A cute promo for Belgrade’s contemporary and classical music festival next month:
Luca Pisaroni, 41, is a sought-after bass-baritone at the Met, Covent Garden, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Salzburg – just about everywhere except his native Italy.
His will finally make his Scala debut in February. What took them so long?
Luca talks to Graham Spicer in Milan:
I grew up musically outside Italy. I began my career outside and for some reason I have only performed in Italy very rarely. I can’t invite myself, so there’s nothing I can do.
I don’t think that the theatres really ‘know’ me. I certainly haven’t had hundreds of offers and always said ‘no’, and sometimes when they ask me nowadays it is for next season and I’m all booked up.
Of course, to be honest, I’m not happy about it, not only because it is my home country but also because Italy is the home of opera, so not to be asked is not pleasant…
Full interview here.
We hear that Norwegian National Opera and Ballet has lost its fifth artistic director in eight years. Fonancially, it is holed below the aterline.
Here’s an update from Michael Fergus, in Oslo:
The design of Oslo’s spectacular Opera House, completed in 2008, has been widely acclaimed. Inside, however, things are not so cheerful. The Chief Executive Officer Nils Are Karstad Lysø has just resigned.
The Opera House has had five artistic directors in just 8 years. Lysø was an unlikely choice for the job. When phoned by the Opera to take the job, he is reported as saying “Have you maybe got the wrong number ….?” An accountant with a background in the clothing industry, had no experience, professed interest or track record in the Arts.
However his position within the Opera put him above both the Opera and Ballet chiefs. Within one year he had recommended that the five year contract of the Artistic Director of the Opera, Per Boye Hansen should not be renewed. This caused uproar and protests in artistic circles throughout Europe, as it was widely considered that Boye Hansen had made the Norwegian Opera one of the best and most innovative in Europe. But Lysø may have found the financial issues too hot to handle. While his own salary increased by 30%, the Opera was firing staff and lost € 7 million in 2015. Without pension costs, the Opera might have made a € 10 million profit.
The Opera is already advertising for a successor to Lysø. One of the requirements is that applicants should have and interest in and knowledge of Norwegian cultural life!
Oregon police have called off the search for Annie Schmidt, daughter of Piano Guys pianist Jon Schmidt, who went missing while hiking on October 16.
Her mother, Michelle, told local media the family believed she was dead.
However, Jon and the group have posted the following appeal:
Update: We are moved beyond words by the thousands who have searched, prayed for and helped our effort for Annie in any way. At this time, out of consideration to so many out-of-state people involved in the search, the Schmidts have set a conclusion time of Wednesday afternoon so travel arrangements can be planned accordingly. Until then, we are gathering up all our strength, energy, faith and prayers for one more push. Your thoughts and prayers have made such a difference. Please keep them coming for one more day!
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is splitting first-seat duties between the incumbent Stephanie Gonley and a newcomer, Benjamin Marquise Gilmore.
A product of the Menuhin School, Ben, 28, lives in the Hague and plays in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
The Paris hall campaigned for by the late composer will be named after him today.
Former music director Zubin Mehta, 80, has called in sick on three concerts next month with the New York Philharmonic.
Who’s free?
Why Manfred Honeck, who’s hanging around twiddling his baton while his musicians are locked out by the Pittsburgh Symphony.
A gesture of solidarity with the strikers might be timely.
The energetic Kazushi Ono will become artistic director of the New National Theatre, Tokyo from 2018-2019.
He is also chief conductor of Opera de Lyon and music director of both Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestr
Busy man, with an even busier agent.
Ono was previously music director at La Monai, Brussels.
This just in from Mark and Tris Ozark, long-term subscribers to the Pittsburgh Symphony.
WHY I WALK though I am not a musician.
I’m not related to a musician or employed by any of them. I’m walking today with the Musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for many reasons.
♪ As a subscriber, I have become dependent on their exquisite live performances of orchestral music to lift my spirits week after week. I need them back intact.
♪ I am grateful for the lifetime of effort that each and every one of them has made to attain the level of musicianship that they bring to their concerts. Hearing those results inspires me to try as hard in my own life.
♪ I want to thank them for the reputation that brings the world’s greatest solo performers to Pittsburgh for me to hear.
♪ I am grateful for their hard work on tours as ambassadors for Pittsburgh.
♪ I want to pay them back for the work they are doing despite the strike. As musicians, they cannot stop working, even though they are not being paid. They must continue to practice every day to maintain the level of artistry that earned them their jobs.
♪ I want to pay them back for their on-strike performances on the street, in other halls, in restaurants and bars, and wherever they can play. They must continue to work together to maintain the synergy of an orchestra. So they are performing in ensembles. They could perform in private. But they have chosen to keep performing for us, for free.
♪ So I want to thank them for having performing in their blood, and for thriving on the cheers and applause they earn, and not just the money.
♪ I want to thank them for respecting their colleagues enough to want to stay together rather than defect to free agency.
♪ I want to thank them for wanting to stay in the town where I hear them.
♪ It is an honor to share the sidewalk and the effort with such accomplished people. I think of them as the best team in town.
♪ They are smart, interesting, and nice people to talk with.
Come and walk, attend a performance, join in any way to support this great group.
The board of the Fort Worth Symphony has called off all concerts up to December 31 due to the continuing strike by musicians who are refusing to accept wage cut.
A weekend meeting between the two sides was stonewalled by FWS managers. The musicians and their families have been locked out in the cold for Christmas.
Former Black Dyke resident conductor Michael Antrobus has died in Norway at the age of 73.
A child chorister at Chester Cathedral, he played trumpet in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and conducted Black Dyke for two years from 1978. Then he discovered Norway, where he played a huge role in developing brass band culture.
Musicians in the Mexico City Symphony Orchestra have voted for their veteran chief conductor Enrique Batiz to be dismissed after a history of clashes and, they say, money wasting.
Batiz, 74, has told local media he has been suffering for the past five years from Parkinsons Disease.
He has been music director since the orchestra was founded in 1971.
