The tenor has given a very revealing interview in English to EuroNews about technique, singing out and never being able to relax.

Watch. This is how it’s done.

Our copains at resmusica report a new music director at the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) in Lugano. The German conductor Markus Poschner, 43, will become music director. Vladimir Ashkenazy remains principal guest conductor. Poschner is presently Generalmusikdirektor in Bremen. Ashkenazy will conduct the opening of the town’s new hall in September.

photo (c) Marco Borggreve

Berlin based and busy mostly in Germany, Rebecca Saunders has been awarded the Mauricio Kagel prize for being ‘a persistent seeker in the realms of sound’. She has been composer in residence at the concert halls of Dortmund and Dresden and has achieved one premiere at the BBC Proms (pictured, 2009, by Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music&Arts).

America’s newest music director, Carlos Izcaray, went public last year on his experiences in his home country, where he maintains that the regime routinely tortures suspected dissidents.He was subjected to gas attacks and electric shocks before being released. He has since become a vociferous opponent in exile of the Chavez and post-Chavez government.

This week, Carlos was named music director of the Alabama Symphony. Read a summary of his torture claims here.

Yo-ho, to-ho, it’s Birgit Nilsson. Coming to your bank October 2015.

An editor mentioned she was finding it hard to find new releases for review this month. Others chimed in that the record industry’s output is not much more than a trickle, much of it bottom-of-barrel stuff.

On the other side of the till, this week’s US sales figures have gone back to abysmal.

Bocelli tops the pile with fewer than 1,000 sales.

Second is André Rieu with just over 500.

Third is Rachel Barton Pine, a heavily promoted set of Mozart concertos, just 300 sales.

For those who looked to Vienna waltzes for a pick-up, the New Year’s Day concert is 12th in the Nielsen rankings, with just 117 sales.

These are figures the music biz don’t want you to see.

Fred Lingen has died. Holland owes him its opera house.

He founded the Wagner Society in 1961 and was artistic adviser to the Friends of the Opera from its inception.

Pierre Audi, director of De Nederlandse Opera, writes to Slipped Disc: ‘He was the most important opera lover DNO will ever know. A man who was at every show for decades. The kind of living treasure that surrounds an artform with unconditional passion and vast knowledge, they come once in 100 years. Losing Fred is losing something from our soul.

‘People like Fred can make a colossal difference to an artform taking root or not. He gave us the feeling the Dutch are an opera nation when in fact they struggled with the unCalvinist notion of opera from the 17th century to this day. Six months ago Fred received a well deserved medal (order of Oranje Nassau) in recognition of his services to opera. Everyone knew this was a sort of public goodbye as he was ill. I’ll speak at his funeral next Thursday.’

Valery Gergiev is due to give two performances this weekend with the Mariinsky Orchestra at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he will receive the 2015 UMS Distinguished Artist Award. Calls to cancel the award are being heard from gay groups and anti-Putin academics.

Here’s a very lucid statement of the case against Gergiev:

Why I will not be attending the Mariinsky Orchestra concerts.

My family loves classical music and usually we attend about a dozen classical concerts each season. The program offered on both days is excellent, however, we have chosen not to attend. Do you wonder why? Let me explain.
Mr. Gergiev along with featured pianist Denis Matsuev are highly acclaimed musicians, but they are ardent supporters of the aggressive politics of President Putin of Russia. In March 2014, Mr. Gergiev and Mr. Matsuev were among the first to sign an open letter showing their support for Putin’s annexation of Crimea and covert war against the fledgling democracy in Ukraine. In 2008, Mr. Gergiev also openly supported Russian military aggression in Georgia. In addition, he advocated for anti-gay laws and policies and prosecution of members of the Pussy Riot band who had the courage to protest Putin’s policies.
Recently a number of artists around the world have refused to perform with Mr. Gergiev, and some concerts conducted by the maestro are being canceled because of his strong public support of Putin. UMS should take notice of the unconscionable political posturing by Gergiev to gain Putin’s favor. My family and I ask that UMS withdraw its support for an open advocate of tyranny by withdrawing the Ford Honors program award to Mr. Gergiev. His and Matsuev’s influential public positions in support of Putin’s tyranny are not in accord with the UMS mission of supporting artistic excellence and integrity.
The political views of Mr. Gergiev and Mr. Matsuev are not simply their personal business. Our world is not partitioned into “pure art” and “politics”. Each of us has many different roles, which are intertwined and affect each other. An artist who makes political statements is not only an artist, he or she is also a public figure. The Russian government explicitly uses Mr. Gergiev’s and Mr. Matsuev’s fame and influence to back aggression against a sovereign Ukraine and in support Putin’s repressive policies. Of course, an artist is free to express support to political leaders or ideas, but along with this freedom comes responsibility for the choice. Granting the Ford Honors Program award to Mr. Gergiev makes the UMS a tacit supporter of Putin’s repressive policies and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The latter has claimed thousands of innocent lives and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict, UMS can no longer ignore the repercussions of Gergiev and Matsuev’s public support of tyranny.
As members of the audience, we have an ethical responsibility to consider the impact of our choices. Knowing what we know about Putin’s oppression of gays, his suppression of free speech and democracy, and his aggression against Ukraine, we have a moral obligation to speak up in support of freedom and justice. Gergiev and Matsuev’s support of Putin has negative repercussions not only for Russian & Ukrainian citizens, but for their artistic integrity. As a UMS patron, if I attended the concerts, I would be supporting Putins’s aggression against his own people and against Ukraine. Thus, our seats at Hill Auditorium will remain empty during the upcoming Mariinsky concerts to show that we refuse to support artists who support tyranny and aggression. That is why our family will not be attending the concert. Will you?

Irina Bondarenko, Eugene Surdutovich
Senior Statistician, Assistant professor
University of Michigan Oakland university

A splendid photograph by Fritz Curzon from the current Andrea Chenier shows Rosalind Plowright in pursuit of Eva Westbroek.

Rosalind used to be an international soprano until she toned it down to mezzo. Her husband added the caption to Fritz’s pic and she gifted it to Eva on the first night. So cool.

The word bubble-s read:

Ros: Do you seriously think you can sing this better than I did 30 years ago?

Eva: Too f*****g right!!!

Latest reports from Donetsk say Ukrainian forces have been pushed back from Sergei Prokofiev international airport by Russian-backed ‘rebels’.

Both sides in this sordid conflict claim to value culture at the heart of nationhood.

Look what they have done to Prokofiev.

WFMT Chicago discovered the artistry of Vera Gornostaeva last year through a pair of immigrant enthusiasts who had pressed her old LPs onto CD. The station gave away some of her recordings in a fundraising drive and received an extraordinary response.

On reading of Vera’s death this week, WFMT cleared its schedules to play the music of this modest Moscow professor, little known outside Russia until last year. Program Director David Polk sent round this memo:

Taiwanese violinist Tseng Yu-chien, also known as ‘Benny’, won the first Singapore international violin contest, taking home US$50,000.

Second ($25k) was fellow-Taiwanese Richard Lin, his best friend at the Curtis Institute of Music.