Various Sermon
I. “Shake the Heavens,” from El Niño (A Nativity Oratorio), by John Adams
II. “Vigil,” by Igee Dieudonné and Davóne Tines
III. “You Want the Truth, but You Don’t Want to Know,” from X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, by Anthony Davis Beethoven Symphony No. 2 (November 5 and 7) Beethoven Symphony No. 8 (November 5 and 7) Simon Fate Now Conquers (November 6) Beethoven Symphony No. 7 (November 6)
In Sermon, bass-baritone and activist Davóne Tines performs contemporary works by John Adams and Anthony Davis, as well as “Vigil,” co-written by Igée Dieudonné and Tines and dedicated to the memory of Breonna Taylor. This modern masterpiece opens our continued celebration of Beethoven’s symphonies along with Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers.
Covent Garden’s former chorus director Renato Balsadonna has been called in to rescue Lucia di Lammermoor at Belgium’s Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, where the music director is undergoing throat surgery.
Renato, who is now a fulltime opera conductor, has lately upped his ante by switching to Felsner Artists in Munich for worldwide general management.
The Japanese cellist Michiaki Ueno won the majorly underexposed Geneva International Music Competition this week.
A greater share of attention went to the second-placed cellist Bryan Cheng, an ascendant Canadian in a year that has seen Canada established as a major musical power.
Cheng, 24, was the 2019 Grand Prize winner at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Competition. He is already booked by Berlin for June 2023 with the Deutsches-Symphonie Orchester de Berlin, conductor Alpesh Chauhan.
Message from Speranza Scappucci, music director in Liège, Belgium:
Dear Friends and Fans ! After a very successful production of Eugene Onegin, I am unfortunately forced to cancel my next project at Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège for Health reasons: I will undergo surgery tomorrow to remove a cyst in my throat that has has grown into a very considerable size. My doctors have advised not to postpone this any longer. For this reason I am very sad to have to cancel Lucia di Lammermoor in Liège. I count to come back very soon and stronger than before and I ask for your comprehension if you have bought tickets to see me in this opera. Sometimes we have to simply take care of our health before anything else Looking forward to my next engagements in Munchen in December and then again Liège in January. Grazie a presto arrivederci
For the first time in some very long memories, Vienna’s Volksoper is putting on a new Rosenkavalier to challenge the ‘official’ Otto Schenk version at the State Opera.
The director is Josef E. Köpplinger and the production opens tonight. Full cast here.
Federal and state police in Baden-Württemberg have identified a suspect in a 2019 blackmail hack attack on the Stuttgart State Opera.
The attack shut down the house’s IT infrastructure until a ransom of 15,000 Euros was paid to unlock the encryption. The suspect is a member of several identified Russian malware groups that are tolerated or fostered by the Putin government.
It may be no more than coincidence that Stuttgart has been a persistent supporter of the theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov, who remains under house arrest in Russia.
In the packed new issue of Strings magazine, the German violinist reveals in a five-minute interview how she cut through the US visa crisis:
Q: I understand you had to pull some strings to make the John Williams premiere happen (at Tanglewood in July)?
A: It was almost impossible to get a travel permit, so I and other spoke to President Biden and eventually it came through. Working with John again after all the coronavirus months on drafts, changes and improvements – his Violin Concerto became my lifeline.
Liminal – Washington Ballet Click here to watch : subscription tv
Choreographer Stanton Welch is the Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet and recently made his Washington Ballet debut with liminal.
In this work for 16 dancers, Stanton Welch takes inspiration from the meditative qualities of ballet practice. By definition, liminal is the transitional or initial stage of a process. As the cinematic work opens, the camera, unseen, trains on dancers entering the studio, warming up to prepare for class before easing into a powerfully elegant and reflective ballet centred around the rituals of the art form–the repetition, the corrections, the giving and receiving of knowledge.
The three-part, 15-minute work is set to 19th-century French composer Erik Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies, among the most serene and powerfully simple works in the piano repertoire. “The plié, the tendu, the arabesque–those are the ballet building blocks and those are what we’ve missed this past year,” reflects Welch. “Without the lights, the sets and costumes, dancers reveal themselves as individual artists and as human beings; it is poignant and beautiful in its simplicity. liminal celebrates ballet’s essence in a way that reminds me of a stripped-down acoustic set.” Filmed in natural light in The Washington Ballet’s studios at THEARC, liminal, is the newest commissioned work from one of America’s premiere ballet choreographers.
Concerto Köln and conductor Kent Nagano will be playing Richard Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen in a historically informed performance (HIP) on period instruments, apparently for the first time, from the middle on November.
Cast list:
Derek Welton bass-baritone
Johannes Kammler bass baritone
Julian Prégardien tenor
Tansel Akzeybek tenor
Stefanie Irányi mezzo-soprano
Sarah Wegener soprano
Gerhild Romberger mezzo-soprano
Daniel Schmutzhard baritone
Thomas Ebenstein tenor
Tijl Faveyts bass
Christoph Seidl bass
Carina Schmieger soprano
Ida Adrian soprano
Eva Vogel mezzo-soprano
This was the midweek concert in Katowice where winner Bruce Liu faced a challenge from unplaced Eva Gevorgyan.
Eva’s first half, Bruce second.
You won’t regret it.
Slippedisc’s Opera of the Weekend in partnership with OperaVision is Der Rosenkavalier set against the magical background of Garsington Opera.
Plot: The Marschallin is relishing time with her young lover, when her cousin’s sudden arrival ignites a comic chain of events. With honour at risk, social status bartered and happiness illusive, the Marschallin accepts time cannot be stopped and she must set young love free.
Available to view Saturday 30th October at 19.00 CET 18.00 London and 13.00 NY
Steinway has introduced a feature that allows live performances to be streamed on its self-playing pianos.
Name your pianist and performance and it can be delivered to your livingroom grand.
According to this report Steinway’s self-playing pianos, introduced in 2015, now command almost half of the company’s piano sales.
