On a day full of sombre news, we learn of the death of Louise Plowright, a much-loved singing actor whose desperate struggle to find a cure for her cancer was supported by many Slipped Disc readers.

Louise, whose sister is the opera soprano Rosalind Plowright, raised £140,000 for treatment in Korea.

But relief was shortlived and other treatments were sought in Europe. Louise’s death was announced today by the cast of the West End musical Wicked, where she sang for the last time.

Our sympathies to Ros and the rest of the family.

UPDATE: Ros has posted:

Utterly devastated by the passing of my darling Lou at 1pm today in Duderstadt, Germany. Istvan, her wonderful husband, myself, my sisters Marion and Laura and my brother Richard were there with her. A great light has gone out in our lives.

It has been confirmed to us by mutual friends that the former Netherlands Opera chorus director Winfried Maczewski and his wife Sophie arranged to end their lives together on Sunday.

Winfried, who was 74, had a terminal illness, and Sophie, who suffered from a longterm condition, decided she did not want to go on without him.

Winfried told friends that his last two weeks were the most beautiful of his life. However, two days before the due date he suffered a collapse and was no longer deemed fit in legal terms to press the requisite button. Sophie went ahead with the procedure. Winfried died on the same day, a few hours later, on his way to a German hospice.

May they rest in perfect peace.

Pierre Audi, director of Netherlands Opera, writes:
Winfried was no ordinary chorus master. He was a man imbued with a deep artistic mission. He brought to our Company and espescially to our chorus the gift of artistic consciousness: WHY do we make music together? WHY do choristers also have a responsibility to make great theatre? His leadership provided profound inspiration, and a greater understanding for the need to reach for perfection whilst remaining a humble servant to the gift of artistic expression.

Working with Winfried shaped my artistic project for DNO in crucial years which saw historic productions such as Moses und Aron by Schoenberg with Pierre Boulez and Peter Stein, come to light. Without Winfried this milestone in the history of opera in the Netherlands would not have been possible.

His legacy survives him as a standard and an ethic this Company will always want to live up to.
Thank you Winfried from the bottom of my heart.

The Wall Street Journal has published a shot of Annabelle Selldorf’s design for Steinways’ new Sixth Avenue HQ.

That jaundiced operating theatre replaces this:

You decide.

The Cologne Philharmonie, where Mahan Esfahani’s harpsichord recital was noisily disrupted on Sunday, has issued the following statement:

In der Kölner Philharmonie sind regelmäßig Künstler aus aller Welt zu Gast. Neben den Klassikern kommen hier Werke der zeitgenössischen Musik zur Aufführung, Jazz, Pop und Weltmusik haben hier genauso selbstverständlich ihren Platz wie Sinfonische Musik, Liederabende und Kammermusik. Wir schaffen ein Forum für kulturelle Vielfalt, mit unserem Engagement im Bereich der Musikvermittlung nehmen wir gesellschaftliche Verantwortung wahr, und wir unterstützen soziale Projekte und eine gelebte Willkommenskultur.

Bei uns dreht sich alles um die Musik und den Menschen. Auch wir sind fassungslos in Bezug auf die Reaktion eines Teils des Publikums beim Konzert am vergangenen Sonntag, die wir so nicht erwartet haben. Wir erwarten einen respektvollen Umgang. Es kann nicht sein, dass ein kleiner Teil des Publikums den Genuss aller anderen stört und zerstört. Wir haben Esfahani gleich wieder eingeladen, er wird Reichs Stück am 1. März 2017 noch mal spielen.

The Cologne Philharmonie invites artists from all over the world. Aside from classics, we present contemporary music; pop, jazz and world music take their place among symphonies, recitals and chamber music. We are a forum for cultural diversity and social responsibility.
For us, everything revolves around music and people. We are stunned at the unforeseen reaction to Sunday’s concert. We expect artists to be treated with respect. A small part of the audience cannot be allowed to destroy other people’s pleasure. We have immediately invited Esfahani back to repeat the Reich piece on March 1, 2017.

This world premiere could hardly be more 2016.

POSTCARD:
A transgender man from Kabul emigrates to the South at the height of the Afghan War.

After emigrating to the American South, a transgender Afghan immigrant explores his identity while navigating a new cultural landscape.

But as Iphis’ LBGT social circle collides with the traditional American Family, The Body Politic exposes the daily bigotry facing the trans community, and the divisive prejudices of the post-9/11 world.

This world premiere opera challenges our cultural understandings of gender and its shortcomings, wrestling with complex questions of freedom and identity in a year in which transgender issues have come to the forefront of our culture, while violence against the trans community remains staggeringly high.

This black-box production places the audience in the middle of the action, following Iphis’ journey from childhood in Afghanistan to citizenship in the United States. Scored for a seven instrument ensemble, this opera uses new music to challenge old prejudices and to shine light on the marginalization faced by these communities. The production will take place in Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theater, May 5-7 2016.

It’s what opera is all about, eh?

Nathan Cole, associate concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has written a wonderful appreciation of his Curtis teacher Otto-Werner Mueller, who died at the weekend. Mueller was previously his parents’ teacher at Wisconsin-Madison and he came with a tough reputation.

“Who will be the one?” he would say, stopping the orchestra just before a giant ritardando. “Who will be the one? Who will be looking down at his music stand,” and here he would perform a grotesque imitation of a fiddler sawing away with head down, “raise your hand now so I can throw you out in advance!” I never saw a raised hand. But it was certainly not an idle threat, for I saw many people “thrown out”.

Mueller never discussed religion or faith with us, except his contempt for strict religious doctrine and the insincerity of many so-called “leaders”. I always believed that the music was spiritual nourishment enough for him. There was, however, a definite morality about his music-making and teaching. There were clearly right and wrong ways to play. Like Luther, Mueller seemed to believe in “original sin”: that we were all lousy musicians to start with, but through the grace of the best composers, we were saved. Of course, unlike Luther, Mueller demanded that we also constantly perform good works to earn our salvation. Otherwise we would be cast out… of rehearsal, at least. 

Read the full lovely article on Nathan’s site, here.

We are reliably informed that Ali (Alexander) Rahbari resigned today as music director of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.

We’ll update when we hear more.

 

The young British conductor Robin Ticciati has cancelled this month’s concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra due to a herniated disc.

Robin is laid up somewhere in Europe, unable to travel until the condition eases. We wish him a speedy recovery.

He is next due to conduct in May at Glyndebourne, where he is music director.

We have been informed of the death of Winfried Maczewski, formative chorus director at Dutch National Opera and elsewhere.

His career reads like a post-war cultural history of Europe. Born in 1941 in the Polish town of Kalisz, he moved to Germany to study theology, art history and church music.  In 1975 he was appointed chorus director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf and professor at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule.

From 1979 to 1988 he was Kapellmeister and Chordirektor in Wuppertal, working with Pina Bausch. In 1988 he joined Netherlands Opera as chorus director, serving for 18 years. He founded the European Festival Chorus in 1997, performing Salzburg, Berlin and Tokyo. From 1997 to 1999 he was Chordirektor of the Salzburg Festivals.

In 1997 he became head of the Netherlands Opera Studio Nederland. In 2008-9 he was chorus director of the Opéra National de Paris.

That’s a huge life in opera. Winfried will be sorely missed.