The Buffalo Philharmonic is setting off on its first foreign trip in 30 years.
But there is a small shortfall….
See below.
Help us raise $30K in 30 days!
With less than six weeks until we depart for Poland,longtime BPO friends and supporters Cindy and Francis Letro have challenged the BPO to raise $30,000 in 30 days for the orchestra’s first international tour in 30 years!
Starting today, the Letros will match challenge contributions dollar for dollar up to $30,000. If you give during the challenge, you will be entered to win an autographed copy of the not-yet-released “Treasures of Poland” CD, a Poland tour hat produced by New Era Cap, and a voucher for two tickets to any concert in the 2017-18 season.
This is your chance to participate in a proud moment in Buffalo’s history. Gifts of any size will help get us to our goal, and are deeply appreciated.
Days after Daniel Harding’s shock resignation as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonie de Paris (where the OdP is resident) has named the French conductor Francois-Xaver Roth as ‘artiste associé’.
Roth, 46, is committed to giving a minimum of five concerts a season. This week, he was appointed to the Légion d’honneur.
France Musique says, echoing Slipped Disc: ‘François-Xavier Roth est l’un des chefs français les plus demandés à l’étranger et est curieusement moins connu du public français.’
Curioser still, Roth recently replaced Daniel Harding as principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Austin Opera has issued a terse statement terminating the contract of its artistic director and chief conductor, Richard Buckley, with immediate effect.
The company said he had been investigated for ‘inappropriate behavior in violation of the company’s policy on harassment had occurred that was not consistent with the values and standards of Austin Opera.’ After consulting lawyers it fired him. Last night’s performance of Ariadne auf Naxos was conducted in his place by Robert Mollicone.
No further details have been officially released, but a former staffer, Ellen Mason, has told the Austin-American Statesman that Buckley molested her sexually, and another woman said she had seen sexual misconduct.
‘The allegations are baseless and without merit,’ said Buckley’s spokeswoman, Stefanie Scott. ‘Richard is deeply saddened by this turn of events. He has great difficulty understanding these accusations because he was not given any information related to what he allegedly did and who made the accusations. Richard intends to explore all his legal options.’
New Yorker Tito Munoz, presently music director in Phoenix Arizona, has been signed for worldwide management by Cambridge-based Hazard Chase.
Tito has switched over from Opus3 Artists.
The indefatigable Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, 92, classically understated and drily humorous, recounts her family’s life under the Nazis this week in Berlin to a silent, absorbed parliament and Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as schoolchildren and other guests.
Even if you don’t understand a word of German you must watch this speech.
‘Who could have imagined that we would leave Auschwitz alive, and not as smoke?’
Click here to watch.
And please share.
The disgraced ex-Met chief was supposed to conduct Verd’s Requiem at Cincinnati’s May festival.
Here’s who they have booked instead.
The Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim is just starting to make her mark with US opera houses.
Boston Symphony’s Andris Nelsons and Philadelphia’s Yannick Nézet-Séguin have taken bets on this Sunday’s Super Bowl LII between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
If the New England Patriots win, Yannick will wear a Patriots jersey in a Philadelphia rehearsal. If the Eagles win, Andriss will get fitted for their shirt.
Both have issued videos.
Since Slipped Disc revealed what really happened to get John Copley fired by Peter Gelb, more leaks have emerged from the chorus rehearsal room, none of them creditable to Gelb.
It appears that John Copley said jokingly ‘if it were me I’d like to see him naked’ about a singer who was not present.
One member of the chorus, who speaks poor English, somehow thought the remark was directed at him.
On this basis, and without further investigation or consultation with chorus members, Peter Gelb told one of best loved opera directors in the world to get out of his building.
Now Gelb, we know, is under pressure. The Met does not have enough money coming in, either at the door or from donors. He is about to start a new round of negotiations with the unions. And he is losing sleep that the law firm’s investigation about who knew what about James Levine might point a finger at him.
That’s a lot of pressure. Under pressure, people make mistakes.
Peter Gelb needs to be man enough to own up that he was wrong to fire John Copley, and to ask him to return. No-one will hold it against him, and he will have the good feeling of restoring an old man’s reputation.
We don’t mind how he does it – even through the tepid New York Times – but that apology is required to redress a horrible injustice, one that has left many singers feeling very angry at the Met.
A senior executive has sent us a friendly denial of our previous story:
Reading your blog from my desk at Juilliard this morning (as I often do and have for years!) and eager to clarify – Juilliard doesn’t block (and has never blocked!) access to Slipped Disc!
Based on some informal polling, it sounds as though some our students and faculty are trying to access your site through slippeddisc.com (two “d’s”), rather than the correct address slippedisc.com, which loads for all of us without a problem. I’m checking with our CTO as to whether there could be some other technical issue, as well as why the incorrect slippeddisc.comdomain is posing problems both here and off campus (malware?), but please note this is most certainly not an editorial choice on the part of Juilliard management, as my colleagues and I have been able to access your blog without a hitch in recent days / months / years.
Well, that’s really good to know.
Opera Nostalgia reports the death of the tenor James McCray, who sang 300 performances with Israel National Opera before becoming a fixture in New York, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle.
He finally settled in The Hague, Netherlands, where he ran a successful voice studio. The soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek and her husband Frank van Aken were among his students.
The veteran director, sacked by Peter Gelb for an ‘inappropriate’ remark, has posted the following on social media:
Just to thank you all for your generous support and loving wishes. This is a very difficult time, helped by you all. Uncle John.
Beautiful. Dignified. Human.
JC with Renata Scotto
We hear that staff and students at Juilliard who try to read the latest Slipped Disc reports while at the college receive a ‘403 Forbidden’ notice and cannot access the site.
Insiders tells us that the college management went apeshit over our exclusive reports that students were left homeless over Christmas and have acted ever since like a tinpot dictatorship, searching for internal leakers and banning the news site from house computers.
It’s now easier to access Slipped Disc in Pyongyang than at the Juilliard School, Manhattan.
Anybody at Fortress Juilliard heard of the First Amendment?
