Professor Vlad Alexandrescu who resigned last week over the chaos at the national opera is now saying he won’t go unless he can nominate his successor.

Staff at the opera, among them those who led the campaign against the engagement of foreign artists, have demanded his instant dismissal (you can read their statement below).

Meanwhile, at least six performances have been lost and the institution is paralysed.

The majority of the artists, technicians and employees of the National Opera of Bucharest and the majority of the creators and technicians from the cinema industry are joining forces to demand the imediate and official removal from office of Mr. Vlad Alexandrescu and his team, because under the cover of an alleged reform they initiated and put in place an ample action of accaparation of the public funds and destruction of culture institution in favour of group interests. 
We ask for a correct management team to be installed in the ministery, who, simultanously with a transparent investigation of the legallity of the minister and his group of interests decisions, to start a true reform in the culture.

Some of the singer highlights of the 2017 festival:

The Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury shares the role of Violetta with Russian soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan, both making festival debuts, in Tom Cairns’s 2014 revived staging of Verdi’s La traviata.

Alice Coote sings her first Vitellia in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.

Allan Clayton sings Hamlet, Sarah Connolly is Gertrude and John Tomlinson is the Ghost of Old Hamlet in a world premiere of Brett Dean’s new Shakespearian opera. Barbara Hannigan makes her Glynde debut as Ophelia.

An almost all-American cast for Ariadne auf Naxos: AJ Glueckert as Bacchus, Angela Brower as Composer and Erin Morley as Zerbinetta, with the Norwegian Operalia winner Lise Davidsen, making her UK debut as Ariadne.

More here.

Dominique Meyer, head of the Vienna State Opera, lost his cool in a post-curtain interview, calling those who booed the company’s new Turandot ‘a pair of idiots’.

Actually, there were more than a couple of protesters against Marco Arturo Marelli’s production, with Gustavo Dudamel conducting and Lise Lindstrom in the title role. There was quite a hostile reception, sustained for several minutes, and Dudamel collected some pretty tough reviews in the morning papers for being too loud.

But Dominique Meyer is right: booing has become obligatory at Vienna first nights. It’s stupid and boring.

He’s at Bavarian State Opea, working on his Walther von Stolzing in Meistersinger.

Franz Welser-Möst has pulled out of this week’s three concerts with Bavarian Radio.

His replacement is Karl-Heinz Steffens.

Er? Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz.

A revealing first interview with Glyndebourne’s new general director Sebastian Schwarz draws the interesting admission that he is planning ‘an eyebrow-raising foray into American musical theatre.’

Schwarz, having let the big cat out of the bag, tells Rupert Christiansen: ‘Nothing can be announced until we have cleared things with the composer’s estate and signed up the creative team.’

Read the full interview here.

The timing, however, seems a tad askew.

This morning, Glyndebourne releases its 2017 plans via the Telegraph and in a press release (below). The ack of new shows is overshadowed, unfortunately, by the exciting prospect of future Guys and Dolls.

Glyndebourne press announcement:

Cavalli rarity to receive its UK premiere at the 2017 Glyndebourne Festival

• The 2017 Glyndebourne Festival will open with the UK’s first ever production of Cavalli’s Hipermestra, directed by Graham Vick and conducted by baroque specialist William Christie.
• The season also includes the world premiere of a new opera based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet composed by Brett Dean with a libretto by Matthew Jocelyn. The production, directed by Neil Armfield, will transfer directly to the 2017 Glyndebourne Tour.
• Prominent German director Claus Guth will make his Glyndebourne debut directing the third new production of the 2017 Festival, Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito.  
• Revivals of La traviata, Don Pasquale and Ariadne auf Naxos complete next summer’s Festival season.

The UK’s first production of Hipermestra, a rarely seen opera by the influential baroque composer Francesco Cavalli, will open the 2017 Glyndebourne Festival.

Glyndebourne is preparing a new edition of the work in close collaboration with conductor William Christie, a pioneer in the rediscovery of baroque music who will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The opera will be directed by Graham Vick; his first new staging for Glyndebourne in 17 years.

Hungarian soprano Emöke Baráth makes her UK debut in the title role with Italian countertenor Raffaele Pe making a Glyndebourne debut as Linceo. Portuguese soprano Ana Quintans, who performed the role of Cupid in Hippolyte et Aricie at the 2013 Glyndebourne Festival, is cast in the role of Elisa, and British tenor Benjamin Hulett, who played Jonathan in the 2015 Glyndebourne Tour production of Saul, will perform the role of Arbante.

