Reading the press release below, I wondered why it fails to mention that the successful candidate for this prestigious arts position in the town of Lucerne happens to be married to Michael Haefliger, director of the Lucerne Festival.
Why the omission?
Swiss secrecy, no doubt.
Press release:
The Board of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation is happy to announce that the musician and cultural advisor Andrea Loetscher will be the new Director of the Cultural and Education Centre “Villa Senar” in Hertenstein/Weggis as well as the Managing Director of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation as of July 1, 2022.
‘Andrea Loetscher has emerged from an international tender as the best qualified new managing director of the Foundation and director of the Villa Senar Cultural and Educational Centre’, explains Urs Ziswiler, President of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation. ‘She has convinced the Board with her visions for the place, but also with her versatility as a musician, director of an educational institution, concerts organizer as well as with her curiosity for unusual projects, which shall be implemented at such special place with Sergei Rachmaninoff as inspiration and starting point. The Villa Senar and its magic should be positioned as a cultural brand and networked as a fine education and cultural centre. Andrea Loetscher will maintain a lively, fresh and joyfully, but also respectful approach to the place and its history….’
A 20 year-old production can no longer be shown without being revised in accordance with current sensitivities. Was it ever that bad?
From the press release:
This Summer, the Royal Opera House revives Moshe Leiser’s and Patrice Caurier’s 2002 production, taking a new approach to this much-loved production.
For this revival, The Royal Opera embarked on a year-long consultation, listening to new voices to present a staging that reflects the original director’s intentions, but that also respects Japanese culture.
Madama Butterfly has been performed by The Royal Opera 416 times, making it the ninth most-performed work in the Company’s repertoire. From its first outing at Covent Garden in 1905, a year after its premiere at La Scala in Milan, Puccini’s enduring tale has captivated audiences, remaining one of the most popular Italian operas today. This revival will be performed by two outstanding casts. The role of Cio-Cio-San will be performed by Lianna Haroutounian and Eri Nakamura, and Kseniia Nikolaieva and Patricia Bardon will share the role of Suzuki. Dan Ettinger will conduct.
Oliver Mears, Director of The Royal Opera, who led the consultation, explains:
‘Puccini’s opera is a masterpiece. However, it is also a product of its time. For this revival of Moshe Leiser’s and Patrice Caurier’s classic production, we wanted to interrogate the depiction of Japanese culture in the staging of this work and involve Japanese practitioners and academics to help us work towards a Butterfly both true to the spirit of the original, and authentic in its representation of Japan.’
This year-long consultation involved staff at the Royal Opera House, academics, practitioners, performers and Asian representatives. The conversations inspired discrete but important changes to several aspects of the existing staging, including makeup, wigs and costume, and movement. The Company worked with revival director Dan Dooner (himself in close contact with the original directors) and Covent Garden teams to embed changes recommended by experts in Japanese movement and design: Sonoko Kamimura, Etsuko Handa and June Iyeda.
Part of this process involved revising the use of movements and choreography in the production. Movement Consultant Sonoko Kamimura explains: ‘When I begin working on a production there is always a lot to consider: how the costumes will restrict the performer; and how the work can best reflect the world it is depicting. For this production, we focused on refining posture and adjusting placement in particular – making sure, for instance, that Suzuki’s left hand always settles on top of her right; or that Cio-Cio-San’s gestures reflect the character’s upbringing. By making tiny changes to the ways in which singers express their emotions through music, we can create something more authentic – less prone to stereotypes, and more attuned to the historical context of the story.’
The Royal Opera’s productions, performers, and creative teams have a role in defining the future of opera – in determining which stories are told, how they are interpreted and who gets to make them. There is more that can – and must – be done to ensure the broadest range of artists can benefit from opportunities on our stages, but the Company look forward to building on the progress already made, working with partners and industry experts to ensure barriers to entry are knocked down, and colour-conscious casting is firmly embedded at the heart of the organisation. Oliver Mears adds: ‘Ultimately, this work will enrich our art form, both for artists and for everyone who comes to our theatre and will ensure that opera thrives now and long into the future.’
The production opens on Tuesday 14 June 2022, and will be supported by a free exhibition in the Royal Opera House’s Level 5 Foyer, curated by its Learning and Participation team in consultation with Dr Satona Suzuki, Lecturer in Japanese and Modern Japanese History at SOAS, and writer and broadcaster Dr Flora Willson. The display will seek to explore and contextualise the complicated history and context of the piece, addressing issues that include stereotyping and imperialism. Historical images will sit alongside a series of newly commissioned portraits taken in the Royal Opera House revival workrooms, demystifying the revival process and exploring the moderations made to wigs, costume and make up. Audiences will be given access to additional resources via a QR code and will be asked for feedback to help inform The Royal Opera’s new approach to presenting, and re-staging, canonical works today.
Mark Pemberton has resigned as chief executive after 15 years.
He says: ‘ I will be leaving the ABO at the end of September. It will have been 15 years in July, and it’s time to pass the baton. I’ll be taking time time off to recharge the batteries, and then pursuing freelance opportunities.’
It’s an incredibly delicate time, with the BBC about to slash orchestra budgets.
