We mourn the loss of Dr. Fritz Sterz, our esteemed doctor and friend of the orchestra. His dedication and care for our orchestra over the years, both in Vienna and on tour, will remain in our memories forever.<
We are profoundly grateful for his tireless support and medical care. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his family.
Sterz, who retired from his hospital post three years ago, had been Deputy Head of Emergency Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. Originally from Graz, he spent three years studying resuscitation with the pioneering Peter Safar in Pittsburgh. Known as the ‘father of therapeutic hypothermia, he had 569 publications to his name.
During the Vienna Phil’s first performance after Covid lockdown, ‘Dr. Fritz Sterz was brought in and experimented with sodium choloride to determine air flow. He measured fog clouds at a maximum of 20 inches (50 centimeters) from musicians’ mouths and noses, and approximately 30 inches (75 centimeters) from the end of a flute.’ On his advice, there was no social distancing on stage.
A true trailblazer.
Here’s what the programme says:
Parsifal
Andreas Schager
Tilmann Unger 7.8. (Umbesetzung) (1. Aufzug)
Klaus Florian Vogt 7.8. (Umbesetzung) (2. und 3. Aufzug)
What happened?
Schager got sick. Vogt was flown in but missed a flight connection so Unger jumped in for Act 1. Very credibly, spectators say. Vogt took over for the second and third acts. He’s still leading the field as Jump-in of the Year.
Conserving Rusconi: Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture
Vitruvius was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, and served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the Roman army. Little is known about Vitruvius’ life, but he is famous and revered for his multi-volume work titled De architectura. . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book on architectural theory, as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture. It is not clear to what extent his contemporaries regarded his book as original or important.
The first illustrated edition was published in Venice in 1511 by Fra Giovannie Giocondo, , with woodcut illustrations based on descriptions in the text. Bramante, Michelangelo, Palladio, Vignola and earlier architects are known to have studied the work of Vitruvius, and consequently it has had a significant impact on the architecture of many European countries.
And now, here, in the Met Museum, is a copy of Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, in the Rusconi edition. It is in very poor shape and this little film is about how the curators lovingly restored it so that it could be displayed in the Met’s galleries.
When Met fellow Yeo-Jin Katerina Bong came across a 17th century copy of Ruconi’s edition of Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture in the Department of Drawings and Prints, she was elated by her discovery—but disheartened by the book’s physical condition.
Behind the scenes at The Met curator FemkeSpeelberg and book conservator Claire Manias discuss the book’s history and extensive illustrations as it is conserved for an upcoming exhibition.
Die Walküre stands at the pinnacle of Romantic musical drama. Barely has the curtain opened when Wagner unleashes orchestral writing that sweeps everything away in its path. Storm, incest, divine wrath, irrepressible passion: everything is there to announce the tortuous destiny of the heroes. Through a composition in which every instrument contributes to the tragedy, Wagner begins the story proper, illuminating words and scenes with his famous leitmotifs that run beneath the singers, pass into their voices, transform and resurface as the plot develops. It is not surprising that Die Walküre (second part of the Ring of the Nibelung) is widely regarded as the most popular and the most moving. Likened to a Bayreuth in the English countryside, Longborough Festival stages a new production following the socially-distanced concert performance of Die Walküre in 2021. This new 2024 production is seen for the first time as part of Longborough’s 2024 Ring cycle. It is directed by Amy Lane, Artistic Director of Copenhagen Opera Festival, and conducted by Anthony Negus, Longborough Music Director and eminent Wagnerian, streamed via Slippedisc courtesy of OperaVision.. Mark Le Brocq sings the role of Siegmund and Emma Bell sings Sieglinde.
Sung in German with subtitles in English.
The Plot: Siegmund and Sieglinde find themselves drawn together during a storm. Unbeknown to them their father Wotan, chief of the gods, hopes through Siegmund to retrieve a ring of ultimate power.
Die Walküre is streamed on Friday 8th August at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
The death has been communicated of the US mezzo-soprano Dorothy Krebill, widow of Plato Steven Karayanis, who was general director of the Dallas Opera for 23 years. Together, they made Dallas a home for fine singing, fine food and fine wines. Opera performances doubled under their leadership and the budget increased ninefold. Dorothy, who survived her husband by two years, was 94.
The Karayanis couple started out as American freelancers in German opera houses – did they ever reach out to quarter-Greek cousin Hebert von Karayanis? – and later in the Metropolitan Opera National Company until it shut down in 1967. They moved to Dallas in 1977.
Moving on from Dallas, they helped out Palm Beach Opera and the fledgling Opera San Antonio.
Lives of service, as the phrase goes.
The tenor writes:
Refreshing time in the pool during my busy summer…enjoying a few days off before heading to Gstaad to perform the second act of “Tristan und Isolde” on August 23rd!
The death has been reported of Alexander Mndoyants, one of Moscow’s most respected piano teachers.
A finalist in the 1977 Van Cliburn Competition – alongside Sasha Toradze, Michel Dalberto and the shortlived winner Steven De Groote – Mndoyan joined the Moscow Conservatory as a junior teacher in 1979 and had to wait until 2004 before being made full professor.
He disliked training students for competitions, encouraging them to follow his own unflashy, introspective example.
His son Nikita Mndoyants won the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition.
Michael Volle (pic) has suffered an injury and cannot sing the Flying Dutchman title role tonight.
His replacement is the experienced Tomasz Konieczny.
That’s two nights running that the title singer had to be replaced at a few hours’ notice.
It’s Bayreuth’s biggest excitement this summer.
He conducted the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra last night at Musikfest Bremen with works by Brahms and Schubert. Next stop: Berlin’s Waldbühne.
From the Times’s full-page obit of Zamira Menuhin:
Speaking of how Yehudi Menuhin’s desire to change the world never ended, she told how he was patron of more than 200 charities. “He just couldn’t say no,” she said. “He wanted everything, and he wanted it immediately. He was like a little boy somehow, but much of what he wanted was impossible.”