Hipermestra, based on the tale of Hypermnestra from Greek mythology, premiered in 1658 but after 1680 was not staged again until its modern premiere at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht in 2006. Glyndebourne’s production will be the first since then and marks the latest chapter in the company’s distinguished history with the operas of Cavalli – the company’s stagings of L’Ormindo (1967) and La Calisto (1970) in arrangements by Raymond Leppard were major influences in the revival of interest in the composer.

Conductor William Christie said: “It was almost 50 years ago that Glyndebourne first introduced Francesco Cavalli, a completely forgotten composer, with two of his works, L’Ormindo and La Calisto. The effect on the opera world was nothing short of extraordinary. Conducted by Leppard with outstanding singers including Janet Baker, Ileana Cotrubus and Richard Van Allen, these works established Cavalli as a great composer of opera and reaffirmed Glyndebourne’s role as a place of discovery. After so many years I’m happy to take up this extraordinary beginning and continue the ‘Cavalli tradition’ at Glyndebourne with a new production of Hipermestra, one of his best works. Times have changed and I am proud to be part of a new Cavalli wave, more in keeping with the historical performance school that is doing so much to continue the evolution of early music. I hope that our Hipermestra will have as much to say to today’s audience as its predecessors had to say so many years ago.”

Another highlight of the 2017 Festival will be the world premiere of a new opera based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Commissioned to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare in 2016, Hamlet is the work of Australian composer Brett Dean and Canadian librettist Matthew Jocelyn. It will be the sixth world premiere presented at the Glyndebourne Festival in its 82 year history and is part of the Shakespeare400 campaign, coordinated by King’s College London.

Hamlet composer Brett Dean, said: ‘‘The operatic potential of Hamlet is huge: the themes of life and death, love and betrayal have opera written all over them.  Even the fact that Hamlet is a thinker, a man given to self-awareness and self-appraisal, lends itself well to opera.  The play provides frozen moments for him to express feelings; built-in ‘aria moments’.  There’s a lot of humour in the piece too, as always in Shakespeare, and the wonderful way in which Matthew is shaping the text has been deeply inspiring.’

Hamlet will be directed by the Australian director Neil Armfield, who staged Dean’s acclaimed first opera Bliss in 2010. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski returns to Glyndebourne for the first time since completing his tenure as Music Director to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

A cast of some of the finest singing actors of the moment will perform in the premiere, including British tenor Allan Clayton as Hamlet, British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly in the role of Gertrude and the legendary British bass John Tomlinson as Ghost of Old Hamlet. The Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan, a strong advocate of contemporary music, will make her Glyndebourne debut as Ophelia.

The third and final new production of the season is Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and will mark the Glyndebourne debut of the prominent German director Claus Guth, a frequent guest at top European houses including Bayreuth, Salzburg Festival, Theater an der Wien and La Scala.

Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for only the second ever staging of the opera at Glyndebourne.  The distinguished Australian lyric tenor Steve Davislim makes his Glyndebourne debut in the title role alongside British lyric mezzo-soprano Alice Coote (Vitellia), American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey (Sesto) and American soprano Joélle Harvey (Servilia).

Among the productions being revived for the 2017 Glyndebourne Festival is Tom Cairns’s 2014 staging of Verdi’s La traviata, which will receive two performance runs next summer. Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury shares the role of Violetta with Russian soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan, both making Glyndebourne debuts, while Alfredo is performed by Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan and American tenor Zach Borichevsky. The powerful Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias makes his Glyndebourne debut as Giorgio Germont, a role he shares with Russian baritone Igor Golovatenko who made a notable debut as Severo in the 2015 Glyndebourne Festival production of Poliuto.

Katharina Thoma’s 2013 Glyndebourne Festival production of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos returns with Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, who won first prize at the 2015 Operalia competition,making her UK debut as Ariadne. There are Glyndebourne debuts from American tenor AJ Glueckert as Bacchus, American mezzo-soprano Angela Brower as Composer and American soprano Erin Morley as Zerbinetta. The distinguished British baritone Thomas Allen returns in the role of Music Master. Cornelius Meister, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, makes his Glyndebourne debut conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Completing the season is Mariame Clément’s elegant production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, first seen on the 2011 Glyndebourne Tour. A dynamic young cast promises auspicious Glyndebourne debuts from Italian baritone Renato Girolami in the title role, Moldovan baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Malatesta and the Cuban-American soprano Lisette Oropesa as Norina. American tenor Andrew Stenson, who performed the role of Brighella in the 2013 Glyndebourne Festival production of Ariadne auf Naxos, takes the role of Ernesto.

John von Rhein has the story here:

Eugene Izotov, now principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony, is no longer listed on the personnel page of the CSO program book, and his resignation has yet to be announced. Management has further declined comment on internal reports that CSO principal trumpet Christopher Martin will take a leave of absence next season to play first chair trumpet with the New York Philharmonic.

