The artistic director needs support, apparently.
Press release:
Multi award-winning music producer and composer Marius de Vries will be working with English National Opera (ENO) as Creative Consultant, with immediate effect.
Liaising closely with ENO Artistic Director Daniel Kramer, de Vries will advise on future projects for staging at the London Coliseum. Drawing on his exceptional knowledge of the music, theatre and film industries, he will contribute to a series of daring projects combining and colliding opera with popular music and electronic music as well as other genres to bring ENO’s work to an audience that may never have considered engaging with opera before.
Marius de Vries has been involved in some of the most culture-defining recordings and soundtracks of the past three decades. He has written, arranged and produced across a wide range of styles and genres for artists such as Madonna, Bjork, David Bowie, David Gray, Massive Attack, Chrissie Hynde and Annie Lennox. In the film and theatre world, his work includes music direction, score composition and song productions for Baz Luhrmann, George Lucas, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Matthew Vaughn, Zack Snyder and Daniel Kramer. De Vries was the Music Director for Baz Lurhmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) and also worked with Nellee Hooper on the soundtrack for Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet. He has won two BAFTA awards, an Ivor Novello Award, and four Grammy nominations for soundtrack and record production. Most recently De Vries was the Music Director and Music Producer for La La Land, which won both Music awards – song and score – at this year’s Oscars.
It is understood that De Vries will not take payment for his involvement.
From Michael Cooper’s NY Times investigation of why the German tenor cancelled the Met:
One of Mr. Kaufmann’s managers, Alan Green of Zemsky/Green Artists Management, declined to speak on the phone or to explain why Mr. Kaufmann had not withdrawn before the Met’s season announcement.
The agent who never answers the phone…
Ronald Eichman, former head of Fresno Grand Opera Company, is suing the company and his successor, an unusual twist in the general comings and goings:
Fresno lawyer Warren Paboojian filed the civil lawsuit Friday on behalf of Ronald D. Eichman and Thi Nguyen. Eichman served as general director from August 1998 to Dec. 5, 2014, and Nguyen as associate director from August 2008 until the end of November 2014. It names the opera and former director Matthew Buckman, who took over in the beginning of 2015 and left in February. There are also 50 unnamed defendants.
A five-year survey of music teachers at some 700 schools across England suggests that, contrary to Government assurances, music is being wiped out at senior level.
The BBC reports:
Researchers, from Sussex University’s School of Education and Social Work, surveyed secondary music teachers at 657 state and 48 private schools across England over five years.
Staff at about 60% of the state schools specifically mentioned the EBacc as causing a negative effect …
The results show:
schools offering Music BTEC level 2 falling from 166 in 2012-13 to just 50 in 2016-17
and the number offering music GCSE falling by six percentage points – from 85% in 2012-13 to 79% in 2016-17
Full report here.
In 1994, Ruth McGinley won the piano section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Se went on to play dates with London orchestras and seemed destined for a fine career.
But depression set in when she returned to live in Northern Ireland and she has only recently begun to return to the stage. Her debut album, titled Reconnection, has received £5,000 in National Lottery support, and a short film.
A welcome return.
Reconnection Album Launch – Ruth McGinley from Arts Council of Northern Ireland on Vimeo.
Christoph von Dohnanyi, having cancelled US dates last month, is too unwell to conduct a Brahms Requiem with the Orchestre de Paris on March 29 and 30.
Thomas Hengelbrock steps in.
The small print of the 2017 Budget discloses a grant towards a £10 million extension for Birmingham’s exemplary Symphony Hall.
It’s part of the Government’s Midlands Engine Strategy.
No half-billion for a new hall in London.
The Romanian soprano was due to open the season at the Teatro Colon in Cilea’s opera, Adriana Lecouvreur. But, ‘deeply upset and disappointed at the lack of professionalism and discourtesy’ she encountered in Argentina, she has blown out of the production and is heading home.
