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Friday
May 31
DIGITAL
PROMOTION: Eminem's new album shipped early because the music was
already available over the internet in pirate digital copies. Indeed, music
from the album was so widely traded on the net, that Eminem's recording
company feared sales of the album in stores would be way off. But the album
has debuted at No. 1 in record time, adding to the argument that
file-swapping on the internet promotes sales of recordings, not discourages
them. Nando Times
(AP) 05/30/02
- COPIES
HELP NOT HURT: "The big record companies' complaints about your
new CD burner and file-sharing services like Napster, Kazaa and Music
City are hogwash. The big record companies have built their case on what
seems a logical premise. They contend that if you can download the new
Ashanti song for free from the Internet or borrow your friend's copy of
the new Bonnie Raitt CD in order to burn one for yourself, then they've
lost a sale. No doubt some music fans behave this way. But not most.
That's the point of a study by Jupiter Research, a leading Internet and
new technology research firm. Jupiter found that people who use
file-sharing networks to obtain free music or who make homemade CDs are
likely to maintain or increase their spending on music." Boston Herald
05/31/02
BERLIN'S
"DANGEROUS" OPERA HOUSE: Daniel Barenboim, director of Berlin's
Staatsoper has warned that the opera house is in such disrepair that it is a
danger to audiences and performers. "Barenboim's complaint came four days
after an aged hydraulic stage lift collapsed during a performance of Mozart's Don
Giovanni, bringing down with it parts of the decor. No one was injured,
but the performance was interrupted for 20 minutes."
Chicago Sun-Times 05/7/02
Thursday May 30
EXPLOITING
THE YOUNG? The 60 music students from the Royal Academy of Music who
agreed to play for free in an orchestra to accompany Sir Elton John, Sir Paul
McCartney and Tom Jones at a £4 million charity concert in Buckingham Palace
gardens next week, are being exploited says the British musicians union.
"People will be making money out of this event, whether it is record
distributors, dealers or publishers. Clearly this concert is a great
opportunity to showcase young talent, but we argue young talent should be
treated equally." The
Guardian (UK) 05/29/02
KURT MASUR'S
BUM DEAL: After ten years as music director of the New York Philharmonic,
Kurt Masur is leaving. "By any measure Mr. Masur has accomplished what he
was asked to do. And how did the Philharmonic's board reward him? By severing
his contract." The
New York Times 05/30/02
CUTTING OUT THE
MIDDLEMAN: The most frustrating part of buying a stringed instrument for
any musician is navigating the deceptive and self-serving world of dealers who
can set prices with impunity, and often charge buyers three to four times what
they paid for a given instrument. But a new culture of online instrument
auctions is gathering momentum, and, given time, it may well change the way
all but the wealthiest musicians shop for the tools of their trade. Andante 05/30/02
MAYBE
THIS EXPLAINS BRITNEY? Payola, the practice of paying radio DJs to promote
certain records over others, was outlawed decades ago. "Now, however, a
growing coalition of music and consumer groups and members of Congress charge
that payola is back in a disturbing new form involving middlemen promoters who
skirt the law while operating legally to the detriment of artists and the
listening public." San Francisco Chronicle
(NY Times) 05/30/02
SIZE
MATTERS: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Uh, rent it out, actually, just
as dozens of small groups and high schools do every year, their modest
performances sandwiched between the world's greatest classical ensembles. The
rental concerts generally draw small crowds, but a group of New Jersey school
kids are anticipating quite a crowd for their Brahms German Requiem
this week. The interest can be chalked up to the scale of the thing: the
orchestra will contain 150 musicians, and the choir, which will spill over
into the seating area, will number 250. Philadelphia
Inquirer 05/30/02
Wednesday
May 29
DUTOIT
SUPPORTER BOLTS MONTREAL: Tim Hutchins, principal flute of the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra, is leaving for Pittsburgh following the acrimonious
departure of Montreal music director Charles Dutoit. Hutchins is an
unapologetic Dutoit supporter, and resigned as chairman of the orchestra's
musicians' committee when it became clear that a majority of his colleagues
held a much dimmer view than he of the famously temperamental conductor.