Do such key personnel changes bother Muti? Do they threaten the orchestra’s musical identity and well-being?

“Absolutely not,” he replied. “With all respect to Izotov, no player is indispensable in this orchestra. I spoke with Chris Martin today. He is very close to the Chicago Symphony but he wants another experience (away from the orchestra). So we shall see. Change is natural in symphony orchestras.’

photo: Todd Rosenberg

From a Telegraph news feature on the Mayor’s Music Fund:

‘There was a kid I met four years ago at City Hall,’ he says. ‘He won a music scholarship and he went on to get an academic scholarship to study at Christ’s Hospital school in Sussex and, as a result, his life has been totally transformed.

‘That story sticks in my mind. But there are thousands of young people across the capital whose lives are better now than they were when I came into office. So if you’re asking me for my legacy, hand on heart, there it is: confidence and social mobility. And I’m very, very proud of it.’

That ‘kid’ was Emmanuel Odujebe, now 13, who became one of the first children to be sponsored by the Mayor’s Music Fund (MMF), launched in 2011 to support some of the most musically talented children from the least privileged backgrounds in the capital.

They were provided with an instrument, weekly small-group tuition during the school day and, crucially, constant personal mentoring.

In addition, there was compulsory attendance at music ensembles on Saturday mornings, as well as regular opportunities to perform in concerts alongside professional musicians. The initiative was the brainchild of Johnson and one of his senior advisors, Veronica Wadley.

In that first year, 100 of the poorest children from 32 London boroughs were nominated by their music teachers to receive the four-year scholarships…

Read on here.

Johnson, Wadley, with Emmanuel Odujebe, earlier this year. photo: Paul J Cochrane

His pal Denis Matsuev has published this birthday picture of the two of them in the deep.

Valery Gergiev is 63 today.

Denis’s message:

Сегодня день рождения у маэстро Гергиева, моего дорогого друга! Я его поздравляю, желаю оставаться в таком же гергиевском драйве, который заряжает всех, в том числе вашего покорного слугу! А ещё благодарю его за бесконечные великие импровизации! Потому что этой ночью мы с ним созванивались, и так получилось, что сегодня вечером мы с ним будем на сцене Концертного зала им. Чайковского играть Второй концерт для фортепиано с оркестром С. В. Рахманинова. Это в стиле маэстро Гергиева, и мне это очень нравится! Несмотря на сверхплотный график, я не могу отказать своему другу в день его рождения и буду с ним на сцене сегодня!
Today is the birthday of maestro Gergiev! My dearest friend! I congratulate him on it and wish him keep on his breathtaking drive, that affects everybody around, including your humble servant. And I thank him with all my heart for his great improvisations! Cause this night he called me and it happened so, that today we are performing Rachmaninoff’s Second piano concerto on the stage of Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. It is definitely Gergiev’s Style. And I love it! So we play Rachmaninov at Gergiev’s Birthday!

Mike Vincent is scooping overtime today on Musical Toronto.

He has pic and story of the teen scream turning out to hear three members of Opera Atelier sing for joy at Bieber’s father’s engagement. Toronto’s where it’s all at.

Read Mike here.

Justin Bieber (l) with host Andy Curnew

We hear that Rion Wentworth has won the vacant doublebass seat in the New York Phil.

Nothing official yet. Their press dept. inhabits the 20th century.

Bio:

Rion has lived in New York City for the last fifteen years where he is a freelance musician. He has performed extensively with the New York Philharmonic including tours of the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has also played with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Rion teaches on the faculty of the Juilliard School’s Pre College division and at Hunter College.

Their opening Shostakovich release won a Grammy. Now DG has signed Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony to complete the cycle. Bold move: the outer symphonies – 1-3, 11-15 – never sell well.

press release:

The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, and Deutsche Grammophon have expanded their award-winning recording partnership by extending their original agreement, which focused primarily on Shostakovich Symphonies 5-10 (works composed during the period of Shostakovich’s difficult relationship with Stalin and the Soviet regime, mid-1930s to 1953), to include live recordings of the composer’s entire canon of 15 symphonies, plus the masterpiece opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.  The first album of the new partnership between the BSO, Nelsons, and DG, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, released in July 2015, won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance at the 58th annual Grammy Awards in February 2016.

In addition to the news about the contract extension, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Deutsche Grammophon announce the second installment in their series of live recordings of Shostakovich’s music under the direction of BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, to be released worldwide on May 27, 2016. The second installment of Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow, a two-disc set, will feature Symphonies 5, 8, and 9, as well as incidental music to Hamlet; these works were recorded live during the BSO’s 2015-16 season.