Nicoletta Mantovani, widow of the great tenor, says her late husband would have felt sympathy for his longterm rival in his present plight. ‘He would have considered such accusations painful,’ she said, praising Domingo for his support for her in her widowed years.
‘Nicoletta Mantovani, widow of Pavarotti: “Placido Domingo has always been for us, has a great soul”
‘I know Placido perfectly,’ she said. ‘We have spent a lot of time together from the time of the Three Tenors and in all these years I have not detected any attitude of the kind of which he is accused. I do not know all aspects of his life. But I can say that he is a wonderful person.’
The mayor of Toulouse has renewed its music director’s contract by just one year to summer 2021.
Tughan Sokhiev has been head of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse since 2008. He is also music director at the Bolshoi in Moscow.
The Met has sprung a leak ahead of its next season announcement.
Among the new shows woll be Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Man Walking, featuring Joyce DiDonato and Susan Graham.
Yannick conducts.
The Government report on the mistreatment of child dancers has cost Simona Noja-Nebyla her job as head of the State Opera’s ballet academy.
The dismissal notice does not even mention her by name.
UPDATE: The Staatsoper have sent a clarification: ‘Simona Noja has not been fired – Simone Wohinz takes over her role as Director of the Ballet Academy.’ Go figure. See press release below.
Vienna (OTS) – Federal Minister Alexander Schallenberg held talks today with Bundestheater-Holding Managing Director Mag.Christian Kircher, State Opera Director Dominique Meyer and designated State Opera Director Bogdan Roščić about the current and future situation of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera.
The following course arrangements have been agreed: From now on, the artistic direction of the Ballet Academy will be the sole responsibility of the direction of the Vienna State Opera until the realignment – the previous artistic director Manuel Legris remains the director of the Vienna State Ballet. Until a new head of the ballet academy is appointed by the designated state opera management in September 2020, Ms. Simone Wohinz, Commercial Director of the Vienna State Ballet, will take over the executive management on an interim basis.
The notably unruly conductor Leif Segerstam has issued a swift apology for remarks made in an interview with a Danish music magazine, dismissing the sound of the Helsinki Philharmonic as ‘thinner than before’ and opining that its chief conductor, Susanna Mälkki ‘lacks balls’.
After the interview was picked up by tabloid newspapers Segerstam, 75, said, ‘I tend to say stupid things. I’ve always been so silly and childish and naive.’
Whenever I hear music by the young Dmitri Shostakovich, I am astonished all over again by his up-yours raw humour and ribaldry. This is a dazzling talent strutting his stuff in the first decade of a revolution when all seemed possible and available — jobs for all, free meals at work, free love. None foresaw that Stalin would soon crush the spark and the spirit out of the cultural side of the revolution.
The two unexpected world premieres on this release are compelling….
We have been informed of the death of the pianist Abbey Simon on December 18 at his home in Geneva Switzerland. He was three weeks short of his 100th birthday.
A formidable concert performer, a student of Hoffman and Godowsky, he was dubbed ‘supervirtuoso’ by the New York Times critic Harold Schonberg and had technique to spare.
Outside of the US he performed and taught in the UK and the Netherlands, and made numerous records.
‘I come from a biracial family,’ says MacArthur “genius” says Francisco J. Nuñez in the latest Zsolt Bognar interview on Living the Classical Life.
Nuñez started out on a Salvation Army piano. Since 1988 he has directed the Young People’s Chorus of New York City to offer a channel of hope for thousands of children from many backgrounds.
