Survivor of Munich’s legendary 1960s cast, she has been a world-class artist, a gender-bending lieder singer, a thoughful stage director and a capable intendant of a state opera. Not many opera singers get to succeed at four careers.
In a Lebrecht Interview, which the BBC have archived deep in the vaults, I remember her telling me how, as a child of five or six, she ran barefoot with her grandmother through the burning streets of Dresden, masonry falling all around, her life protected by an angel.
Opera held few terrors for her ever after.
When we reported Débora Waldman’s appointment yesterday as music director of the Orchestre Régional Avignon-Provence, we were unaware that she is the first woman to hold that title at any French symphony orchestra – ever.
It would appear that of the three founding nouns of the Republic – Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité – the last counts more than the second.
Music in France is still run by the boys for the boys.
The film director, hounded out of Manhattan by his former wife and stepchildren, is staging Gianni Schicchi at the home of Italian opera, courtesy of Alexander Pereira.
Italian media are ecstatic.
Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music has apponted Tansy Davies as associate professor of music in composition, starting next month.
Davies, 46 and from Bristol, is currently associate professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. She has been composer-in-residence at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw during the past season.
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, who has been nominated to succeed the unstable Juncker as president of the European Commission, has serious musical connections.
She was born Ursula Albrecht, daughter of a senior EU civil servant with a penchant for family sing-ons.
Her father’s brother is George Alexander Albrecht, former GMD of Weimar Opera. Her first cousin is Marc Albrecht, music director of Netherland Opera.
She knows her sharps from her flats.
Ursula is the reluctant one in the scarf.
Robert Trevino, music director of the Basque National Orchestra and the Malmo Symphony, has placed his career in the hands of Nora Potter of Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm Artists Management.
The agency also has Mirga, Bychkov and Adam Fischer on its books.
Lahav Shani introduces Zubin’s last season and his first with the Israel Philharmonic.
The Chancellor will make one of her last official visits to Bayreuth to see Valery Gergiev conduct Tannhäuser on opening night.
Three other Government ministers will also be in attendance – Minister of Health Jens Spahn, Minister of Culture Monika Grütters and Minister for Digitization, Dorothee Bär.
