From a correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous:
A production of Rossini’s “Turco in Italia” at the Antalya State Opera features women in hijab on stage. The local anti-government media is calling it “Türban Opera.”
The appearance of the modern hijab on these non-singing women, beside men in singing roles that have been reinterpreted as “kiro” (low-brow thug) types, has drawn negative responses. A few audience members walked out when they saw the hijabs appearing in Act II, and others wrote their responses in a large visitor book in the lobby of the opera house.
Messages like: “This has been adapted to the ‘New Turkey’;” “Is this how you describe a Turkish man or woman?” and “They have their dirty hands on it.” That last one refers to an assumption that the ruling party is starting to use opera as an ideological vehicle.
The modern ‘hijab’ in Turkey is a head scarf and an ankle-length cloth coat. Young people in Turkey call this “Emine Fashion” because it copies what is worn by Emine Erdogan, wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The headscarf that was worn during the Ottoman Empire, (when this opera was written) was apolitical and folkloric and not an Islamic convention. “New Turkey” is the term Pres. Erdogan has used to describe where he intends to “raise pious generations” after a clear separation of religion and state since 1923.
It is clear, especially also after the recent conscription of Izmir’s Anadolu Philharmonic (a professional orchestra in Izmir, the most politically liberal of all Turkish cities) to play a musical tribute resembling those played for historical despots, for Prime Minister Davutoglu, that the “dirty hands” are again at work to push the ideological knife into the heart of western art forms in Turkey.
Headline: US soprano Sondra Radvanovsky will sing Donizetti’s ‘Three Queens’ in Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux.
Headline: James Levine conducts Berg’s Lulu, with Marlis Petersen and Susan Graham.
Headline: Esa-Pekka Salonen’s conducts the late Patrice Chéreau’s production of Strauss Elektra, which much of the original cast.
Six new productions, in all. And a one percent price increase.
Actually, the marketing is almost the cleverest part of the programme: Kids under 18 get in half-price between Thanksgiving and New Year, so long as their ticket is urchased with a full-priced one.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has long been ranked among the worlds top three colleges, usually the very top. Its redeeming grace is that it has always housed independent thinkers, some – like Noam Chomsky – from the world of classical scholarship.
But an MIT ritual, disclosed today, leaves doubts about its respect for civilisation.
Ever since 1972, it has been the MIT custom, once a year, to hurl a piano off the roof. What started as a pseudo-scientific jape has become a distinctive feature of college life.
Deborah Douglas, the director of collections at the MIT Museum, says she isn’t surprised that the piano drop has endured. “It fits the zeitgeist and culture of MIT,” she says. Read here.
Jeez. The piano brings joy to people’s hearts. No mater how poor its condition, it deserves better than sophomoric vandalism.
She’s coming to sing Iolanta in June. Take an oligarch friend.
Press release below.
U-Live and the Royal Albert Hall are proud to announce a concert performance of Iolanta on 24 June 2015. In a rare appearance on one of London’s concert stages, renowned Russian soprano Anna Netrebko brings to life one of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s lesser known operas, a work full of irresistibly enchanting melodies. Emmanuel Villaume will conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Anna Netrebko, the grande dame of bel canto, is recognised as one of the most outstanding sopranos gracing opera stages today. Adored by music lovers across the world for her voice and irresistible charm, Netrebko is no stranger to interpreting Iolanta, having first sung the role in 2009 in her native St. Petersburg. Since then, she has performed it all over the world, including an 11-city tour in 2012.
Anna Netrebko opened the 2014-15 season of the Metropolitan Opera with a fully staged production of Iolanta and in January, Deutsche Grammophon released a live recording of the work to critical acclaim.
Iolanta, Op. 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that received its premiere on 18 December 1892 in St. Petersburg. It tells the story of a blind princess whose deeply protective father, King René, has kept her oblivious to her lack of sight and her royal status. But this fantasy world is about to be unveiled by the unforeseen arrival of Count Vaudémont, whose love for Iolanta does much more than bring to life new emotions in the young princess.
Daniel Barenboim launched Peral last April with a view to reaching audiences the music industry hasn’t tapped. It’s all gone quite since then and, some feared, peral-shaped. But the latest offering is a stunner – and it’s free. You (probably) watched it here first.
