The soprano has asked us to feature her response to our summary of  below-tepid reviews of George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence:

Dear Norman, I cannot understand how or why you have in good conscience used a title like this for your post on George Benjamin’s new opera. Were you there on opening night? I was there! After being a part of over 80 world premieres, I can tell you, the audience reception was the opposite of cool. It had a delicious temperature! And regarding your press selections, the opera has garnered mostly 4 star reviews save for a few. The New York Times review from Anthony Tommassini was extraordinary! Of course I am personally biased, as I have been a part of this piece and other works of George Benjamin for many years, but it is not my personal feeling about this piece which prompts me to write this note to your website. It is that you have put a negative spin, unfairly, on a piece which deservedly received positive attention from most of the press and from the audience. And, in the bigger picture, you have put a negative light onto something which should be celebrated, no matter what. Composers need to be supported. Their work is courageous and they are isolated for years of their lives, writing MUSIC. Composers are rarely understood or celebrated. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they are less successful but they have, as another composer I admire very much has said, “put their DNA on a slide, under a microscope” and have dared to allow it to be seen, heard, and judged. They are not remaining anonymous, like much of the cowardly commentary we see on internet sites. The night after opening, for you to write a title like this to a post…well, I find it an unnecessarily negative. More love please, less violence.

photo Stephen Cummiskey/ROH

Dear Barbara

Thank you for your response. I chose not to attend George Benjamin’s new opera since I emerged wholly alienated from Written on Skin and would not have approached this work in my usual spirit of hopeful expectation. Several critics – notably Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph yesterday and Richard Morrison in the Times this morning – appear to have been alienated in much the same way by the new opera.

You are right to point out that the first-night audience received it with enthusiasm. It may well be that there is a definite appetite for opera that avoids emotional engagement. Who knows? Time alone will tell. best wishes, Norman

Today, in the paper that is often 30 years behind the times:

Why Do We Reward Bullies

by Arthur C. Brooks

I despise bullies. This doesn’t stem from my playground years but rather from a career in my 20s performing with a professional symphony orchestra. Orchestra conductors are notorious tyrants, cruel and demanding, with near-total control over the artistic lives of the players. To consolidate power, they turn players against one another, prey on weakness, destroy confidence. As we used to note, many conductors are evil geniuses, but all are evil.

Over the decades since that time, my position on conductors has softened (a little), but my position on bullies has not. And I believe a big majority of the population shares this antipathy. Witness the box-office success of movies like “Horrible Bosses” and “Revenge of the Nerds,” in which bullies get their comeuppance. Consider also the frequent anti-bullying public service efforts, the latest of which is the first lady Melania Trump’s “Be Best” campaign.

So it is mystifying that the ultimate market-based phenomenon in a democracy — political discourse — is currently dominated by this despised character trait….

Read on here.

We reported a year back on the British scholar who found a lost Liszt opera.

Well David Trippett now tells us the work will receive its world premiere in August.

The leading roles will be sung by Joyce El-Khoury and tenor Charles Castronovo.

 

From the press release:

Principal Conductor Kirill Karabits, the Staatskapelle Weimar will give the world premiere of a rediscovered Italian opera by Franz Liszt – which was left incomplete and has lain largely forgotten in a German archive for almost 100 years. “The name of the composer Franz Liszt has never been associated with Italian opera”, Karabits explains. “I’m delighted to be conducting the premiere of Sardanapalo in Weimar. This discovery should open a new page not only in Liszt’s musical heritage but also in the music history of the 19th century.” Act 1 of the opera survives complete. This will be presented in a concert version.

The music has been resurrected by David Trippett, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. He discovered the opera manuscript was legible more than ten years ago, a century after it had been catalogued and largely forgotten in the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv in Weimar. “The music that survives is breath-taking – a unique blend of Italianate lyricism and adventurous harmonic turns and side-steps”, Trippett explains. “There is nothing else quite like it in the operatic world. It is suffused with Liszt’s characteristic style, but contains elements from Bellini and Meyerbeer, alongside glimmers of Wagner.”

 

The son of a veteran cellist has given the orchestra two rare violins.

From the BSO bulletin:

Dr Michael Nieland is the son of former BSO cellist Mischa Nieland who was a member of the BSO for 45 years, from 1943 to 1988. In 2004, four years after his father’s death, Dr. Michael Nieland and his mother, Stella Nieland, made a gift of $1 million to the BSO in honor of Mischa Nieland’s commitment and love for the orchestra, endowing the Mischa Nieland Chair. This chair is currently occupied by cellist Sato Knudsen, who began at the BSO a few years before Mr. Nieland’s retirement.

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Like his father, Dr. Nieland has a deep love for music and is a gifted musician. Even after having lived and practiced medicine in Pennsylvania for much of his adult life, Dr. Nieland’s connection to the BSO remains strong. He still holds fondly his memories of growing up with a father in the BSO and recalls, “My father always seemed so pleased to walk onto the stage (at Symphony Hall). He was so reluctant to retire even at age 78.”

