January 2017 - Page 22 of 25

UNITEL GmbH & Co. KG, the leading producer and distributor of televised classical music, has sold its backlist and Classica channel to Canadian giant Stingray.

The deal is worth a reported $15 million.

Stingray wins worldwide rights to a catalogue of 1,500 titles and 2,000 hours of premium content produced and owned by Unitel.

When we first reported the rise of child star Jackie Evancho, we were besieged by hundreds of commenters proclaiming that hers was a divine voice, a gift of God, transcending mortal criticism.

Those voices have gone notably silent since Jackie signed on to sing at the inauguration of President Trump.

We miss them.

Perhaps she does, too.

Who will speak up for the Angel?

The three major labels – Universal, Sony and Warner – think they have found a way to monetise streaming.

Together with services such as Pandora, Rhapsody/Napster and HD Tracks, they have signed on to a premium service of studio-quality hi-res audio for music streaming.

Details are scanty at present. Spotify and Apple are staying out.

We hear that Gianluca Macheda, former head of IMG Italy and now based in Warsaw, left the company this week.

Macheda is still listed on the website at this hour, but his resignation has been confirmed to Slipped Disc.

His artists include two-high-earning conductors and some outstanding singers. Apparently, most or all of them are expected to leave with him.

Also gone is Grant Chaput, who looked after up-and-coming conductors from IMG’s New York office.

Sven Müller, who succeeded Keith Warner as artistic director of the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, has resigned over the same issue – savage cuts.

The Government wants to reduce the orchestra musicians to 75 percent contracts and shed several jobs.

Report here (in Danish).

Copenhagen has an eye-catching 2005 opera house it never needed and cannot afford to cast a season.

Where’s Borgen when you really need her?

Forumopera reports the death of Georgette Boué, known as ‘Geori’, star of Sasha Guitry’s film Malibran and hand-picked by Sir Thomas in 1947 for a recording of one of his favourite operas, Gounod’s Faust.

She was married to the baritone Roger Bourdin, who died in 1973.

It’s not just Al Capone who packed a rod in his fiddle box.

A woman walking in the woods near the Boathouse at Fletcher’s Cove on Wednesday found a violin case containing at least one firearm, and police said they discovered other weapons strewn along the C&O Canal.

At least a dozen police officers descended on the area near the boathouse late Wednesday morning. Authorities called in an explosive ordnance disposal unit, or bomb squad, to help with the search as additional weapons were found.

More here.

The Miami Herald is no longer worth reading.

It used to employ Lawrence A. Johnson as music critic. When his job was eliminated in 2008, the paper continued to carry paid reports from his South Florida Classical Review.

Now the Herald has told him it has neither the space nor the cash for classical and opera reports.

Larry says: ‘I knew this day would come. That’s why I started South Florida Classical Review in the first place. Our Florida advertisers have been fantastic and supportive. As long as that continues, SFCR will continue to cover the local music beat with the same quality and comprehensiveness we always have.’

Why buy a newspaper that doesn’t write about the things that interest you?

pic: Florida orchestra

The ambitious Kansas City Symphony is just $3m short of a $55 million endowment target.

Why to they need the money? The first reason given by executive director Frank Byrne is to be ‘competitive by continuing to attract and retain the best musicians.’

At present, KC pays 41 percent less in player wages than other US orchestras of comparable size.