‘I am still appalled at what happened to this incredible artist,’ he said ‘I don’t understand this. Tomorrow a lady can just come up and say Andrea Bocelli molested me 10 years ago, and from that day on, no one wants to sing with me anymore; the opera houses won’t call me anymore. This is absurd.’
Bocelli said there are two kinds of judgement for an artist: ‘One is the moral one, which must be dealt with in courts and here on Earth and by our good Lord up in the skies. Then there is an artistic judgment, which is subjective, and up to each one of us.’
The composers Eleanor Alberga, Laura Jurd, Mark Lockheart, Nathaniel Mann and Shiori Usui have received Paul Hamlyn awards.
Each award offers recipients £60,000 over three years – with no obligations or conditions as to how the money is used. Not only the largest award of its kind in the UK, this ‘no strings attached’ approach sets the awards apart from other schemes by giving artists the time and freedom to develop their creative ideas and to further their personal and professional growth.
The Russian violinist Sergei Dogadin won one international competition after another where his teacher, Boris Kushnir, was on the jury. He made a fortune in prizes.
Today, he was signed (the press release says) ‘to the HarrisonParrott family of distinguished artists’.
No-one doubts that Dogadin can play. It’s just the manner of his ascent that is dubious.
Chinese costumes belonging to Dame Eva Turner, the first British Turandot, fetched just £1,200 ($1,500) at auction today. It was six times the estimate, but still cheap at the price.
Don’t say we didn’t give you good warning.
Another episode in my videocast series for DG:
He was a frustrated composer who hated most conductors.
She shares her frustrations with the local newspaper. ‘I find this is a difficult institution to get air time in because we don’t talk about the art first. Nobody ever talks to me. Barely.’
That sounds like curtains.
The Hollywood star, ex-husband of Melanie Griffith, was helping out his hometown band this morning.
We’ve seen worse.
The singer has been booked for two performances of Verdi’s Vespri Siciliani.
Helga Rabl-Stadler, president of the Salzburg Festival, said Domingo had been engaged two years in advance.
Last night’s Israel Phil performance of the anti-war masterpiece was called off due to a barrage of Iranian-sponsored rockets from Gaza.
What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons…
The Israel Opera’s performance of Manon was also called off.
UPDATE: The Israel Phil has added a Friday lunchtime performance of the War Requiem to make up for the missing show.
Listening to Rachel Barton Pine’s snappy new recording of the Aram Khachaturian violin concerto, I am struck by two significant sound grabs.
The first movement opens with ‘Tea for Two’, the second with a phrase from Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez that slowly develops into what may be an original melody.
How did he get away with it?
The US violinist has renewed as music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields until 2023.
It’s essentially a touring post. Neville Marriner’s ensemble has all but lost its London profile.
A jury led by Riccardo Muti has selected Lina Gonzalez-Granados as the CSO’s next conducting apprentice, a post named after Sir Georg Solti.
Lina, a Colombian, is a protégée of Marin Alsop in Baltimore and a student of Bramwell Tovey at Boston University.
She says: ‘I want to give special thanks to my Mom who would drive me to piano, and english lessons. Sometimes she would walk me there on a 90 degree weather and killing sun, giving up her dreams so I can fulfill mine. We would have lunch sometimes at our taxi, and she would sit for hours in those lobbys of the piano academy. And my dad too who worked sometimes 32-48hr shifts to pay those lessons and give me a good life. From Cali (Colombia) to the amazing places Im every single week…its the work of my parents and their sacrifice, what has gotten me here so far away from my house.’
