Aside from East Berlin and Washington D.C., the late Heinz Fricke, who died this week, was also music director at Norwegian Opera from 1984 to 1990. His concertmaster Ole Bohn, now professor at the Sydney Conservatorium, has fond memories.
Maestro Fricke was a master of sound and phrasing and could, with tiny gestures and looks, obtain what he wanted. Where other conductors need to explain what they wish, Heinz Fricke managed to show what he wanted without words. He always let the musicians play without interference and let the singers breathe to display their voices.
In Norway Mr Fricke made an enormous impact. He conducted the major Mozart and Verdi operas as well as Boris Godunov and Carmen. His interpretations of Strauss and Wagner operas were outstanding and he was responsible for the artistic growth of the Norwegian Opera. Most performances were with singers from the house ensemble.
Maestro Fricke gave me as concertmaster great responsibility and freedom . He helped me form the sound of the strings and let me also lead without coming in between. I learnt a lot from him. Sayings like ‘never jump too fast to the downbeat’ and when there are many fast notes ‘always play them out’, or rather in German: ‘Ole, ausspielen’ are still in my ear and I try to pass them on to future generations. He was a true bearer of an almost lost German Kapellmeister tradition. In addition he was the musicians’ best friend.
A reckless moment at a variety concert.
The musicians are furious, and rightly so.
Watch.
A response from the TSO: We put the safety of all artists first and foremost. Cirque has an excellent safety track record. And today a safety review was also conducted post incident and their performance was altered to ensure no future potential risk to the audience, musicians, performers or instruments.’
Through the 1980s, the light-music specialist Herbert Prikopa, who died on December 8, was a regular at the Coliseum, conducting Fledermaus, Night in Venice, Merry Widow and Bartered Bride among other ENO shows.
Before taking up the baton, he had sung character roles for several decades at the Vienna Volksoper. He was a popular personality on film and TV, an authentic voice of Alt-Wien.
In one of those gleaming acts of Scandinavian transparency, Norwegian Opera has published the list of applicants for its vacancy to succeed Per Boye Hansen as artistic director in 2017.
The list includes a 19 year-old student and one Italian who has crashed several companies in his own country.
But there are some interesting candidates from Paris, Rome, Vienna and South America.
Covent Garden might start checking some of those names.
Amanda Vågfelt Almén (19), Student, Strømstad
Ivan Kyurkchiev (no age), Artistic Director, Sofia
Eugenia Arsenis (n.a.), Director-Dramaturg, Ph.d., Athen, New York
Lorenzo Mariani (60), Stage director, Roma
Giuseppe Cuccia (n.a.), Artistic consultant, Palermo
Louis Gentile (n.a.), Teacher, producer, coach, Bonn
Niv Hoffman (43), Assistant director, Vienna
Enrique Carreón-Robledo (n.a.), Visiting Director of Orchestral Studies, Professor of Conducting, Tulsa
Alessio Vlad (60), Artistic Director, Roma
Grimur Grimsson (n.a.), Stage manager og oppsynsmann, Reykjavik
Robert Ernst Castellitz (n.a.), Artistic Director, Freiburg
Marco Spada (n.a.), Artistic Director, Roma
Sam Brown (n.a.), Stage director, London
Christina Harris (n.a.), Project Manager, London
Reinhard Linden (58), Artistic Director, Kiel
Katrin Kolo (44), Founder and Director, Zürich
Henrik Schaefer (n.a.), Music Director, Göteborg
Ludek Golat (61), General Manager, Ostrava
Giuseppe Acquaviva (46), Artistic Director, Livorno
Andreas Fladvad-Geier (n.a.), Ballet and opera advisor, Baden-Baden
Andrejs Zagars (57), Stage director, Riga
Mauro Meli (61), Adjunct professor of management and economy of cultural institutions, Felino
Massimo Guantini (ikke kjent), Artistic director and creator, MilanoRok Rappl (36), Artistic Director, Ljubljana
Annilese Miskimmon (41), General Manager and Artistic Director, Aarhus
Walter Sutcliffe (n.a), Stage director, Berling
Tyrone Patersen (n.a.), Conductor, advisor, Ottawa
Michael Hunt (n.a.), Producer, Hastings
Michal Znaniecki (n.a), Stage director, Warsaw
Leonid Jivetsky (31), Artistic Administrator, Moskva
Elanie Kidd (n.a.), Director of Artistic Planning, Glasgow
Inger Oliv Strand Butel (46), Selvstendig næringsdrivende, Oslo
Didier de Cottignies (59), Artistic Director, Paris
André Heller-Lopes (44), Stage director, Rio de Janeiro
Ivan Van Kalmthout (n.a.), Senior Arts Administrator, London
Lutz Wengler (n.a.), Acting intendant opera and opera director, Mannheim
Gjøril Songvoll (46), Festivalsjef, Oslo
Niels Erik Muus (57), Professor and Director of Opera Masters Progam, Vienna
Alessandro Sangiori (55), Principal Conductor and Artistic Director, Londrina
Espen Selvik (56), Director, Bergen
David Lomeli (n.a.), Assistant Artistic Administrator & Special Projects,
Jon Paul Laka (51), General Manager, Bilbao
Fergus Sheil (n.a.), Artistic Director, Meath
Caine plays Fred Ballinger, whose annual spa stay begins as an emissary of Queen Elizabeth arrives to offer him a knighthood — if he would only conduct his most famous composition for Her Majesty.
Her Majesty is renowned for doing musical deals in exchange for state honours.
The make-or-break factor in the film will be who does the conducting for Michael Caine. (And who they get as concertmaster, of course.)
