The German-Austrian opera couple Peter Seiffert and Petra Maria Schnitzer have spoken of fears for their professional futures.
‘My international commitments for a whole year were cancelled,’ said Seiffert. ‘There is absolutely no replacement or compensation.’
Schnitzer attacked the total shudown in Bayreuth, comparing it unfavourably to Salzburg. ‘I am appalled that in Bavaria it was not possible to keep culture higher, so that at least a slimmed-down version could have been organised in Bayreuth,’ she said.
Orchestras are no longer cancelling half of the next season.
They are not even ‘postponing’ it to the following year.
The latest buzzword from the legal department is ‘reimagined’. As in:’Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Announces Reimagined Fall Programming’.
It means the same. No live public concerts. Some online content on a ‘virtual stage’.
Today, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Music Director Robert Spano announced the first phase of the reimagining of its fall 2020 season, responding to the advice of medical professionals and public health officials in order to minimize exposure to COVID-19 for performers, staff and audiences. Under these conditions, all first-phase reimagined concerts in the Delta Classical Series through December 31, 2020 will be performed without a live audience and will be available to view and enjoy on the ASO’s Virtual Stage. The programs will be comprised of smaller orchestral ensembles and will feature Music Director Robert Spano, Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles, selected guest conductors and artists, and ASO members as soloists.
“Our patrons, donors and subscribers have shared with us how much they need the music of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, now more than ever, just as our musicians have expressed how important it is to bring comfort and connection to people during these uncertain times,” said Jennifer Barlament, Executive Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. “At this time, the safest way to perform and engage with our community is through virtual performances. These programs are just the first phase of reimagining the fall season; stay tuned for announcements of smaller outdoor performances with live socially distanced audiences.”
Plain English has fallen sick with Covid.
The Austrian conductor has joined a national campaign to stop green fields being turned into development sites. Every day, 20 green acres are being lost.
‘The culture of Austria – the music, the Salzburg Festival – is valued and loved all over the world,’ says Franz, ‘but also the beautiful landscape’
‘Don’t bother talking about culture again if you destroy the culture of your own life and living space,’ said his ally, the actor Tobias Moretti.
The orchestra usually plays a concert for retiring members. Not this year.
The four departures are:
Contrabassoonist / bassoonist Arlen Fast;
Horn player Howard Wall;
Cellist Eric Bartlett;
Assistant Principal Librarian Sandra Pearson.
No auditions are scheduled any time soon.
The American folk-rock singer Trini Lopez has died in Palm Springs at 83 of the Coronavirus.
Aside from his ubiquitous Hammer hit, Lopez won fame as one of The Dirty Dozen, a film featuring Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Lee Marvin, Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas.
…. He’s a born Midlander; a state school boy from Handsworth Grammar, still young enough at 30 to feel rooted in a community where attending (let alone performing in) an opera is about as normal as a mission to Mars. Yet it nearly didn’t happen: he made his BOC debut as last-minute maternity cover for Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla. ‘When I started getting my hands dirty with Lady Macbeth Graham Vick announced to the chorus, “You’re going to meet the conductor today”, and I felt as nervous as when I first conducted the London Symphony Orchestra,’ he remembers. ‘So I stepped up and said, “Look, I’m a Brummie; I’m from round here. I love what this company does and we’re going to do something really extraordinary with one of the hardest operas in existence.”’ They did, too — the production beat the Royal Opera to win the 2019 RPS Opera & Music Theatre Award….
The British publication Private Eye has reported that former artists of the crashed agency Hazard Chase are being pursued by its liquidators for commissions on future engagements in order to support their former personal managers. Some of the artists are barely surviving from one week to the next.
James Brown, the former head of Hazard Chase, has issued the following rebuttal to Slipped Disc:
‘The article is misleading. The commission applies only to the diaries of the artists as they were at 20th March 2020 when HC closed, and commission is only due if the events take place and the fee is received. There is no request for advance payment whatsoever. That statement in the article is entirely false.’
Artists are invited to let us know of they are being chased – sorry – for unearned commissions.
No-one knows what happened to the international bass singer in the last 15 years of his life, before he wound up homeless in Milan, dead on its streets.
At the start of the century, he had the stage at his feet – in demand at the major opera houses and known to all the leading conductors. He has been described to us as an intelligent and personable man, musically gifted and theatrically adept. He had everything to sing for, including a wife and two children.
So why did he drop out?
There are rumours of mental health and substance abuse issues, but these would be contingent with homelessness.
What should concern us is that the opera world, supposedly sensitive and humane, allowed a prominent performer to crash into oblivion. Whatever happened to Eldar Aliev, it must not be allowed to recur. Let’s take care at all times of our colleagues.
Covid has proved too much for the venerable Musik Alexander company of Mainz. The company is abandoning its Bahnhofstrasse headquarters and shutting down the string, wind and percussion instruments departments.
It is hoped that the profitable brass instrument making branch in Hechtsheim and the Piano Alexander store can still be saved.
From my all time favourite recording of the Strauss Four Last Songs:
