The international tenor Reinaldo Macias continues to take issue with certain French opera houses that aim to hire young talent on the cheap.

Reinaldo makes several powerful and irrefutable points in this short essay for Slipped Disc:

 

 

reinaldo macias

One of the comments on the FB page of “L’Opéra National de Bordeaux” alluded to a recital by a younger Jonas Kaufmann at that theater. Defending the policy of looking for young talent at cheap prices, the person goes on to say that the theater was deserted to the point that the administration had to urge everyone in the theater to sit at the lower lever in order to give the impression of an audience. The person continues to say that today the Bordeaux public would queue up all night in order to hear him sing, if only “au claire de la lune”.

 

jonas kaufmann young



If we assume the premise that the choice of young/cheap singers is a financial consideration, Bordeaux fails miserably to make its case with this example. A recital where the theater is deserted is not an artistic pursuit worth much in financial terms if the issue is saving money on singers’ fees. I cannot help but to think that the outcome could be far different if Bordeaux had the courage and vision to engage Jonas Kaufmann today. I can imagine the public lining up all night to hear him sing. That same public would be willing to pay higher ticket prices to hear him, they would fill the theater and if administration is judicious and disciplined enough, the theater might actually make a profit. With intelligent marketing they could even go further but let’s stop here.

Administrations have disseminated their gospel so well that even the public now believes that singer fees is the problem. What administrations fail to mention is that mismanagement, excessive executive pay, top heavy administrations, and overly expensive productions are the real culprits they don’t want you to focus on. Administrations are all too aware that singers are easy to pick on. Singers do not speak out because they are afraid of retaliation. However, most are saying privately exactly what few of us are saying publicly and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The financial and personal investment it takes to become an opera singer is not worth the return. Many singers realize this and the young will soon realize the same. It is outrageous to see singers in the 21st century spend six to eight weeks doing a production only to return home with a deficit or a minuscule profit. Most will never see a return on their investment. If the situation continues we will deplete our conservatories and universities of viable talent to ensure the future of opera in its birth continent. We are already making opera singers a foreign import commodity. What respectable young person living in the West would deliberately chose a life of artistic poverty? Is it just to ask such a sacrifice of that young artist when opera directors are earning ever-increasing pay?

The problem in opera is not with singers’ pay. Most of what ails opera can be traced back to those at the top of the administrative food chain! Opera is about great singers and great singing first and foremost. All other experiments and efforts quickly begin to resemble “the emperor’s new clothes”. The more administrations continue to replace great singing with something else, the more audiences will continue to shrink. Masking failed concepts with marketing armies doesn’t seem to be doing the trick either. We need to invest in great singing rather than divest from it.

 

 

Domenico Lombardo, 47, is in a critical condition after being shot seven times in the head, neck, chest and abdomen. The suspect is the mother, aged 50, of a student, 26, with whom Lombardo was allegedly having a relationship.

A morbid variation on an operatic theme.

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The last few minutes of an extraordinary organ recital given last March by Charlemagne Palestine at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights. Watch a hypnotic eyeful, catch an earful of this.

CharlemagnePalestine (1)

h/t: Allan Evans

 

This 1806 Broadwood piano in apparently good condition has been gutted of its music and turned into a writing desk.

The owner (perhaps the converter) wants $1,500 for it on ebay.

There must be a name for the ‘craftsman’ who lovingly did this.

 

broadwood 1806 broadwood piano desk

Mexican police have claimed a breakthrough in the murder of Luis Fernando Luna Guarneros, who was found strangled to death in Yucatan, last week.

A music teacher from Merida, a man aged 30, has been arrested as the main suspect. He has been identified by his initials ‘as Rafael MCP’.

Three accomplices are being questioned on suspicion of helping him attempt to dispose of the body. The motive appears to be money. The victim was made to give up his bank cards and pressured to disclose his pin numbers. Local report here.

Luis-Luna-Guarneros9

Richard D Syracuse, emeritus professor of music and artist in residence at Ohio University, was killed on Friday night by a Dodge Grand Caravan as he returned home from performing at Ohio University Inn. He taught at the college for 46 years and, after retirement, he entertained diners at the piano several nights a week.

richard syracuse

We’ve been informed of the death in Manchester of Christopher Yates, aged 76.

Chris was for many years Vice Principal of Royal Northern College of Music. He was also chair of the Musicians Benevolent Fund and Live Music Now.

LMN has tweeted: ‘His impact on our organisation was enormous, and he will be greatly missed.’

Our sympathies to his family and wide circle of friends.

young musicians rncm

The names of next summer’s judges have been released to Russian media (but not posted on the competition’s website).

The competition’s chairman is Valery Gergiev, its artistic director Peter Grote.

The judges include:

Piano: Denis Matsuev (Gergiev and Putin pal), Vladimir Ashkenazy, Michel Beroff, Verbier director, Martin Engstroem, Peter Donohoe.

Violin: Yuri Bashmet (Gergiev and Putin pal), Maxim Vengerov, Salvatore Accardo, Victor Tretyakov, Ilya Kaler, Maxim Fedotov, Liana Isakadze.

Cello: Antonio Menezes, Lynn Harrell, Alexander Knyazev, Michael May, David Geringas, Sergei Roldugin.

Voice: Thomas Quasthoff, Geneva opera director Tobias Richter, Scottish conductor John Fisher, Elena Obraztsova and, wait for it, Gergiev’s sister, the pianist and opera coach Larisa Gergieva.

larisa gergieva

The organising committee is chaired by a deputy prime minister, Olga Golodets. The Putin regime’s footprints are all over this show.

 

They’re getting married in St Petersburg, she told Russian television.

Her intended, Yusif Eyvazov added quickly ‘not in winter’.

Next summer, he said, probably August.

Slipped Disc is offering to attend as a neutral observer.

eyvazov netrebko2