Hutchins has been principal flute in Montreal for nearly a quarter of a
century. Montreal Gazette 05/28/02
FINISHING
TURANDOT (AGAIN): Puccini's Turandot is widely considered to
be the Italian master's greatest opera, and yet the composer was unable to
complete the work before his death in 1924. An ending was commissioned from
Franco Alfano, but it has always been considered amateurish and not up to the
standard of the rest of the work. This year, a new ending is making the rounds
of the world's opera houses, with the addendum courtesy of Italy's greatest
living composer, Luciano Berio, and is garnering dramatically better reviews. Los Angeles Times 05/27/02
SPOLETO
USA IN THE BLACK: "When the Spoleto Festival USA announced last
summer that it intended to raise $25 million for programming, an endowment,
and restoring a building, it also said it already had raised $18 million. Now
the annual Charleston, S.C., arts festival, which opened Friday and will end
June 9, is in its 26th year with $23 million collected or promised. That is
not the kind of news people expect from a festival that has struggled with
money from its first year." Philadelphia
Inquirer (Knight Ridder) 05/29/02
RISE
AND FALL: It's the 50th anniversary of the singles charts for records.
"But it's hard to pretend that it isn't now dealing with an irreparably
tarnished institution. A once richly varied and hard-fought battleground on
which rival talents would engage in titanic struggles for weeks on end to
attain that coveted No 1 slot, the pop-singles chart has degenerated into a
dismal procession of formulaic releases, each recklessly catapulted to the top
– and then to hell – with equal dispatch." The Independent (UK) 05/27/02
- WEBCASTING
FOR FUN AND NO PROFIT: Music was supposed to be fun, so we were always
told. But with the radio and recording industries now so corporate-driven
as to make most stations and releases indistinguishable, webcasting was
developed as a way to get exposure for music never heard on today's
ultrasanitized Top 20 countdowns and generic music video channels. So why
all the brouhaha over webcasting royalties? It seems that the corporate
music monolith isn't enjoying the competition. Chicago
Tribune 05/29/02
THE SOUNDS OF
SILENCE: The newest fad in the world of electronic music is known as
'lowercase sound,' and it is every bit as understated and subtle as techno (electronica's
most mainstream contribution to music) is bombastic. Lowercase focuses on
computer magnification of incredibly soft sounds, and contains many long
stretches of silence in between music so soft that some listeners don't
realize it's there at all. Wired 05/29/02
Tuesday
May 28
PRODIGY
WINNER: Jennifer Pike, a 12 year-old violinist became the youngest person
ever to win the BBC's Young Musician of the Year award with a
"breathtaking performance of Mendelssohn's violin concerto on a
Stradivarius borrowed from the Royal Academy of Music and with minor
assistance from her lucky mascot, a fluffy cat called Kitty." The Guardian (UK) 05/28/02
- GREAT
PERFORMANCES, BUT... "Pike was the youngest of the five
finalists, so it is only right to sound a note of caution. This
competition is not necessarily about musicians who are on the threshold of
a professional career, but is an acknowledgment of achievement at a
particular stage of study." The Telegraph (UK) 05/28/02
Monday
May 27
MUSIC AS
EXPRESSION: Composer Tod Machover has helped develop a computer program
that helps people who don't know anything about music, compose their own
pieces. The software helps "convert expressive gestures — lines,
patterns, textures and colors — made on the screen into pleasing and
variable sounds. The goal, he said, is to let children have 'the direct
experience of translating their own thoughts and feelings into music. Then
music becomes a living, personal activity, and not a given which is handed
down from experts or from history'." The New York Times 05/27/02
LET'S
FOCUS ON THE PRODUCT: The perpetually underfunded Scottish Opera had a
great new season to announce last week. But the company spoiled all the
excitement by unleashing a tirade about needing more money. "Everyone has
hopes, aspirations, fears, concerns, and visions for the future. Scottish
Opera has more than most. In an act of stupendous naivety, gaucherie, or
stupidity (delete according to opinion), Scottish Opera's two top executives
unleashed all of these last week at precisely the moment when they were
unveiling their latest product. Don't they understand that when you have a
big, sexy, and rather surprising product to sell, you focus exclusively on
that product - they do want people to go out and buy tickets, don't
they?" Glasgow
Herald 05/24/02
CUTTING
INTO FRANKFURT: The city of Frankfurt has a quota of performances it
expects from its opera company in return for city funding. So along comes a
budget crunch and the city cuts millions out of the company's subsidies. What
kind of sense does this make? It barely saves money, since canceling
productions still means that contracted performers have to be paid.
