Opera North’s new production of Cavalleria Rusticana is set in rust-belt Poland of the 1970s.
That’s the kind of time warp and place warp that directors do these days.
Karolina Sofulak says: ‘Poland is a deeply religious country which was occupied for centuries by various foreign powers, and in this respect it’s very similar to post-Risorgimento Sicily, the original setting of Cavalleria rusticana. I’ve been drawing on my own experiences and my family’s experiences of growing up in an intensely Catholic and economically deprived country – where everyday hardships make people turn towards the dreaminess of religion, make them filter and channel their desires and frustrations through obsessive faith.’
Fair enough.
But someone must be aware that there are a million Poles living in the UK, many in the north of England where Opera North is based. This could prove an irresistible magnet to get them into the opera house.
photo (c) Robert Workman/Opera North
Recently retired from the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Dennis Russell Davies was announced today as chief conductor of the Brno Philharmonic in the Czech Republic.
Brno is renowned for Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat, inspiration of Simon Mawer’s novel, The Glass Room.
They can now expect to hear a lot of Glass.
The Estonian composer, 81, has been awarded the Vatican’s Ratzinger Prize for outstanding achievement in theology.
He shares the 50,000 Euros with an academic theologian from Bonn and a Lutheran from Strasbourg.
Pope Francis will make the presentation on November 18.
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov, who died in Moscow on September 19, was renowned the world over for The Song of the Volga Boatmen.
He was admitted to the Moscow Conservatory in 1952, despite never having finished school.
That’s what the Montreal Symphony are doing. Not sure it’s the best method to buy a Volkswagen.
Here’s the blurb:
Three months after revealing the end of Kent Nagano’s mandate as music director of the OSM in 2020, the Orchestra announces that the process enabling it to find a future music director is under way and that a prestigious search committee has been formed, which met for the first time last week.
The search committee will make its recommendations to the Orchestra’s executive committee. No deadline has been set for determining the choice of the next music director.
The committee will be chaired by Suzanne Fortier, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and have as its senior advisor Zarin Mehta, a great executive who served as managing director of the OSM from 1981 to 1990, then as executive director of the Ravinia Festival (1990-2000) and of the New York Philharmonic until 2012. The seasoned players making up the committee hail from the music scene both local and international (Europe and the U.S.). They are Laurent Bayle, executive director, Cité de la musique-Philharmonie (Paris);Madeleine Careau, chief executive officer of the OSM; Pierre Goulet, former president of Jeunesses Musicales Internationales, current chairman of the board of the Festival d’Opéra de Québec and member of the OSM board of directors; Ara Guzelimian, dean and provost of the Julliard School (New York); Richard Lupien, president of the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation and president of Pro Musica; Alexander Neef, general director of the Canadian Opera Company (Toronto); Isabelle Panneton, dean, Faculty of Music, Université de Montréal; Nancy Rosenfeld, president of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation and member of the OSM board; Andrew Wan, OSM concertmaster, along with two musicians of the Orchestra appointed by the musicians’ committee: Ali Yazdanfar, principal double bass, and Todd Cope, principal clarinet. Their recommendations will be made with an eye to the future, but bearing in mind the importance of continuity.
The Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra marked its 60th anniversary on September 24 with the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s sixth symphony, titled Chinese Poems.
The work contains German translations of Tang Dynasty poetry.
The premiere was conducted by GSO music director Long Yu, with baritone soloist Chen-Ye Yuan.
Matthieu Abelli’s Operamusic is low on funds.
He writes:
OPERA MUSICA needs your help!! [ français ci-dessous ]
Following funding that was not granted, the survival of www.operamusica.com is suddenly seriously threatened. Within a few days we will launch an emergency campaign calling for donations on a crowdfunding site to save OPERA MUSICA. This ‘post-shock’ video, made in haste, will allow each of you to get an idea. We hope that many of you will be able to help us. We’re going to need the support of all of you …. “No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by it’s very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.” [Seneca] ———————————–
GROS COUP DUR POUR OPERA MUSICA! PARTAGEZ! Suite à un financement qui ne nous a pas été accordé, la survie du site www.operamusica.com se trouve soudainement gravement menacée. D’ici quelques jours nous lancerons une campagne d’urgence d’appel aux dons sur un site de crowdfunding pour sauver OPERA MUSICA. Cette vidéo “post-choc”, réalisée à la hâte, permettra à chacun d’entre vous de se faire une idée. Nous espérons que vous serez très nombreux à bien vouloir nous apporter votre aide. Nous allons avoir besoin du soutien de chacun d’entre vous…. “Seul l’arbre ayant subi les assauts des tempêtes est vraiment vigoureux. C’est dans cette lutte que la résistance de ses racines est éprouvée et qu’il se fortifie” [Sénèque]
Vladimir Urin has announced that the controversial ballet production of ‘Nureyev’ by the arrested director Kirill Serebrennikov will take place on December 9 and 10.
The production was cancelled at short notice in July after reservations over full-frontal male nudity and the director’s growing difficulties as a critic of the Putin regime.
Urin said today that he had asked the investigator who is in charge of Serebrennikov’s case to let him meet with the director, who is under the house arrest. The investigator gave his permission in a phone conversation. Urin added:
‘What is important now is whether Serebrennikov will allow production to be performed without him or whether he will ask to wait for this whole situation to be resolved, in which case we will finish the work on the production together with him’.
He continued: ‘Kirill Serebrennikov gave his consent to the theatre on the following: if the situation with his house arrest is not solved, the work on the ballet Nureyev can be finished by the choreographer Yuri Possokhov. I would like to mention that as for Kirill Serebrennikov’s share of work, most of it has been done and tracked down. As of today, it is much more important to work on Yuri Possokhov’s choreography and make sure the dancing is on the decent level. In the mid-November the choreographer will be able to come to Moscow and to continue working on the production. We have already negotiated this. Kirill Serebrennikov might have the chance to join the production team before the premiere and we will be very happy if he can do so.’
It sounds like the Bolshoi is dancing, as usual, on hot coals.
Latonia Mooore, one of the most commanding Aidas of present times, is about to make her debut at English National Opera. Latonia, like so any others, is struggling with the company’s insistence on singing in English.
UPDATE: We took this post down after Bachtrack complained at the use of their interview. Readers, however, have asked us to restore it since the comments sparked an interesting debate on opera sung in English. So it’s back.
The key quote from Latonia’s interview is: Some words were ridiculous to sing on high notes.’
Discuss.
The German violinist Linus Roth was named today Artistic Director of the Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg.
He immediately announced two major changes. Students and ex-students of jurors and the Artistic Director will not be allowed to compete. hat eliminates one form of corruption.
The jury will consist both of violinists, and of other instrumentalists and conductors with the aim of discovering a musical personality, rather than a technical automaton.
We’re delighted to see that Slipped Disc’s competition clean-up campaign is taking root. Other competitions please take note.
These are the artist photos on one of this week’s new releases.
Anyone recognise the guys? Or the music?
*
Give up?
It’s Chen Halevi (clarinet) and Noam Greenberg (piano) on a new album of late Brahms-plus, titled Atem der Statuen.
Narek Hakhnazaryan has been awarded the title Honoured Artist of Armenia by President Serzh Sargsyan.