Over the years, Dr. Nieland has remained one of the BSO’s most faithful supporters, following annual programming and personnel changes and attending BSO concerts in Symphony Hall and Tanglewood. It is his love for music, community of family friends and musicians in the BSO, and continuing engagement with the Symphony that led Dr. Nieland to donate two rare 18th century Italian violins to the Orchestra.

The two violins are the 1754 “ex-Zazofsky” crafted by Italian luthier Johannes Baptista Guadagnini and a 1778 instrument crafted by Italian luthier Nicolò Gagliano.

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This gift marks a homecoming for the well-documented “ex-Zazofsky” violin, named for former BSO violinist George Zazofsky who performed on the violin during his tenure with the orchestra from 1941 to 1969. George Zazofsky was a good friend of Mischa Nieland and his fishing buddy. Dr. Nieland recalls hearing the exceptional sound Mr. Zazofsky made while playing this same violin over a half century ago at his parents’ home in preparation for a performance the two friends gave together. The instrument’s maker, Johannes Baptista Guadagnini, is widely regarded as one of the greatest luthiers in history, alongside Stradivarius.

When this instrument came on the market about fifteen years ago, Dr. Nieland, a violinist himself, was excited to be able to purchase it. Not only had family friend George Zazofsky played this violin, but Dr. Nieland’s own adored violin instructor Ruth Posselt briefly played the instrument during a solo appearance with the BSO at Tanglewood when she broke a string and borrowed George Zazofsky’s violin to finish her performance. During his years of ownership Dr. Nieland also performed on the Guadagnini as well as on the Gagliano with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in chamber music at his home.

At the BSO again, the “ex Zazofsky” Guadagnini will be played by First Associate BSO Concertmaster, Helen Horner McIntyre Chair, Tamara Smirnova, while the Gagliano will be played by BSO violinist James Cooke.

In late January, a reception was held in Symphony Hall in celebration of the gift of these two rare violins. The reception was attended by Peter Zazofsky and Erika Goldberg, children of the late George Zazofsky; friends of the Nieland family; Deborah and Philip Edmundson Artistic Partner Thomas Adès; as well as members of the orchestra, and BSO staff and administration.

The program included performances on the violins, with Ms. Smirnova performing Allemande from Bach’s Partita No. 1 in b minor for Solo Violin on the “ex-Zazofsky”, Mr. Cooke performing Largo from Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in C Major for Solo Violin on the Gagliano, and a duet performance of the first movement from Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins Op. 56.

In his welcoming remarks, Eunice and Julian Cohen Managing Director Mark Volpe thanked Dr. Nieland for his generous gift, telling the guests, “We are so fortunate that despite his wonderful career in Pittsburgh, Dr. Nieland’s heart remained in Boston.”

Speaking about his family’s history with the BSO, his personal connections to these two violins, and his decision to donate them, Dr. Nieland reflected, “One should be mindful of the fact that we are all only temporary possessors of these precious objects or works of art. We are renters, in a sense. Someone owned them before us and someone will take possession of them after we are gone. . . I believe it is important to guide their destiny whenever possible. I know James and Tamara will be conscientious custodians of these rare instruments.”

The BSO is honored to join the long history of musicians who have cared for and performed on these beautiful violins.

The Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya Guedouar had it all: a full diary, a bustling agency (ZemskyGreen), major roles ahead.

She stood in for Netrebko at Covent Garden in 2007 and was chosen to replace Angela Gheorghiu the following year as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo.

At the Met, she starred as Natasha in War and Peace, then Liu in Turandot, then Violetta, which she took over from Netrebko both in New York and replacing her on a Japan tour.

And then, in 2014, she dropped out.

Here’s what she’s doing now, and why:


Marina Poplavskaya Guedouar CITI HABITATS
Honesty, hospitality and helpfulness define Marina’s special style. She is very dedicated to her real estate profession, and more importantly, to the discerning needs of her clients. “I look forward to helping you in every way possible during the search for your new home, and will always be available to service all your needs, with the goal to get you the best scenario and value.”  

Marina knows New York City well having lived here since 2005 and explored its diverse neighborhoods. She fell in love with Manhattan since going on her first audition at the Met Opera, and knows all the great houses in the Lincoln Center area. Since 2013 when she met her husband, Marina experienced the Upper West Side and beyond, getting to know the lovely Riverside and Upper Manhattan community. When her child was born in 2015, she became even more connected through families and educational centers. “I am deep sensitive to the fact that one’s home, and feeling happy and secure in it, is essential my clients.”  

Originally from Moscow, Russia, Marina holds an MDA in Performing Vocal Arts. She enjoyed a 28-year international career as a performer at such legendary venues as The Bolshoi Theatre, ROH Covent Garden, The Met, Berlin Staatsoper, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala and others.    With open communication, flexibility, sociability and humor, Marina will make your real estate search an enjoyable and enlightening one. Outside of her work, she is dedicated to family life, as well as singing, teaching and meeting friends. Marina is multi lingual speaking Russian, English, Italian and French. She is personable and engaging with people of every background.

This is Jenny Q Chai playing a piece by Annie Gosfield for piano and two baseballs.