"Perhaps only a psychoanalyst can understand the soul of Frankfurt. Why
does everything always have to go wrong? Once, people would have called it a
curse. Today, we speak of a virus: the short-sightedness of always cutting the
budget by sacrificing art and culture." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 05/26/02
SURVIVOR:
The St. Petersburg Philharmonic has long been one of Russia's cultural jewels.
But since the USSR went away, money for culture has been tight. From nearly
unlimited budgets harnessed to the orchestra's product, the orchestra has in
recent years had difficulty just paying its musicians. "But aid is coming
in. American friends of the orchestra have given money for new instruments,
and an oil magnate whom [music director Yuri] Temirkanov knows has donated
enough cash to double the orchestral wages." The Telegraph (UK) 05/27/02
LATVIA
WINS EUROVISION: For the first time ever, a performer from Latvia has won
the Eurovision Song Contest. "Marija Naumova's Latin-influenced song I
Wanna beat off strong competition from Malta to win the prize with the
very last vote of the competition." BBC
05/26/02
Sunday
May 26
HOW
CHICAGO GOT ITS SOUND: Chicago jazz has always had a different flavor than
that from New Orleans or New York. "Clearly, Chicago musicians take pride
in the distinctiveness of their sound, and for good reason. Removed from the
commercial pressures of Manhattan and the pop-oriented recording studios of
Los Angeles, the Chicagoans always have forged a rougher, harder-hitting jazz
than most of their counterparts on the coasts." Chicago
Tribune 05/26/02
HOW
I COLLECTED 23,000 RECORDINGS: Music critic John von Rhein is wrestling
with his collection of recordings. The music is "an invaluable source of
reference and pleasure, and an albatross. The need to collect recorded music
cannot be explained rationally. Once the process has reached a certain point,
it takes on an insidious life of its own. Why on earth would I want to own 26
CD recordings and nine LPs of the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto?" Chicago Tribune 05/26/02
SECOND
ACTS: Itzhak Perlman is one of the great violinists of the past century.
But since he turned 50 a few years ago, increasingly his interested have
turned to teaching and conducting. "That means he'll make a call to a
student at intermission of one of his own concerts if he remembers something
he forgot to say during a lesson." As for conducting, "his stick
technique is quirky, but the players can follow him; he communicates through a
deep reservoir of animated expressions and gestures. He has large, strong
hands, and all those years of walking on crutches have created tremendous
torque in his upper body; his physical energy is commanding." Detroit Free Press 05/26/02
CONDUCTOR
MOVES ON: Eiji Oue is leaving his post as music director of the Minnesota
Orchestra. The orchestra has a long and storied history, but had fallen into a
rut before Oue came. "His greatest and most indelible feat is intangible
— coaxing this orchestra to perform from the heart rather than the mind. It
also exposed what some see as his greatest failing. People inside and outside
the orchestra see Oue as soft and underinvolved in the technical details
required for flawless performance. Oue wanted his musicians to soar through a
boundless skyline; with Oue, some musicians felt adrift in the wind." St. Paul Pioneer Press
05/26/02
Friday
May 24
TECHNO-LY
SPEAKING: The Detroit Electronic Music Festival drew more than one million
people in each of its first two years. Still, the music is much better
received in Europe than in the US, and Detroit festival organizers wonder why.
