press release:
Bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel will replace baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Saturday, August 26, opera gala program at Tanglewood. Led by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, the program will feature Sir Bryn, soprano Kristine Opolais, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in an evening of opera and song. Further program details will be announced at a later date. Mr. Hvorostovsky withdrew from the concert in May for reasons of health.
The National Opera of Lithuania has received a letter from Gianluca Marciano, announcing his decision to boycott the company following the dismissal of its general director on corruption charges.
Marciano a popular guest at the theatre said the dismissal of Gintautas Kėvišas was a horrible mistake and a great loss to Lithuanian music. He wrote: ‘Jealousy and politically motivated acts should not affect culture. Kėvišas brought to the Lithuanian audience wonderful orchestras and soloists, won himself recognition by highest professionalism. It is a shame this is not understood by his country’s government.’
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has just announced its new president.
He is Jonathan Martin, President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2012. They won’t like that in Texas.
In today’s LA Times, John Rockwell tells of his struggles to bring Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar to the stage and his excitement that the LA Phil are about to perform it, ahead of Harrison’s centenary.
Heartfelt “Young Caesar” may have been, but a success it was not. It has suffered a long, tortured history. I reviewed its premiere at Caltech for the Los Angeles Times in 1971. Then it was a chamber opera for five players of mostly Asian or Asian-inspired instruments, plus the rod-and-stick and shadow puppets, singers and a narrator. I praised the considerable beauties of its instrumental music and set pieces but complained about the protracted recitatives, the “long, arid patches of spoken narration” and the “precious, self-indulgent libretto by Robert Gordon.” I concluded by grumping about “pervasive, embarrassing ennui.”
There was a subsequent performance in San Francisco, but Harrison and Gordon recognized the need for improvements. In 1987, the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus in Oregon commissioned a new version (with assistance from another beloved Californian, the patron Betty Freeman). Harrison added choruses, eliminated the puppets and revised the orchestration for Western (albeit equal-tempered) instruments.
Read on here.
The Chinese pianist, still suffering from an arm injury, has cancelled upcoming concerts in London and Munich.
The LSO has flown in Leeds winner Denis Kozhukhin in a like-for-like substitution in Bartók’s second Piano Concerto.
Bavarian Radio, more daring by half, has called in the showman percussionist Martin Grubinger for an evening of bang-bang.
Lang Lang is 35 today.
A journalist has found 20 close similarities to the SparkNotes crib site on Moby Dick.
Maybe it wasn’t Bob that copied it. Maybe one of his staff…
The Russian pianist Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, grandson of the formidable, Tatiana Nikolaeva – has signed to Decca Classics in partnership with Universal Music Australia.
His first album, titled ‘Moments Musicaux’, will include two Études by Tatiana Nikolaeva.
He doesn’t look much like his Gran.
The house in Bougival where Georges Bizet wrote most of Carmen has fallen into disrepair.
A local campaign, headed by Teresa Berganza, is trying to raise three million Euros from public and private funds.
Domingo is also involved.
Read here.
