Live testimony from Jorge Costa, in Mexico City:

I was about to start teaching a class when the earthquake struck. I’ve gone through quakes in Los Angeles, here in Mexico and a tsunami in Thailand, and this was by far the worst. It was violent right off the bat.

Entire buildings collapsed. Windows were shattering and falling into the street.

I only had to go down two floors. We had a drill about 2 hours earlier, at 11 a.m., and it made a huge difference. The drill is held every year on the anniversary of the 1985 quake. People were more aware not to run and not panic. But nobody wants to go back into buildings. I’ve never seen so many people in the street….

More here.

 

The death is reported of Francesc Bonastre, founding father of Catalan musicology and a baroque scholar of international repute.

A prolific composer, he also directed the Schola Cantorum of the University of Barcelona, the Gaudium Musicae choir and other ensembles.

 

The  German soprano Anett Fritsch has withdrawn from singing Micaëla in the ROH Barrie Kosky Carmen due to an anticipated happy event. She will be replaced by the Russian Kristina Mkhitaryan (pictured).

Once upon a time, when pregnancy was coyly referred to as a ‘happy event’ or ‘a certain condition’, sopranos sang on until the last moment and sometimes gave birth in the wings. That’s how Malibran was born.

We now live in safer, healthier times.

 

And after Brexit, we may hear a lot of British Micaelas.

 

from the ASO press release:

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra welcomes seven new musicians for the 2017-18 season: Julianne Lee, Principal Second Violin; Madeline Sharp, viola; Anthony Georgeson, Associate Principal Bassoon; Sissi Yuqing Zhang, violin; Joseph Petrasek, Principal Percussion; Michael Stubbart, percussion; Thomas Carpenter, cello.

Julianne Lee joins from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where she served as the Assistant Principal Second Violin.

Madeline Sharp and Thomas Carpenter were previously members of the New World Symphony.

Principal bassoonist of the Florida Orchestra, 2007-17, Anthony Georgeson has also been a member of the New World Symphony.

Michael Stubbart was Acting Principal Percussion with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra in Honolulu.

Joseph Petrasek most recently served as Associate Principal Percussionist of the Kansas City Symphony for eight seasons, and as a percussion fellow in the New World Symphony.

Sissi Yuqing Zhang is a founding member of the Hsin Trio.

 

Message from the HGO:

We are very sorry to have to share the news that our creative home is still in great distress, and will take much longer to repair than we originally thought.

In conversation with Houston First and Gilbane Reconstruction Services it was decided at 6 p.m. today, September 18, 2017, that the damage from Hurricane Harvey will take the Wortham Theater Center out of commission until at least May 15, 2018. The full press release (http://bit.ly/2xtlFsL) from Houston First will be made public after 10 p.m. this evening so we wanted to make sure that you had this news before hearing it anywhere else.

We are in advanced negotiations with Houston First to perform our fall and early winter season (La traviata, Julius Caesar, and our world premiere of The House without a Christmas Tree) at an alternative venue and hope to have more concrete news by the end of this week. These negotiations will now obviously extend into discussion of the entirety of our 2017–18 Season.

Many thanks for your understanding, and thank you again for all you do for HGO.

 

The $250,000 Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize, awarded annually to an artist who has ‘pushed the boundaries of an art form, contributed to social change and paved the way for the next generation,’ has fallen to the versatile composer and vocalist, Meredith Monk, 75.

Last time out, she won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Medal of Arts.

The death has been announced of the experimental Swedish composer Marcus Fjellström, a versatile artist who worked with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Swedish Ballet as well as electronic and avant-garde groups.

No cause of death has yet been given.

Our sympathies to his family and friends.

The television version of BBC’s Front Row will be presented by a restaurant critic, a media analyst and a World Service journalist who loves watching films.

Two out of these three say they never go to theatre (or, by implication, opera and concerts) because that’s when they are putting their kids to bed.

Who at the BBC is responsible for such challenging, counter-intuitive casting decisions? Is the entire corp now an extended version of the comedy show, W1A?

 

 

After two and a half months of half-truths and equivocation, the New York Philharmonic last night deleted Phil Myers from its website.

 

 

Richard Deane is now listed as acting principal horn.

There has been no public statement or explanation.

The New York Philharmonic is a performing organisation. It appears before the public night after night. When one of its few real stars is made to disappear, an explanation is required – if only an interim explanation, while legal and union requirements are satisfied.

If the NY Phil cannot provide a truthful explanation it will bear even closer resemblance to North Korea, one of its favoured tourist venues.