The streaming service Marquee TV has recruited the American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny to be Head of US Content Partnerships.
Marquee have just bought out Helio Arts, which Ryan founded.
His colleague Jamie Barton says: ‘Ryan McKinny brings a keen artistic eye and a huge heart to every project he works on, both onstage and behind the camera. He consistently uses his personal power to help elevate new voices in classical music, and I can’t wait to see the impact he will have on the incredible breadth of projects available on Marquee TV. I’m thrilled to see an artist of Ryan’s caliber take on a leadership role like this.’
photo: Twitter handle
The former Salzburg Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler begins work tomorrow at the Foreign Ministry in Vienna. She has been appointed special adviser for foreign culture and will be responsible for ‘the further development of Austria’s cultural presence abroad’.
Helga, 73, is reportedly delighted.
After 27 years in charge at Salzburg, she knows the politics of culture as well as anyone.
However, dissident voices are saying that, in recent years, she delivered Salzburg into the hands of Putin’s trustees and that she should not be allowed anywhere near political influence until the likes of Gergiev and Currentzis are removed from the stage.
From Joseph Calleja:
Here is an excerpt from an “interview” we did for the Telegraph. There is a story behind this, because of a miscommunication that was entirely my fault, I thought this was a radio interview and didn’t get that we were going to be videoed whilst singing an excerpt, hence my very casual attire seated next to TWO SIRS Sir Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside!
One sir seems a bit bemused.
He’s conducting the Schumann piano concerto at the Prague Spring in 1968… with Christoph Eschenbach as soloist.
Extraordinary.
Sarah Watts has resigned as Bass Clarinet Tutor in Manchester over the college’s failure to address persistent bullying.
She says: I have resigned from my position as Bass Clarinet Tutor at RNCM, Manchester. After taking time out teaching this last year due to not being willing to deal with issues around bullying and harassment, I have have been disappointed that whilst things have changed in my department, there has been no recognition from senior management of just how bad the impacts of this treatment are (not only to me).
I would like to thank current members of my department for supporting me (they know who they are and one coffee meeting back in February was very much appreciated), and the research department who have looked after me and supported that side of my work over the past years. Also thank you to many of the composition staff who have collaborated with me and my students many times over the past years and other colleagues in the college who I hope to stay in touch with.
I hope that me speaking out will make senior management realise that part time instrumental staff should be valued, listened to and treated with respect. But for me I just can’t come back from being told ‘my career doesn’t stack up compared to others, ‘we are doing a bad job as not enough of our students get orchestral trials (I have so many students who have fabulous portfolio careers), and being victimised and singled out for scrutiny when trying to submit an invoice for two hours work. I (and others) deserve better. We deserve apologies from the top and have never received this or been listened to.
Lots of love to all my RNCM students and ex students – Lessons and bass clarinet choir were life highlights with you all. Xxx
In the meantime, I’m still teaching bass clarinet! I’m around for private lessons, masterclasses, composition workshops etc … and also you can apply to study with me on the 1 year MA in Music Performance Course at the University of Sheffield.
The well-known voice coach and pianist Aymeric Dupré la Tour was killed on Sunday morning after a crash with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Madison, Ct.
Aymeric, originally from Lyon, was 49.
A harpsichordist with a Juilliard DMA, he was director of music at First Church Congregational in Fairfield and organist at Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden. He was also staff accompanist at Oberlin Conservatory, Baldwin Wallace-Conservatory (OH), and the International School for the Arts (Niagara).
He recently coached the soprano Jūratė Švedaitė for concerts with with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
The Orchard, a hybrid production for in-person audiences and virtual theatregoers, starts this week in New York.
It is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s great play The Cherry Orchard by Ukrainian-born theatre director Igor Golyak. It stars Jessica Hecht as Ranevskaya and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who will play both Anton Chekhov and Firs, and Juliet Brett as Anya.
Audiences in the theatre will enter an immersive environment where perceptions, illusions, and reality collide as a family in crisis tries to process their future. The virtual experience invites audiences on a journey through a three-dimensional property that has been abandoned and is in foreclosure. Audiences can explore magical rooms where they uncover echoes of a past life, including Chekhov’s letters, memories, and, ultimately, the play, live, in progress at the Baryshnikov Arts Center Off-Broadway.
The in-person and online versions will run concurrently for each performance. Partway through the performances, the two versions intersect and the worlds come together. “This is a story about the delicate relationships at the center of a family facing the end of the world as they know it,” says Golyak. “We are living through an unimaginable time of change and destruction with the war in Ukraine and with the pandemic. As humans, we are perpetually losing our cherry orchards, losing our worlds. This play is about us today.” Previews will begin Off-Broadway at The Baryshnikov Arts Center May 31.
An actor who was dropped by his agent as a result of being diagnosed with a heart condition is calling for best practice guidelines to be produced to prevent other performers from being treated this way…
Do we know agents like that in the music world? Surely not.
We have been notified of the death today, after a long illness, of Viktor von Halem, a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin for more than 30 years and a stalwart on the world stage. He sang more than 100 roles.
Harold Schonberg once described him as ‘a giant of a man with a voice to match’.
