The former chief of English National Opera, in a letter to Slipped Disc, urges all sides in the ENO mess to come clean on their true intentions.

 

The Passenger by Mieczyslaw Weinberg

 

Politics is neither as reliable nor honest as performing opera nightly before a paying public.

ENO’s present management, the company itself, the unions involved, the (so far strangely silent) ENO board and the (secretive) Arts Council with its own agenda for the Coliseum (on which they hold a charge should the company cease to be a full-time one) could indeed “listen to each other with mutual respect” (as Richard Jarman suggests) if only the ACE declared its commitment to the company’s use of its greatest financial asset, the building.

In that case the ACE should lobby ministers for the £275/500 million envisaged for a new London concert hall and the ENO board should just say something constructive as they did fortissimo in the days of Harewood, Goodman, Carr, Goodison, Hoffman, Boateng, Unwin and others when they drove us to secure the building for the company’s future in 1993.

Before anyone grumbles about the Coliseum being difficult to fill, let it be said that it can be filled when performances are popular and perceived as successful artistically however adventurous. That this is not always the case lies in the nature of music theatre, the right to experiment, to fail and to try and try again as so many of ENO’s greatest hits have shown Peter Grimes (thrice), Akhnaten, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (twice), Busoni’s Dr. Faust, The Mask of Orpheus, Ariodante to name just a few.

Remember the Arts Council cuts of 1985/6? These resulted in a supper in the Camden Brasserie with a worried ENO General Director (me) and Jonathan Miller who suddenly suggested that he direct the, about to be cancelled, Mikado production on a budget for a single set, to include props and costumes, of £110.00! Few believed it would work, least of all the Arts Council who regarded the project budget as illusory and the run of performances reliant on hope rather than reality. Now, 29 years later, after innumerable performances Mikado still fills the house, its coffers and is loved seemingly by all.

This is what is called “return on investment” and has supported other adventurous projects that will never be evaluated in terms of marginal financial contribution but only in terms of essential artistic value to opera, artists and public alike.

Arts Council: declare your hand and have the courage to deny categorically your intention to enforce the charge on the freehold of the Coliseum.

ENO board: say something meaningful without mincing words.

Only then can all partners seek a solution that compared to the moneys being promised to London’s projected concert hall, laudable though such may be, could, if well managed with vision, produce good financial returns on taxpayer investment and provide an invaluable artistic future for opera.

peter jonas

Sir Peter Jonas

18th December 2015

The times may be a-changing.

The first violin tutti audition this morning was won by Petra Kovacic, from Tolmin, Slovenia. All four candidates to make it to the final round were women.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Petra is the fifth woman to be admitted the Vienna Philharmonic since the start of this month.

Dashing in to Carnegie Hall yesterday to shelter from the rain, I found Joyce DiDonato in a ninth-floor studio rehearsing her set for a jailhouse show.

Carnegie has been running a program at the Sing-Sing correctional facility for the past nine years, encouraging lifers and long-term prisoners to play and compose music. When Joyce heard of it she yelped ‘I’m in’ (that Kansas girl goes places no mezzo’s been before.)

Aside from opera arias, among the numbers she will sing in Sing-Sing is a ballad by Kenyatta Hughes, serving 18 years for serious offences. Hughes will be onstage with Joyce, a string quartet and an improv band.

There will be 350 prisoners in the hall. A captive audience, if you like.

 

joyce didonato ballroom

Luc Brewaeys has died, aged 56.

A pupil of Donatoni and Ferneyhough, Luc worked extensively in electronic music. He also composed eight symphonies and a successful orchestration of both books of Preludes by Claude Debussy.

Luc Brewaeys

We learned this morning with sadness of the death of the well-known New York guitarist and composer, Adam Roth. Adam, who was 57, had been struggling with bile duct cancer.

In his final moments, Billboard reports, he was listening to the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood.

norwegian-wood-368048

Your last song?

The Latvian mezzo gave a concert last night at the Latvian National Opera in memory of her beloved mother, who died of cancer in the summer. The concert was conducted by Elina’s British husband, Karel Mark Chichon.

During the performance, Elina announced that Chichon’s father had died that day but he insisted on going ahead with the tribute performance to her mother.

She said: ‘Today, this concert is very special to me. It has also become very special to Karel. Next, Janis Medins “Aria” is a dedication to his father, who has passed away today, at 12:30 p.m. I would like to ask you for a moment of silence…’

Families.

garanca chichon

We have media reports of the death today of Aafje Heynis, a contralto whose voice and repertoire closely resembled the great English singer, Kathleen Ferrier.

Aafje, who was 91, was closely attuned to the music of Gustav Mahler, as well as Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn and Brahms. She made numerous recordings, mostly for Philips.

Aafje Heynis

Bernard Foccroulle is stepping down in 2017 after ten years as head of the Aix-en-Provence summer opera festival, according to the local mayor. He wants to spend more time composing, apparently.

 

foccroulle-artcomart-pascal-victor

The Berlin Philharmonic have announced that Zubin Mehta cannot conduct them in April 2016 for reasons connected to his 80th birthday plans.

To replace him Berlin have recruited Seiji Ozawa, who has not conducted a full concert since falling sick with cancer of the oesophagus almost five years ago.

Welcome back, Seiji.

ozawa tokyo afp

press release:

Zubin Mehta has cancelled his concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker on 6 April 2016. Instead, Seiji Ozawa will now conduct two new concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie on 8 and 10 April 2016

The concert originally scheduled for 6 April 2016 conducted by Zubin Mehta (soloist: Daniel Barenboim) will unfortunately no longer take place as Zubin Mehta has changed his personal plans for his 80th birthday.

We are delighted that we have managed to engage Seiji Ozawa as a replacement to conduct two concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker on 8 and 10 April 2016.

Seiji Ozawa has had close ties with the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1966 and most recently conducted them in May 2009.

Changes to the concert programme are as follows:

Friday, 8 April 2016, 20:00 Philharmonie

Sunday, 10 April 2016, 20:00 Philharmonie

Berliner Philharmoniker

Seiji Ozawa Conductor

Rundfunkchor Berlin Choir

Peter Serkin Piano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Serenade No. 10 in B flat major KV 361 (Gran Partita) without

conductor

Ludwig van Beethoven Egmont op. 84. Overture

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in C minor op. 80 (Peter Serkin, piano /

Rundfunkchor Berlin)