Sleep, again. The same poem.
But with music by the peculiar Peter Warlock a friend of Bartok’s and a dabbler in witchcraft.
So which do you prefer? I suspect the Gurney is slightly harder to sing.
The outstanding Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień has called an end to his career after months of cancellations.
Kwiecień, 47, tells Polish media: ‘I underwent my first spine surgery in New York. I was taken straight from the Met stage during a performance of “Don Giovanni” with a slipped disc. A year later, on the stage at Covent Garden during “Don Carlos” I had a recurrence. An implant had to be inserted. Now there are other problems. My stage activity would be very limited, and I never liked to allow myself to be very limited.’
Kwiecień has accepted a post as artistic director of Wrocław Opera for 2020/21, a fairly small company. ‘I have a lot to say about opera,’ he says. ‘I have sufficient background and experience from the greatest opera houses in the world. I have a huge number of wonderful friends, singers, directors and conductors, whom I will be delighted to invite to Wrocław.’
The tenor has announced that a glowing domestic ‘documentary’ – titled ‘Jonas Kaufmann – A Global Star in Private’ – will go global in two weeks’ time on the Amazon Prime channel.
Just don’t go looking for warts.
A new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser at the Rouen Opera in France has been called off after two cast members caught Covid-19, according to the magazine Diapason.
The production, by Loïc Lachenal, employed a huge stage of 200 square metres to maintain safe distances among the singers and orchestra. But the virus somehow got past security and the entire expensive run has been cancelled.
We also have reports the the Opéra Comique in Paris has been shuttered again by Covid.
The Russian viola virtuoso and conductor Yuri Bashmet has pulled out of a national tour with a youth orchestra and been taken to hospital with Covid.
Whether others around him were infected has not been disclosed.
Bashmet, 67, is on the verge of the high-risk group.
We wish him better.
He is the second Russian musical star to be hospitalised with Covid, after Anna Netrebko.
Nesta semana o Brasil atingiu 140.000 mortes por coronavírus, o maior número fora dos EUA.
Como resposta, a Orquestra de Câmara da ECA/USP (OCAM) emitiu um vídeo, “Espero que nomes consigam tocar!”, para enfrentar o escândalo e lembrar dos mortos.
Nosso objetivo, dizem, é ‘mostrar que as questões políticas, econômicas, éticas que foram levantadas pela pandemia podem nos levar a esquecer as histórias daqueles que lutaram duramente contra COVID mas não conseguiram vencer’.
Eles trabalharam em estreita proximidade com as vítimas da pandemia, entre eles os regentes Martinho Lutero e Naomi Mukatana (foto) e o compositor Aldir Blanc. O diretor da OCAM, Gil Jardim, criou um Prelúdio citando as Bachianas Brasileiras (Nº1 e Nº4) misturadas com a 7ª Sinfonia de Beethoven.
É uma reação humana corajosa, necessária e penosa.
Você se pergunta porque nenhuma orquestra americana quis fazer a mesma coisa. Demasiado político, talvez?
The composer Isidora Žebeljan, once named in Berlin among the leading lights of her generation, has died of a protracted illness.
One of the most prominent and most performed Serbian composers of recent times, her opera ‘Dawn D’ was staged in Amsterdam in 2003 by David Pountney and received performances in many countries. She formed her own orchestr for the performance of works by fellow-Serbs. Noted for the aching beauty of her inner contemplations, she leaves 30 compositions, mostly for theatre.
This week, Brazil reached 140,000 deaths by coronavirus, the highest toll outside the USA.
By way of response, the University of São Paulo Chamber Orchestra has issued a video – “I hope names can play!” – to confront the scandal and commemorate the dead.
Our aim, they say, is ‘to show that the political, economical, ethical questions that were brought up by the pandemic may lead us to forget the stories of those who battled hard against covid, but couldn’t win.’
They worked in close proximity with pandemic victims among them conductors Martinho Lutero and Naomi Mukatana (pictured) and the songwriter Aldir Blanc. OCAM’s director Gil Jardim created a Prelude quoting Bachianas Brasileiras (No.1 and No.4) mixed with Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.
It’s a brave, necessary, harrowing human reaction.
You wonder – don’t you? – why no US orchestra has thought to do the same. Too political, perhaps?
Francesco Strano, principal cello of the I Musici ensemble from 1968 to 2006, has died in Rome at the age of 80.
His students at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia will play at his funeral today.
The Minnesota Orchestra has extended its musicians’ collective agreement to August 31, 2022. Players agree to give up quarter of the pair due to Covid. MD Osmo Vänskä has volunteered a 35% pay cut.
No comparable cuts have been disclosed for the orchestra’s management.
The Manchester Camerata has commissioned a film about its co-leader Caroline Pether, whose became a Christian as a teenager before discovering that she is gay.
‘I was in a church community that had very black and white views on homosexuality and believed it was sinful and should be prayed away,’ she tells local media.
Members of the orchestra accompany her through this filmed journey. The music is by Haydn, Pärt, Strauss and Harbison, ‘This episode aims to take the audience on a journey from shame, despair and loneliness through to the place where I find myself now in acceptance, peace and celebration,’ she says.
Caroline joined the Camerata in 2013 on graduating from the Royal Northern College and was promoted to co-leader two years later. She is also leader of Sinfonia Cymru and a member of the Zelkova Quartet.
Watch here from Thursday.
The clarinet player Michael Collins has been appointed Artistic Director in Residence with the London Mozart Players for two years, September 2021–September 2023, either side of his 60th birthday.
His main job is to bring in new work in tough Covid times – to ‘devise a programme of diverse concerto and chamber works for the orchestra, including concerts, tours and recordings’ – wherever they can find a safe space to play.
