The resignation has been announced of Henriette Götz, brought in last April from Belgium to stabilise the faltering finances of English National Opera. Internal sources speak of a complete breakdown in her relations with her boss, John Berry, the artistic director who hired her. Last week, the chairman Martyn Rose quit, privately blaming Berry for the company’s difficulties.
A statement from ENO said: ‘Henriette Götz has informed the board of ENO that she has decided to step down from her post as Executive Director.’
She will be replaced as a interim measure by the former Glyndebourne chief Anthony Whitworth-Jones.
Henriette Götz has informed the board of ENO that she has decided to step down from her post as Executive Director and will be leaving the company on the 28 February 2015.
Speaking on behalf of the board, Dr Harry Brünjes commented: “The Board and Henriette’s colleagues are grateful to her for the hard work that she has shown in her time with the company. She has a great deal of passion and commitment and much to offer to the Opera world.”
Henriette Götz and English National Opera have agreed that they shall not be making any further comment in respect of this matter.
Anthony Whitworth-Jones, currently a non-executive trustee of ENO, will become Acting Director of the company while the board carries out a search for a new full time director.
Commenting on the appointment of Mr Whitworth-Jones, Dr Brünjes said: “We are very fortunate to have Anthony step in to help lead the company. His excellent reputation and experience having led the teams at Glyndebourne, Garsington and Dallas opera companies is well known and we welcome this opportunity to have him work with John Berry and the rest of the ENO team.”
Yisrael Yinon, who died mid-concert in Switzerland last night, was a leading researcher into composers who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust. He was the first to record the symphonic works of Viktor Ullmann. He went on to rediscover Hans Krasa, Pavel Haas and Erwin Schulhoff, performing some of their works for Decca’s Entartete Musik series.
I was present at his recording of the most important of these retrievals, an opera by Haas called The Charlatan, restaged in Prague in 1991 and filled with a totally unexpected lightness. Yinon addressed this music with a sense of holy mission. He was not deflected from his purpose or, at times, the easiest of colleagues. But the resultant record speaks for itself.
His death, at 59, is a terrible tragedy, the loss of a decent man and an excellent musician.
Born in Israel, he studied with Mendi Rodan and Noam Sheriff before basing his career in Germany.
We are devastated to report the death of Israel Yinon, the Israeli-born conductor, while conducting a concert in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Yinon, 59, collapsed last night while conducting Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony with a Swiss youth orchestra.
He fell headlong to the ground, amid cries from musicians and audience. His partner, Amari Barash, who was playing oboe in the orchestra, rushed forward and talked to him while medics fought to save his life. ‘We had a brief conversation and he continued to maintain eye contact with me as medical personnel attempted to rescue him,’ writes Amari to Slipped Disc. Tragically, Israel died where he fell.
At the Iolanta Curtain Call tonight a protester with a poster of Putin with a Hitler moustache and other photos I couldn’t make out walked to center stage and held the poster up for the audience and then turned to show it to the cast, who seemed surprisingly unfazed.
He appeared to walk in from stage right but I think he climbed onstage from the side of the pit. He was soundly booed. And security was VERY tight getting backstage after Bluebeard’s Castle. Two NYPD stood at either side of the interior stagedoor. Many were turned away.
Outside, about 25-30 protestors chanted ‘musicians have choices’ and something to the effect of ‘shame on the Met’ and ‘Netrebko supports terrorists’.
As we predicted, the result of the Boris Goldstein competition, reported tonight, was a foregone conclusion. All six prizes went to current students of the competition founder and president, Zakhar Bron. The losers have a right to feel aggrieved.
In the words of the late Mae West: ‘Goodness, dearie, had nothing to do with it.’
From the American Brahms Society:
The Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe in Kiel has posted an article detailing the attempted sale of a forged Brahms autograph by the manuscript dealer Inlibris.
At issue is a forged autograph of Brahms’s canon WoO 29, “Wann hört der Himmel auf zu strafen / mit Albums und mit Autographen.”The dealer has since removed the item from sale, but as it has come up for sale several times in the past, the American Brahms Society is assisting our colleagues in Kiel by alerting the Brahms community worldwide to this forgery, hoping thereby to remove it from circulation.
There is one new entry this week in the top ten US classical best-sellers, as measured by Nielsen Soundscan.
In at number five, outselling Downton Abbey, Joshua Bell and Soya Yocheva is an American pianist, Stephen Limbaugh.
His debut album is called PANTS.
What he thinks of himself can be seen on his website here.
Be alarmed.
Just in:
El Público, confessional and homoerotic drama by Federico García Lorca, will have its first operatic version in the Teatro Real, from the hand of composer Mauricio Sotelo
AN OPERA WITH A FLAMENCO SOUL
Commissioned by Gerard Mortier for the Teatro Real
World premiere the 24th of February
With the participation of the cantaores Arcángel and Jesús Méndez, bailaor Rubén Olmo, guitarist Cañizares and percussionist Agustín Diasera
Music direction by Pablo-Heras Casado
Mauricio Sotelo’s new opera counts with a libretto by writer and musician Andrés Ibáñez, true to the essence of the intricate drama by García Lorca.
