The Minnesota Orchestra has named Nathan Hughes as its principal oboe. Hughes is currently principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and a teacher at Juilliard.
He says: ‘Joining the Minnesota Orchestra, an ensemble that has such a long, rich history and at the same time is forward-thinking, is truly an honor and privilege. I have admired the Orchestra since I first heard it as a young boy growing up in the Twin Cities, and I felt so warmly welcomed when I recently performed with the group. The collaborative spirit among these high-caliber musicians has developed into a wonderful atmosphere that encourages creativity, and the organization is very fortunate to be supported by a large community of music lovers. I look forward to coming to Orchestra Hall to make music with these amazing artists!’
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has asked Lina González-Granados to continue as its Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprentice, with residencies planned next season in May and June 2023.
Lina stepped in several times this season for Riccardo Muti, to mixed reviews.
Her renewal is a striking vote of confidence. She is also resident conductor at Los Angeles Opera.
photo: Todd Rosenberg
Social media in Italy are flowing with condolences for Pamela Rosato, a successful violinist who performed with the tenor Al Bano, at Sanremo and elsewhere.
The precise cause of death has not been disclosed.
Pamela had been suffering from a long illness.
The violinist Nicola Benedetti, recently appointed director of the Edinburgh Festival, has been named Honorary President of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Her duties include addressing graduating classes.
Benedetti, 34, holds nine honorary degrees, so that won’t be a problem.
Just in:
Ermonela Jaho has withdrawn from all performances of Pagliacci due to illness. The role of Nedda will now be performed by Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak – in addition to singing the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana.
Italian tenor Fabio Sartori has withdrawn from the Pagliacci performances on Tuesday 5 and Friday 8 July 2022 – this is due to suffering from COVID-19. Roberto Alagna will sing the role of Canio on these dates. I
Jonas Kaufmann is still recovering from COVID-19 and is unable to sing the performance of Cavalleria rusticana on Friday July 8. He will be replaced by SeokJong Baek as Turiddu in addition to singing the role on Tuesday 5 July.
Partners of leaders at the NATO summit in Madrid were taken today on a tour of the Teatro Real.
Their host was HM Queen Letizia and they watched part of a rehearsal of Verdi’s opera Nabucco, which opens on Tuesday 5 July.
Participants were: Linda Rama (Albania), Jodei Haydon (Australia), Annik Penders (Belgium), Andri Anastasiades (Cyprus), Sanja Music Milanovic (Croatia), Juraj Rizman (Slovakia), Brigitte Macron (France) Andrea Levite (Latvia) Diana Nausediene (Lithuania) Gauthier Destenay (Luxemburg), Lidija Dukanovic (Montenegro), Elizabeta Pendarovska (North Macedonia) and Agata Kornhauser-Duda (Poland).
The iconic Zeb Soanes has taken his radio voice to the commercial side.
He was the man who made the weather.
Here’s the career so far.
Our Czech colleagues at OperaPlus have reported the death of Blanka Kulínská, head of the national radio children’s choir and founder of the internationally renowned Bambini di Praga. Blanka was 87.
Having sung in the Children’s Choir of Czechoslovak Radio as a child, she was named its director in 1954, at the age of just 19.
After falling foul of the Communist regime, she founded Bambini di Praga with many defecting members of the radio chorus. In 1992, after the fall of Communism, she was reinstated as head of the radio children’s chorus, handing over the Bambini to her son, Bohumil.
In 2004, Bohumil was arrested for abusing chorus members and his mother took over the Bambini once more. On Bohumil’s release, in 2011, the Bambini were wound up. Bohumil died in 2018.
The family’s story could be the plot of a Janacek opera.
From the Metropolotain Opera general manager’s interview with Jeffrey Arlo Brown in Van magazine:
‘We may not say we are at war with Russia, but we are. It’s more than just the one drop that breaks the camel’s back. An attempt is being made here to wipe out an entire civilization, the entire people of Ukraine. As far as I know, what Putin is up to is like nothing that has ever happened before. I got the impression that there is no possibility of further cooperation with Russia and in this case with the Bolshoi Theater, although I appreciate the head of the Bolshoi, Vladimir Urin. But because it’s a state-sponsored organization and because Netrebko is a close personal ally of Putin, both in terms of her actions and her mindset – and I know this from personal experience.
‘Anna debuted at the Met before I came here, but I’ve continued to work with her and in many ways made the Met a kind of home base for her. In 2006 I told her that if she committed to doing two operas a year at the Met, I would engage her in new productions and they would also be broadcast on our HD streams. That’s what I did then. At the same time, I was very aware the whole time that you are actually right in what you just said about her personal political closeness to authoritarianism and to Putin. When Putin criminalized homosexuality 10 years ago, he did not implement this law himself. The Bolshoi continued to perform Nureyev ballets and all that kind of stuff.
‘I’m not saying it’s right in any way. I’m just saying that there’s a difference between working with institutions in a country with morals beyond questionable and working with institutions in a country trying to wipe out a people. You may disagree, but for me, a red line has been crossed.’
The Royal Opera House has named member of next season’s Jette Parker Artists Programme.
The young Scottish tenor Michael Gibson is the only British singer in the pack. The others are Sarah Dufresne (soprano, Canada), Gabrielė Kupšytė (mezzo soprano, Lithuania), and Josef Jeongmeen Ahn (baritone, South Korea).
Covent Garden is acting rather like a Premiership football club in its talent development policy. Its intended purpose, as a crucible for national talent, has long been abandoned.
No matter what’s going on in the world, politicians always treat themselves well.
We hear that the centrepiece of yesterday’s NATO summit ‘working lunch’ at the Prado in Madrid was a giant lobster gazpacho.
For entertainment, they flew in the Kiev Symphony Orchestra to play soothing music.
German unions and employers have agreed a two-step wage increase for opera house employees, it was announced last night.
The minimum wage for stage technicians on public stages will rise from 2,000 euros to 2,550 on September 1, and to 2,715 euros on January 1, 2023.
The rate applies both to fulltime and freelance employees.