National Post 05/24/02
WISH YOU WERE
HERE: A new international piano competition in Minnesota will be conducted
partly over the internet. Competitors playing in the Twin Cities will have
their performances instantly recreated via the internet on a similarly
equipped piano at Yamaha headquarters in Japan. Devices on the pianos record
and playback every keystroke, transmitting the performances to judges Emmanuel
Ax and Yefim Bronfman, sitting in Japan. "Digital video of the
performance, also transmitted via cyberspace, will play on a large digital
monitor so the overseas judges can watch as well." St. Paul Pioneer Press 05/23/02
WHAT BECOMES A
GREAT CONDUCTOR? Does a conductor have to be a dictator to be great? Or
should he be the friend next door? One wonders after the (apparently)
dictatorial Charles Dutoit made a hard exit from the Montreal Symphony.
"The ideal conductor, if such a paragon exists, would command the
magnetism of a perfect father, the imagination of a poet, the memory of a
historian, the patience of a saint, the intellect of a genius, the technique
of a virtuoso and the ambition of a salesman. All this plus the friendly
manner of the little guy next door." Unfortunately, like is a series of
compromises... Andante 05/23/02
BUT ARE THEY
ARTISTS? Over the past two decades, "a subculture of 'turntablists'
has grown up – 'scratchers' invest hundreds of dollars and hours of time
hovering over two turntables and a mixer, their fast-moving hands furiously
scratching up records and wearing down needles. They're found onstage at
nightclubs, in the corner at house parties, and even alongside the conductor
at symphony concerts. But are they simply disc jockeys? Or are they true
musical artists?" Christian Science Monitor
05/24/02
SING FLING:
Choirs aren't just for church anymore. In the US, "over the past two
decades, community choruses have sprung up everywhere, supplementing the
wealth of church choirs that traditionally have formed the musical backbone of
many communities. A National Endowment for the Arts study found that 1 in 10
American adults now sings weekly in some kind of chorus." Christian Science Monitor 05/24/02
ABRUPT
EXIT: Giving only a week's notice, Dallas Opera General Director Mark
Whitworth-Jones quits the company after two years on the job. He
"acknowledged frustration with the local fund raising situation during
the economic downturn and in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He
said subscription revenue was down 17 percent during the 2001-02 season. The
company has also found its fund raising for annual operations competing with
efforts to raise money for the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, as part
of the proposed Dallas Center for the Performing Arts." Dallas Morning News 05/23/02
Thursday
May 23
THE
SHAM THAT IS THE CLASSICAL BRITS: The Classical Brit Awards are a shallow
exercise, writes Norman Lebrecht. There's really only one "real"
classical artist up for an award. "The rest are a motley band of dabblers
and distorters, rock mimics and studio-made combos who call themselves
'classical' for any number of reasons, none of them credible." London Evening Standard 05/22/02
WEBCASTERS
NOT IN THE CLEAR YET: The Librarian of Congress this week rejected a
proposed royalty payment system to be applied to webcasters who play
commercial music for public consumption. But while the decision was a great
relief to webcasters, who claimed they would have been effectively rendered
extinct by the plan due to the high royalties, the issue has not been put to
rest yet. Within 30 days, the Librarian must issue his own set of
recommendations, and word is that the plan may have to involve a whole new way
of calculating royalties, one which takes listenership into account rather
than just number of songs played. Boston Globe
05/23/02
GIVING THEIR ALL
(AND THEN SOME): "The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra donates its time
for 12 school concerts each season. The concerts are free for the students,
and orchestra volunteers even help the teachers prepare for the experience. In
fact, the symphony does everything but drive the students to Heinz Hall. Until
now, that is." Orchestra musicians, frustrated by the lack of inner-city
students participating in the program, coughed up $5000 out of their own
pockets to bus some 2,000 students to the latest round of shows. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/23/02
Wednesday
May 22
WEBCASTING FEE
REJECTED: The US Librarian of Congress has rejected a "proposal by
the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel which recommended that webcasters pay
recording companies $.0014 per listener for each song they play."
