We reported earlier that the tenor Stuart Skelton was out of today’s general rehearsal. He was replaced by standby Carl Tanner.

But minutes before the general got going, it became clear that Sonya Yoncheva wasn’t feeling great.

Her substitute was the American Julianna Di Giacomo.

 

The principals have three days to recover for opening night on the 14th.

This is looking like a sickbed Otello.

 

 

The Dayton Philharmonic is mourning the loss of Andra Lunde Padrichelli, its principal cello since 2003.

Andra, who also played in Cincinnati and Detroit, survived two bouts of breast cancer with tremendous support from her family and colleagues, but the disease returned and she died yesterday at the age of 42.

photo: Michael Beckerman

The irrepressible young cellist was out last night at the Royal Variety Show with Harry and Meghan.

Just in time for his Christmas single.


 

And poor Yo Yo Ma’s left playing the Metro.

Something to do with one of these, apparently.

Wish him better.

UPDATE: Daniel Harding fell on a frozen road and broke his right ankle in Sapporo yesterday.
He conducted the Orchestre de Paris in Sapporo last night, sitting in a wheelchair.

True grit.

More here.

You’d think it was something to do with helping the students to mature as musicians and human beings, right? Just what Simon Rattle said they needed.

Or giving them a little extra help with exams.

Not a bit of it.

Apparently, advancement is the new US arts euphemism for the arduous job of lunching wealthy widows for a slot in their will. It used to be called development.

Juilliard, for instance, has just poached Alexandra Wheeler to be its VP and chief advancement officer after a stellar lunching career at the Whitney Museum.

Advancement, pah!

In a huge feature on Elizabeth Rowe’s demand for equal pay with principal oboe John Ferrillo, Geoff Edgers repots in today’s Washington Post that the orchestra and its troubled flute will enter mediation this week.

If that fails, it’s straight to court.

… Speaking publicly for the first time about the lawsuit, Rowe says her case has far-reaching implications. Her lawsuit will be the first against an orchestra to test Massachusetts’ new equal-pay law, its outcome potentially affecting women across the U.S. workforce who are paid less than their male colleagues.

“Money is the one thing that we can look to to measure people’s value in an organization,” Rowe says. “You look at the number of women that graduate from conservatories and then you look at the number of women in the top leadership positions in orchestras, and it’s not 50-50 still. Women need to see equality, and they need to see fairness in order to believe that that’s possible.”

Rowe, 44, makes $250,149 a year. Ferillo, 63, is on $314,600.

Read on here.

The French court of appeals in Versailles has ruled in favour of the Russian director Dmitri Cherniakov who changed the plot of Dialogues des Carmélites in a celebrated 2010 Munich production.

The heirs of composer Francis Poulenc tried to stop revivals of the production and distribution of the video.

They just lost.

The director always wins.

We hear that Stuart Skelton is too unwell to sing the final dress rehearsal. He will be replaced by his cover, the US tenor Carl Tanner.

Word on the inside is that Tanner will also sing the opening night.

The show marks conductor Gustavo Dudamel’s Met debut.

UPDATE: Now Yoncheva drops out

The Michigan Daily, campus newspaper of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, has published a lengthy investigation into allegations against a well-known violin professor.

The allegations need to be treated with caution. No charges have been brought against the individual concerned. He, his lawyer and the University of Michigan have issued no response.

The Strad appears to have taken down a 2016 article by the professor titled, ‘Are US instrumental teachers failing in their duties by being too nice?’

UPDATE: Accused professor goes on leave

 

In a city not strong on keeping managers, Ingrid Røynesdal has been renewed for six more years as chief exec of the Oslo Philharmonic until 2025.

The orchestra has its centenary in 209 and a new music director the following year, the Finnish baton Klaus Mäkelä. This is not time to change the captain.