The Christoph Eschenbach era, weary and uninspiring, is over.
He will leave in mid-2017, after seven years. Face is saved in the press release below, but no one should be surprised that new-broom president Deborah Rutter should want a livelier music director. The prevailing mood must be one of profound relief.
Read Anne Midgette today here. Sample: It’s open to question whether Eschenbach has actually transformed the orchestra, redefined his post as music director of the Kennedy Center as well as of the NSO, or fully merited one of the highest conductor’s salaries in the United States. The NSO has turned in some fine concerts on his watch, but hasn’t fully shaken its issues with ensemble playing, and its occasional issues in the winds and brass.
press release:
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—The National Symphony Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced today that Christoph Eschenbach will not extend his position as Music Director after the conclusion of the 2016-2017 season. He will then have completed seven seasons as Music Director and an additional season as Music Director Designate. With the 2017-2018 season he will become Conductor Laureate of the National Symphony for a three-year term.
“I am proud of the legacy I leave and I am deeply grateful to the musicians who have joined with me to create an internationally prominent and unified ensemble,” stated Maestro Eschenbach. “By 2017 I will have served as Music Director of American orchestras for almost 30 years, and it makes sense to step away from these obligations. Nevertheless I am happy to accept this new role as Conductor Laureate which will allow our collaboration to continue and flourish in the years to come.”
Jeanne Ruesch, Chairman of the National Symphony Orchestra Association Board of Directors, commented, “Christoph has successfully raised the artistic quality and standing of the National Symphony Orchestra. He has given NSO audiences many thrilling nights in our concert hall. The entire board joins me in thanking him for his contributions and commitment to our beloved orchestra.”
Executive Director Rita Shapiro added, “We are deeply grateful for Maestro Eschenbach’s work with the National Symphony Orchestra, particularly in the engagement of new musicians. His tenure has greatly strengthened the NSO, and we look forward to the continued relationship.”
The position as Conductor Laureate will begin in 2017-2018, and will end with the 2019-2020 season. During each of those seasons he will spend a minimum of two weeks with the NSO.
Christoph Eschenbach came to the National Symphony as Music Director Designate in 2009, and formally became Music Director of the NSO and the Kennedy Center with the 2010-2011 season. Steeped in the standard repertoire, he is widely credited with re-focusing the NSO’s approach to the core canon of Central European orchestral music. Additionally, under his leadership, the NSO has commissioned or co-commissioned 11 works by the end of the current season, eight of them by American composers.
The Orchestra’s board will form a search committee to begin the process of finding the next Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Gramilano reports the closure of MaggioDanza, which has been wound down so that only 12 dancers remain. Even Sylvie Guillem could not kick life into the city’s crumbling arts centre. Full story here.
Girls and boys, this is the big one…. put your apps in now.
The job has just gone online. It’s open to men and women and all auditions except the last are behind a screen. The sessions are mid-June, peak of the asparagus season. The winner will join the State Opera orchestra, with a probationary period on the Vienna Phil.
Willem Mengelberg, conductor of the Concertgebouw orchestra for half a century and its defining personality, was banned from conducting in Holland after the war because of his pro-German sympathies.
Now Frederick Heemskerk, a former criminal court judge in The Hague, has reopened the case in a book published this week. Heemskerk is presently chair of the engelberg Society, so there’s no question where his sympathies lie, but does he have new evidence?
The book is in Dutch. Which of our Netherlands readers would like to write the first review?
It happened in Melbourne, Australia. The driver, 27, got socked with a $354 on-the-spot fine.
Bet he would have blown a hole in the breathalyser.
The general manager of the Metropolitan Opera has buttoned his lip for almost three months, which we think may be a record. It has done his image a world of good.
He will unbutton this lunchtime (NY time) to announce the Met’s next season. Six new productions. We’ll keep you posted.
Jean Nouvel, creator of the city’s splendid new Philharmonie, has applied for a court order to have his name and imaged removed from any connection with the building.
His lawyers told a Paris court that he is not seeking damages, but he wants a further court order to ensure ‘modifying work’ is carried out at 26 locations that are ‘non-compliant’ with his original design.
Nouvel stayed away on opening night saying the building was unfinished.
