Fascinating piece in New York magazine by Justin Davidson on what the ageing process does to the voice – even to those who take good care of their instrument.

The worst thing anyone can do, says one voice therapist, is talk on the phone.

As for the 13 year-old Laura Bretan…

“Her sound is created by severe muscle-manipulation tension,” says the noted voice teacher Bill Schuman. What he hears is a talented little girl depressing the back of her tongue and unnaturally stretching her throat to the point that her muscles will never regain their tautness. He predicts that by the time she is 19, her voice will acquire an uncorrectable wobble.

Read the full article here.

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For 29 years, from Milton Cross’s death in January 1975 to Götterdämmerung in April 2014. Peter Allen was the radio voice of the Metropolitan Opera (he was followed by Margaret Juntwait, until her early death last year).

Peter has died, aged 96. Obit here.

This is his retirement message.

peter-allen

The complete awards, presented last night:

Female singer of the year: Anna Netrebko
Male singer of the year: Philippe Jaroussky
Instrumentalist (clarinet): Martin Fröst
Instrumentalist (cello): Sol Gabetta

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Instrumentalist (piano): Grigory Sokolov
Instrumentalist (flute): Stefan Temmingh
Instrumentalist (violin): Pinchas Zukerman
Conductor of the Year: Antonio Pappano
Ensemble: Berliner Philharmoniker

Bestseller of the Year: Jonas Kaufmann

 

The great Polish film director, who died today aged 90, had a hypersensitive ear for music and its social role.

In a prolific and taboo-breaking life in which he made films about the Russian massacre of Poles at Katyn and about Polish anti-semitism, Wajda found time in 1980 to make a small, award-winning portrait, The Conductor, about a Polish maestro-in-exile, played by Sir John Gielgud. It captures to the last nuance the frustrations of musicians whose lives are derailed by politics.

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In one of his earliest films, Kanal (1956), the hero is a composer who is trapped in Warsaw under Nazi bombardment.

Wajda discovered Wojciech Kilar, who set the tone in Polish film for half a century. He also worked extensively with Andrzej Korzyński.

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