Another letter* appears today in the Guardian, signed by 14 musicians, appealing for a removal of unstated threats to the existence of English National Opera. Letters in The Times likewise relied on ‘rumours flying around’ about the company’s future. No-one has anything specific to go on. This morning, on the BBC’s Today programme, arts editor Will Gomperts did nothing but waffle.
Slipped Disc can name the source of the threat to ENO. It is a real and present danger.
The Arts Council has indicated to a weak ENO chairman and an inexperienced chief executive that they must shrink the payroll. Specifically, they need to cut the size of the chorus and orchestra if they want to receive future funding.
Cressida Pollock, the chief exec, has hired a man to to the job. His name is Gary Smith and he previously demolished the performing staff at Scottish Opera, which now hobbles along as a part-time shadow of its former self.
Smith is the go-to hatchet man for arts companies in trouble.
His title at ENO is ‘HR advisor’.
He is a man with an axe, and he is being paid out of ENO’s public subsidy, the money it receives to put opera on the stage. He is the reason for the rumours, the cause of a justified anxiety among the community of artists.
*Guardian letter:
Recent reports in the press suggest that the board of English National Opera has agreed to present only eight operas next season and to cut the contracts of its chorus. Such changes threaten its very existence and we wish to express our opposition to anything that threatens the company of great musicians and singers who are currently giving world class performances under their music directorMark Wigglesworth. Without them there is no ENO. We call on the board to engage in a public consultation process to find ways of preserving and enhancing the work of this beloved company that plays such a crucial role in the country’s creative life. David Alden Marin Alsop Richard Armstrong Susan Bullock Sarah Connolly John Eliot Gardiner Gwynne Howell Richard Jones James MacMillan Felicity Palmer Stuart Skelton Keith Warner Willard White John Wilson
At the opening night of La Scala, during curtain calls for a successful Giovanna d’Arco, passions erupted backstage and were heard all over Italy on Rai radio and worldwide on live streaming.
The director Moshe Leiser was clearly heard shouting ‘asshole’ at someone, evidently at Riccardo Chailly, the music director, with whom he had a difficult relationship. He followed up with an Italian epithet that sounds like ‘piece of shit’.
The outburst was shown live on Rai Radio3 and on La Scala streaming, both waiting backstage for comments from the artists after the triumphant conclusion of Verdi’s long-neglected opera.
The backdrop, we understand is that Chailly insisted on changes in Leiser’s staging, especially an orgy of devils during the love duet which does not appear in Verdi’s score. Leiser took offence and could not contain his emotions after the show.
You can watch the outburst here.
These things happen. In the past, they would not have passed unnoticed. But with live streaming and global access on social media they can get inflated. La Scala is, we hear, considering how to handle backstage access in future.
The death has been announced of Mattiwilda Dobbs, the first African-American to sing at La Scala and (though we can’t be sure) at Glyndebourne. Mattiwilda, who was 90, had been living the last two years in a retirement centre in her birthplace of Atlanta, Georgia.
Blessed with a light coloratura voice, she studied with Lotte Leonard in New York and Piere Bernac in Geneva, making her stage debut in Holland in 1952. The following year she sang Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxosat Glyndebourne and Elvira inL’Italiana in Algeri at La Scala.
She made her Met debut as Gilda in 1956 and was the first Afro-American singer to be offered a long-term contract at the house. Refusing to sing before segregated audiences, she did not appear in her home town until 1962. She lived in Spain with her first husband, in Sweden with the second. Mattiwilda retired from the stage in 1974.
She made few recordings, but good.
Read Bruce Duffie’s interview with Mattiwilda here.
Extract: When I first started, speaking of a career, there weren’t too many opportunities for black singers in opera. There was nobody at the Met, and there were one or two at the New York City Opera. Camilla Williams and Lawrence Winters and Todd Duncan had sung there, but to think of making a career in opera, really there weren’t many chances in those days. I was very interested in the recital because my teacher had been a recitalist in Germany, and the focus of my training was for that. Also I had heard great singers singing recitals, and I liked that very much. So I really thought that was what I was going to be. But I tell you another thing… it used to be that you could just be a recital singer and not do opera. But now it’s impossible to be a concert singer without going through opera. That’s been that way for some time. Thank heavens that in those days you could make a living as a concert singer. You can’t hardly do that now, but in those days we had Dorothy Maynor, Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes and Paul Robeson. They all sang recitals. But things are much better. There are so many black opera singers now that I don’t know them all.
Gary Hanson, in his parting week as executive director, has left the orchestra with a healthy surplus, a growing audience and an endowment of more than $180 million.
Read the numbers here. Gary has earned himself a break.
photo: Roger Mastroianni
The world we live in, part 73.
This is Andrew Huang, from Toronto.
The guitarist Milos launched an album of Beatles covers at Abbey Road this lunchtime.
He opened with ‘Yesterday’ in the slightly futuristic transcription by Toru Takemitsu. Difficult to bring off but he took it slow and with great panache. He went on to talk movingly about coping with a hand injury.
We did wonder, however, why Milos needed to sport a hipster hole in the right knee of his designer jeans. Must be we’re not hipster enough
Here’s a hipster track.
Kasper Holten’s departure as director of opera at Covent Garden removes a cornerstone of company stability.
The Dane has dragged the Royal Opera, often kicking and sometimes screaming, into a more adventurous production style and a more open relationship with public and media, not always to the satisfaction of the moneyed classes that put in the big donations.
Significantly, Kasper built a symbiotic relationship with the music director, Antonio Pappano, who had originally talked of leaving in 2013 but stayed on for the sheer stimulus of working with a sympathetic partner.
With Kasper going, Tony will feel unsettled. The pair have laid long-term plans running into the 2020s, but that could change with a new director. There are undertones of uncertainty ahead in today’s press release.
Covent Garden will have to rethink itself, never an easy task.
Here’s an obvious, top-of-the-head shortlist of possible successors:
