We present, by popular request, a revised Slipped Disc power list:

1 Anna Netrebko and Yusuf Eyvazov

2 Minnesota music director Osmo Vänskä and concertmaster Erin Keefe

3 Powerhouse Daniel Barenboim, pianist and festival director Elena Bashkirova

4 LSO chief Sir Simon Rattle, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena

5 Boston chief Andris Nelsons, hyper soprano Kristine Opolais

6 Trumpeter Alison Balsom and new husband, director Sam Mendes

7 Tenor Roberto Alagna, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak

8 Soprano Sonya Yoncheva, conductor Domingo Hindoyan

9 Soprano Elina Garanca, conductor Karel Mark Chichon

10 Conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky and pianist Viktoria Postnikova, together since 1969

11 Conductor David Robertson and pianist Orli Shaham

12 Composers Kaija Saariaho and Jean-Baptiste Barrière

13 Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, conductor Rafael Payare

14 Glyndebourne hosts Gus Christie and Danielle DeNiese

15 Violinist Nicola Benedetti, cellist Leonard Elschenbroichn (UPDATE: Break-up)

16 Composer György Kurtág, pianist Marta Kurtág

17 Israeli composers Noam Sherriff and Ella Sheriff

18 Met boss Peter Gelb, conductor Kerri-Lynn Wilson

19 Pianist David Fray, director Chiara Muti

20 Cellist David Finckel and  pianistWu Han, chamber music entrepreneurs

21 Soprano Nino Machaidze, baritone Guido Loconsolo.

22 Soprano Diana Damrau, bass-baritone Nicola Testé.

Take a look at the roster for the current two seasons here. Not one woman (apart from one candidate in the conducting masterclass).

Are we in the 21st century? Is the music director tone deaf to the spirit of the times?

Answer that phone now, before it drives you mad.

Six months ago, the Komische Oper named the Canadian Jordan de Souza as Kapellmeister for next season.

Now it has added the German conductor Ivo Hentschel since it will be without a General Music Director for the foreseeable future. Hentschel is presently Kapellmeister at Cottbus.

Should make for an interesting competition.

The timing is, as you’d expect, exquisite.

And there’s a cameo from Novak Djokovic.

press release:

After an international search, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen four new singers and two new pianist/coaches for the 2017–18 HGO Studio. The artists are Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor (pictured), the first-place prize winner at Concert of Arias 2017; Thomas Glass, baritone, third-place prize winner at Concert of Arias 2017; Jonathan Gmeinder, pianist/coach; Blair Salter, pianist/coach; Anthony Robin Schneider, bass; and Richard Smagur, tenor.

Cohen and Smagur are also competing today in the Met national opera auditions.

An effusive invitation from the Finnish ambassador:

Finland100 at the Bach Festival

The comedienne has released a promo for Die Walküre which her husband, Stephen Barlow, is conducting this summer at Grange Park Opera.

You see it here first.

Two releases coming up:

An online exhibition, The Toscanini Era, which will include rare footage of the maestro shot by principal trumpet Harry Glantz. This is scheduled to go live in the last days of March. Check the NY Phil website.

And, on April 7, New York Philharmonic—175th Anniversary Edition, a 65-CD Philharmonic box, 1917 to 1995, will be out from Sony Classical.

The music director of the recently jeapordised European Union Youth Orchestra tells the Observer today:

‘I am sorry about (Brexit), and I know it will be difficult to get used to a totally different situation, but for musicians many things will remain the same, simply because we will work to find a way to make agreements for the sake of music…

‘ In Germany classical music is, of course, incredibly strong traditionally. But it has become much stronger here in Britain, with a very high level of musicians who are, perhaps, more open to all sorts of new endeavours.

‘Brexit seems quite small compared to the changes you once saw in communist countries.’

Read full article here.