The score presents a rich palette of sound universes, in which the Western operatic tradition is brought together with flamenco and modern electronic techniques, to evoke the different dimensions of the play.
A multicultural artistic team with Mexican-American scene director Robert Castro, African American choreographer Darrell Grand Moultrie, German stage designer Alexander Polzin and Polish costume designer Wojciech Dziedzic, will recall Lorca’s universality.
A very diverse group of performers, with cantaors, singers, dancers and actors, with the prestigious orchestra Klangforum Wien and the Coro Titular del Teatro Real, under the direction of Pablo-Heras Casado, Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Real.
In parallel with the world premiere of El Público, the Teatro Real will offer on the 28th of February the flamenco concert“Ritos y geografías para Federico García Lorca”, with Rocío Márquez, Pepe Habichuela and Arcángel, and on the 1st of February a concert dedicated to the Generation of ’27, included in the series ‘Domingos de cámara’.
The Residencia de Estudiantes de Madrid, the Instituto Cervantes, and the Federico García Lorca Foundation in Granada have united with the Teatro Real to develop a program revolving around García Lorca.
The Teatro Real will offer 8 performances of the opera, with a single cast, 24 and 26 February, and 1, 4, 6, 9, 11 and 13 March.
Zoe Keating is an internet phenomenon, the most popular cellist on Twitter and a presence on all other social media.
Except, possibly, Youtube.
Staff at the Google-owned site are acting like rottweilers with musicians who want to maintain control of their video output.
Zoe has been spilling her story to Billboard. Read her perils here – and beware: there’s no such thing as a free ride.
If you, too, have been hassled by Youtube, please let us know.
Online booking starts this Sunday at 14.00.
The festival says it is responding to public complaints about inaccessibility. Some 20,000 tickets are going online.
Unfortunately, the official announcement, via DPA (below), does not give a web address. Maybe they’re not that keen for you to find it.
UPDATE: Here it is. Fingers ready? Click here at 14.00 Sunday.
Freunde der Opern Richard Wagners können auch in diesem Jahr Karten für die Bayreuther Festspiele im Internet bestellen. Die oft langen Wartezeiten auf Tickets für das weltberühmte Festival entfallen dann. Etwa ein Drittel der insgesamt knapp 59.000 Karten würden im Internet verkauft, sagte Sprecher Peter Emmerich. Das Online-Portal wird am Sonntag um 14 Uhr freigeschaltet.
Waren im Vorjahr die Karten für elf Aufführungen komplett im Internet zu haben, so verteilen sich die Online-Tickets diesmal auf alle Vorstellungen. Ein weiteres Drittel der Karten ist für feste Kontingente vorgesehen – und wird etwa an die Mäzenatenvereinigung “Gesellschaft der Freunde von Bayreuth” verkauft. Das restliche Drittel der Tickets geht an Interessenten, die ihre Tickets vorbestellt haben – etwa schriftlich per Bestellschein.
Die Ticketvergabe für die Festspiele war in den vergangenen Jahren immer wieder in den Blickpunkt gerückt. Der Bundesrechnungshof hatte gerügt, dass zu wenig Karten in den freien Verkauf gehen. Auf diese Kritik reagierten die Festspiele unter anderem mit dem Internetangebot. Das Festival beginnt am 25. Juli mit der Premiere von “Tristan und Isolde” unter der Regie von Festspielchefin Katharina Wagner.
(APA/dpa)
Clive Gillinson’s new season at Carnegie Hall is built around an anniversary. With considerable imagination, he has arranged to commission 125 new works of music to mark the date. That’s a lot of work for a lot of composers in 2016. Much to be commended.
But beyond the razzle-dazzle, what the numbers betray is a fatal lack of imagination. What kind of anniversary is 125? It smacks of clutching at numbers, any number, no matter how insignificant, to grab a shred of public attention before the lights go out.
Music is desperately dependent on anniversaries. We promote jubilees, centenaries, 150ths, 250ths, to highlight past glories and make them relevant to our own times. We cannot afford to cheapen the anniversary concept. Carnegie’s 125th is a step towards devaluing the numbers game.
The latest rising star of the Mariinsky Theatre will sing at both the Dresden Semperoper Ball on 30 January and at the Vienna Staatsoper Ball on 12 February 2015. Both balls will be broadcast live on TV to audiences across Europe.
Garifullina, who signed a Decca contract in London yesterday, has not been roped in to support Vladimir Putin’s policies – not yet, at any rate.
Of Tatar origin, she made her Mariinsky debut in January 2013 as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and went on to win Domingo’s Operalia later that year. We wish her every success.