Here’s her account of things:
I am deeply upset and disappointed about the lack of professionalism and discourtesy I have encountered in the last days in Buenos Aires, while I was very much looking forward to perform Adriana Lecouvreur at Teatro Colón.
Due to pre-contractual breaches and the failure of Teatro Colon to fulfil my contractual terms, which are unquestionably respected wherever I sing, in opera houses and concert halls all over the world, I find myself in the impossibility to perform for the Argentinian audiences, which I love and highly adore.
I travelled to Buenos Aires, an extremely long journey, with this uncertainty, hoping that everything will get sorted out as soon as I am in Argentina.. It has been already a week since I am here and nothing has improved. I could not even attend any rehearsal without any valid contract signed, of course. I only experienced more disappointment, unprofessional behaviour and disrespect. I even tried to have a conversation with the General Director of the Teatro Colon, Maria Victoria Alcaraz, but, surprisingly, I was refused one. It is a very embarrassing and unpleasant situation for me.
I interdict the Teatro Colon to sell tickets under my name and to use my name or my image in any of their promotional materials, it is illegitimate and unfair for the people who pay and who are not responsible for this unfortunate circumstances.
I was extremely eager to re-encounter with the wonderful, warm public in Buenos Aires, which I cherish a lot, and I can only hope that I will return some other time, under honourable conditions and under the righteous respect and admiration.
Angela Gheorghiu
Estoy profundamente disgustada y decepcionada por la falta de profesionalidad y de la descortesía que he encontrado en los últimos días en Buenos Aires, mientras que estaba muy expectante para llevar a Adriana Lecouvreur en el Teatro Colon.
Debido a las violaciones pre-contractuales y al fracaso del Teatro Colon para cumplir mis condiciones contractuales, que son sin duda respetadas dondequiera que yo cante, en las casas de ópera y en las salas de conciertos por todo el mundo, me encuentro en la imposibilidad de cantar para el público argentino, Lo cual me encanta y adoro.
Viajé a Buenos Aires, un viaje extremadamente largo, con esta incertidumbre, esperando que todo se clasificados tan pronto como estuviera en Argentina.. ha sido ya una semana desde que estoy aquí y nada ha mejorado. Ni siquiera podía asistir a ningún ensayo sin ningún contrato válido firmado, por supuesto. Sólo he experimentado una gran decepción, comportamiento poco profesional y falta de respeto. Incluso traté de tener una conversación con el director general del Teatro Colon, María Victoria Alcaraz, pero, sorprendentemente, me ha sido negado a uno. Es una situación muy embarazosa y desagradable para mí.
Impedir el Teatro Colon para vender entradas bajo mi nombre y usar mi nombre o mi imagen en cualquiera de sus materiales promocionales, es ilegítimo e injusto para las personas que pagan y que no son responsables de esta desafortunada situación.
Estaba muy ansioso por reencuentro con el maravilloso y cálido público de Buenos Aires, que aprecio mucho, y sólo puedo esperar que regrese algún otro tiempo, bajo condiciones, honorables, y bajo el respeto y la admiración de los justos.
Angela Gheorghiu
The listings, published today, read:
1 Juilliard, NY
2 Royal College of Music, London
3= Royal Academy of Music, London
3= Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow
5 University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
6 Royal College of Music, Stockholm
7 Indiana University, Bloomington
8 Curtis Institute, Philadelphia
9 Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse, Paris
10 Sibelius Academy, Helsinki
More here.
The Dallas Symphony has posted on Instagram – though not on its website – that:
Music Director Jaap van Zweden will be unable to conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra the week of April 6, 2017 due to family reasons.
Gustavo Gimeno will conduct April 6-8.
The unspecified family reasons date back to the beginning of last month.
Benjamin Morrison, a second violinist in the orchestra since 2014, won the audition today for a vacancy in the first violins.
Ben, who is 30, studied with Yair Kless in Graz.
We hear that first violinists, Ekaterina Frolova and Petra Kovačič have both fulfilled their trial periods in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and are confirmed as full members from today.
They become eligible for membership of the Vienna Philharmonic in three years’ time.
