Here’s what ticket-buyers are being told: Thank you for booking for Natalia Osipova at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. We are writing to you to let you know about some developments with the production.
As you may be aware, all of the work shown in the evening is brand new. It has been brought to our attention that one of the works, Arthur Pita’s piece entitled Run Mary Run, will contain scenes of an adult nature, including brief scenes of simulated drug use.
Since when did ballet require an X certificate?
Why are opera houses treating us like children?
The Chicago-based soloist Rachel Barton Pine tweeted earlier that AA had refused to board her valuable violin despite having notified her that she could carry it on.
Here’s the full story, from Rachel’s people:
photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Internationally acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton Pine was denied boarding her April 27 American Airlines evening flight #3542 because she was carrying on the “ex-Bazzini ex-Soldat” 1742 Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” violin, on lifetime loan to her from an anonymous patron.
The plane was to take her from her hometown Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Albuquerque, NM for her engagement this weekend with the New Mexico Philharmonic.
Pine was the first passenger down the jet bridge. However, the captain (who would not give his name to Pine) refused to allow her to board the plane with the violin case because “its dimensions were not correct for a carry-on”. Pine flies over 100,000 miles a year with American Airlines and has flown the same plane configuration on numerous occasions, placing the violin case in the overhead compartment.
Pine shared with the captain the American Airlines policy stated on their website: “You can travel with small musical instruments as your carry-on item on a first come, first serve basis as long as it: Fits in the overhead bin; or Fits under the seat in front of you.”
According to Pine, the captain replied, “It is not going on because I say so.”
Pine is scheduled to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New Mexico Philharmonic, conducted by Fawzi Haimor on April 30. She was flying the evening of the 27th to attend events the next day with students in the New Mexico Philharmonic’s Young Musician Initiative program as part of her community outreach schedule.
According to Pine, agents at the American Airlines ticket counter were very apologetic about the crew’s behaviour and worked closely with Pine to locate and rebook her on a flight option that would get her to Albuquerque in time to honour her commitment to the young musicians. Rather than a direct flight arriving at 10:30pm that evening, Pine took a 5am flight with a connection through Phoenix the next day.
Unfortunately, these experiences are common among musicians traveling with fragile instruments, even after the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 that required U.S. carriers to allow passengers to carry on a small musical instrument, like a violin or guitar, provided it could be stored in an overhead compartment, closet, or under the seat.
“The Department of Transportation and the airlines have established important policies to protect musical instruments. However, those policies are meaningless if they are not enforced or if the airline staff and crews are not properly educated and trained.” says Pine.
Whose? Where?
UPDATE: You give up?
Clue #1 Alban Gerhardt.
Clue #2 Maida Vale Studios, London
The outgoing music director of the National Symphony Orchestra has come in for much criticism in these columns for his inflated fees and questionable decisions in the music business.
His side of the story is not often heard. Washington cellist Steven Honigberg has spent quality time with his conductor and has put together a 40-minute portrait of a maestro he regards as a ‘very private man, much maligned’.
Watch here. You see it first on Slipped Disc.
He has a blunt view of critics. ‘There is a very big problem. We – you, me, all our colleagues in the orchestra – we know our scores much better than the critic… I mostly don’t read them.’
The claim is being made for Camilla Urso (1840-1902), a French artist from Nantes who appeared in New York, aged 12, with her father’s ensemble.
The family moved down to Nashville and Camilla went on to play with the orchestras in Boston, New York and elsewhere. The Viotti concerto was reputedly her speciality.
It has been announced that Hans Waege, dismissed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic on indefinite medical leave, has been named interim general manager of the National Orchestra of Belgium.
Hans could not get on, apparently, with music director Yannick Nézet-Seguin, who famously gets on with everyone.
He takes over in Belgium from Jozef De Witte, who lasted just ten months in the job.
It has been a matter of pride for years at the BBC Proms that every major composer centenary and jubilee would be marked with at least one performance. It used to be the duty of the Controller’s assistant to supply a list, four years in advance, of all good composers to be celebrated in this way.
Which makes it all the most distressing that this year’s season omits one of the most significant European composers of the past two centuries. I’m not pointing fingers at any individual or demanding official excuses. Call the omisson for what it is: a major shortcoming in this year’s Proms, an embarrassment for the BBC.
