Marcelo Alvarez has dropped out of Vienna’s season-opening revival of Il Trovatore.
No problem, says its star, Anna Netrebko. My husband, Yusif Eyvazov, will step in.
He has got a week to learn the role.
press statement:
In der Wiederaufnahme von Verdis Il trovatore am Montag, 4.* September 2017 kehrt Anna Netrebko, die die Partie bereits bei der Premiere der Produktion von Daniele Abbado im Februar 2017 verkörpert hat, als Leonora zurück auf die Bühne des Hauses am Ring. Marcelo Álvarez musste seine Auftritte soeben krankheitsbedingt absagen, an seiner Stelle gibt Yusif Eyvazov sein Rollendebüt als Manrico an der Wiener Staatsoper.
Richard Kessler, dean of the Mannes School of Music, has posted sad news of the death of Matthew Wiseman, a classical guitarist who played in all sorts of ensembles from early music to heavy metal.
Matt was recently named Assistant Director of the Fort Lee School of Music when he suffered a traumatic brain injury. A fund has been raised to pay for his hospital and funeral expenses.
Four months ago, Artem Kolesov published a video testament on being young, Russian and gay. His aim was to encourage young Russian gays that they are not alone. You can watch the video here.
Coming out cost Kolesov close relationships with family and friends and left him fearing for his US residency after he completes his studies at Roosevelt University.
Last night in Chicago, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, pianist David Schrader and the Yas Quartet of which Kolesov is first violinst staged a concert to draw attention to his predicament.
The Oregon Bach Festival has summarily fired Matthew Halls, halfway through a four-year contract.
‘I have been let go by the University of Oregon,’ he toldEugene Weekly. ‘As yet, I’m not sure why. It has not been revealed to me yet.’
Halls succeeded the festival’s founder Helmut Rilling, who held control for 43 years.
Last night the festival issued this statement: August 27, 2017 – [Eugene, OR] – Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) is moving forward in an exciting direction that will bring new voices, points of views and artists with more diverse backgrounds to festival audiences. Starting in summer 2018, guest curators will work with OBF staff to build a season of dynamic and engaging musical selections led by world-renowned conductors.
As part of the transition, OBF is parting ways with artistic director Matthew Halls. Halls leaves the Festival with a legacy that includes the establishment of the Organ Institute, the Vocal Fellows program, and the Berwick Academy for Historically Informed Performance. During his tenure, Halls conducted many of Bach’s masterworks, including his own reconstruction of the composer’s lost St. Mark Passion, as well the world premiere of A European Requiem from Sir James MacMillan.
KHOU-TV has just confirmed that flood waters are swirling over the main stages of the Wortham Theater Center, which houses Houston Ballet and Houston Grand Opera.
We have received a private message saying that the basement is completely flooded and there is water in both theaters. Generators have been turned off and the building is shut down.
The arts companies cannot be reached. HGO messages: ‘Due to power outages stemming from the severe weather in Houston, our website is down. We will provide an update as soon as possible.’
There is no word at all from the Houston Symphony, which cancelled an open day yesterday in anticipation of the floods emergency.
C’mon everyone — and you know who you are — if you have a memory about my dad, please share on our cool new Memory Project for Leonard Bernstein at 100. The centennial festivities begin today — on his 99th birthday!
Send your memories here to this ‘digital quilt of remembrance’.
From the international violinist, Liana Isakadze:
Dear friends. We regret to inform you that Prof. Thamaz Chachava, spouse of Liana Isakadze has passed away yesterday, during a concert of Night Serenades Festival, held in Batumi. Funeral will be held on Thursday, August 31, in Tbilisi.
Liana Isakadze, a Georgian student of David Oistrakh, moved to France after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Her husband appears to have died during a concert at a festival she directs in Tbilisi.
Jan Younghusband, BBC Music’s head of TV commissioning, has announced a retrospective to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the British cellist Jacqueline du Pré.
Younghusband said: ‘It seemed a good time to pause and reflect on Jacqueline’s career, her unique contribution to the world, and the loss we still feel in the music world now that she is not with us anymore.’
Let us remind those with short memories that Jan Younghusband co-produced a book and a film on the sexual abuse of Jackie by her brother-in-law at a time when her mind was disturbed by the onset of multiple sclerosis. Much of the book was factually unfounded.
From my 1997 Spectator review: ‘ I don’t think I have ever opened a tackier or more disingenuous book than this ‘intimate memoir’ of the cellist Jacqueline du Pre by her elder sister and younger brother, Hilary and Piers.’
The same Jan Younghusband now wants us to acknowledge ‘the loss we still feel’.
Horribly two-faced.
Jeremy Peaker went straight from school to work in the coal mines.
Then the miners went on strike and lives were shattered.
Jeremy won a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and has spent the rest of his life on stage.
Argentine media are reporting the arrest of a young man of 19 in connection with the murder of Finlay Ferguson, conductor of the youth orchestra in Cordoba.
Ferguson, 60, was found tied naked to his bed with head wounds.
The arrested youth is reported to have been holding some of Ferguson’s possessions.
The international bass Enzo Dara has died in Mantua.
Brought to La Scala by Claudio Abbado in 1971 to sing Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, he went on to perform many comic roles on the world stage.
