Gelb’s competence to run a major opera house. The unions – the musicians, especially – have raised serious factual doubts on that score. They were also right to question Gelb’s handling of human relations, never his strongest point. When the dispute is over, Gelb will be on probation to see whether he can restore financial stability. The musicians will play on.

The press service of the Central Military District in Astrakhan has announced that military psychologists have prescribed a programme of classical music for pilots as obligatory stress relief after combat sorties.

The music therapy takes place in specially equipped tents right at the Armavir air base, where pilots take off in Su-24M bombers and MiG-31 interceptors. The music is administered while the flight crew are sitting in charirs filled with polystyrene beads and designed to take the shape of each individual body for ultimate muscle relaxation. Tchaikovsky tops the list of prescribed classics, followed  by Mozart.

russian pilots

Do other air forces have a similar programme?