Ferruccio Busoni, born 150 years ago last month, (was) one of the most famous faces of his time. His leonine head led to him being often mistaken for Beethoven, while his hands made light work of Liszt. Busoni was a fearless pianist, a formidable thinker and a composer overstocked with good ideas. His character was so fascinating that Gustav Mahler, never a man to waste time on soloists, craved his rare visits to Vienna. Arnold Schoenberg (no fan of anyone but Mahler) craved his personal approval. Busoni was the teacher and mentor of Kurt Weill. In the early Weimar Republic, he moulded its culture.
The 150th anniversary should have been a golden opportunity for the Proms to stage Busoni’s piano concerto, a behemoth with chorus. It’s a terrifying piece, but the British pianist Peter Donohoe has made it his own, as has the Canadian Marc-André Hamelin. If someone had offered it to Daniil Trifonov, he would have bitten their hand off.
The Busoni concerto is made for the Proms, but not under present management.
Failing that, they could have included the Berceuse élégiaque, a short work premiered by Gustav Mahler in the last concert of his life. But present management are dull to such sensitivities, deaf to Busoni.
press release: With unprecedented demand for tickets for this year’s Wexford Festival Opera, the board of Wexford Festival Trust have announced that they will expand the 2017 Festival from 12 to 18 days, running across three weekends, for the first time since 2008, with next year’s 66th Festival opening on Thursday 19 October and closing on Sunday 5 November. Full details of the daytime and evening performance schedule for the 2017 Festival will be announced later this year.
Followers of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra are entitled to feel confused.
Last season it increased box-office sales and made internal economies, cutting ten admin jobs, yet still wound up with a A$577,653 deficit.
The orch has a new Canadian chief exec coming in – Sophie Galaise, lately of the Brisbane Symph.
Her predecessors have gone on from Melbourne to run the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orch.
Sophie will need to find a new formula. Details here.
The capable and popular Minister of Culture Vlad Alexandrescu, has been sacked by the prime minister over the ongoing battle between xenophobes and foreigners at Bucharest National Opera.
‘The best Minister of Culture Romania has been blessed with in decades,’ according to one close observer, Vlad had been carving throught legacies of favouritism and corruption in the arts and has paid the price for his diligence.
The president of Romania, Klaus Iohanis, said: ‘There are only few imaginable mistakes that were not made yet by the minister of culture in the ONB scandal.’
Vlad’s supporters are out on the streets.
Meanwhile, 450 anti-foreigner members of ONB have issued the following release:
The press campaign which denigrates NOB employees, accusing them of xenophobia is a campaign that distorts the truth.
Following research carried out among employees NOB demonstrated with audio-video evidence and witnesses, the cry considered xenophobic belonged to one person, male. The remaining employees declare that strongly distance ourselves from this unique person.
Media scandal created around the couple-Johan Kobborg Alina Cojocaru is a diversion intended to mislead public opinion and distract attention from the serious problems existing in Opera: abuses, discrimination, illegal activity, fraud.
NOB employees are attacked in the press precisely because they want to bring to light the truth and return the institution to legality and morality.
Please note that no operating system NOB brought our institution in this impossible situation, but disastrous management team’s Răzvan-Ioan Dincă, currently under criminal trial.
We ask insistently DNA (national anti-coruption agency – p.n.) to investigate urgently the economic and financial situation of the Bucharest National Opera.
We also believe that the statements of Mr. Ioan Holender is a defamation of employees NOB and an attempt to destabilize the national culture. We call on all operas and philharmonic orchestras of Romania to join our campaign to preserve tradition and national value and eradicate abuse and fraud in the current cultural system.
Specify in this way, we grieve the resignation of Mr Vlad Alexandrescu from the Minister of Culture. We believe that His Excellency has done a tremendously important and correct move when he called the Masters Vlad Conta and Tiberiu Soare to lead NOB. Moreover, under the leadership of this team of professionals, we are convinced that the Bucharest National Opera would have benefited from a functioning modern, European, which we have never opposed.
We oppose only the illegality, fraud and abuse!