Webcasters claimed that charging the royalty fee would put them out of
business. Wired 05/21/02
NEW ARTS CENTER IN
PARMA: The city which gave birth to such musical luminaries as Giuseppe
Verdi and Arturo Toscanini now has a brand spankin' new performing arts
center. The Casa della Musica boasts "an auditorium, the museum of the
famed Teatro Regio opera house, a music library, a multimedia collection and
the new seat of the Istituto di Studi Verdiani, an international society
active in producing critical editions of Verdi's scores." Andante 05/22/02
PROBABLY STOLEN BY
A NON-MILLIONAIRE VIOLINIST: "A $100,000 cash reward is being offered
for information leading to the return of a $1.6 million Stradivarius violin
that disappeared from the workshop of a New York violinmaker. The reward is
being offered by Kroll Inc., a global risk consulting company that has been
retained to help find the instrument. Kroll, in a news release, said it is
working with New York police and is publicizing the disappearance among
musicians and collectors in an effort to generate leads." Andante 05/21/02
HOW TO REJECT
FREE PUBLICITY AND ALIENATE FANS: The Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra may
not be the most prestigious orchestra in Washington state, but it has
apparently mastered the art of acting like a big-dog organization. The BPO is
taking legal action against a classical music fan who has registered the
domain name "bellevuephilharmonic.org"
and set up an unofficial web site meant to drum up support for the ensemble.
The orchestra claims the site is diverting traffic from its official site. Eastside Journal (Bellevue) 05/20/02
Tuesday
May 21
THE GREAT
PATRON: Paul Sacher was the great patron of 20th Century music. He
comissioned "more than 120 works, including masterpieces by Bartók,
Britten, Honegger, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Milhaud and Tippett." But he
was more personally involved as well. "Throughout his life Sacher’s
palatial mansion outside Basle was a kind of upmarket soup kitchen for
hard-pressed geniuses. The dying Martinu spent his last weeks there. Honegger
and his family lived there, free of charge, for a year. The young Boulez and
exiled Rostropovich were accommodated so often that the respective rooms
became known as 'Slava’s apartment'and 'Pierre’s room'. It is hardly an
exaggeration to claim that without Sacher’s money-bags some of the most
scintillating musical minds of the last century might have ended up washing
dishes." The Times (UK) 05/21/02
DAMAGE
CONTROL: What's up with British jazz critics? "Too many of them seem
to find it really rather awkward to say anything unpleasant about the artists
they review. The disobliging word does not even stick in their throats, let
alone spring from their lips like a dart; instead, it remains a sad little
thought, quickly displaced by brighter, shinier blandishments." Are they
afraid they'll hurt jazz if they write critical things about it? New Statesman 05/20/02
ANOTHER
CONTROVERSIAL PIANO COMPETITION: Controversy dogged the finals of the
first-ever Atlanta International Piano Competition. Two of the finalists were
students of members of the jury. "The conflict was apparent to many in
the audience after Japanese pianist Junko Inada, 30, failed to make the
finals. She had no teacher on the jury", yet some thought she gave the
best performance. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
05/20/02
Monday
May 20
MUSEUM BUST? The
Country Music Hall of Fame opened a handsome new $37 million museum in
Nashville a year ago, amid rosy predictions of first-year admissions of
550,000. The reality is considerably less, and the museum is optimistically
hoping for 330,000 visitors this year. Houston Chronicle (AP) 05/19/02
WE REALLY
DON'T LIKE OUR CUSTOMERS: Sony has incorporated copy protection software
into copies of Celine Dion's new album. "It can actually crash PC's, and
owners of iMac computers from Apple Computer have found that they sometimes
cannot eject the discs." The discs have been sold in Europe but not in
the US, though Sony says that may change. The New York Times 05/20/02
DIGITAL
DEBATE: Is digital music downloading a good or bad thing for musicians?
There are arguments both ways. "The notion that artists can now
circumvent record companies and reach their fans through the net is correct in
theory but unlikely in practice. In order to attract fans in really large
numbers, bands need a large dollop of hype, which costs enormous sums of
money, but record companies are willing to risk this kind of investment in the
hope that this or that band will become a cash cow."
The Scotsman 05/18/02
Sunday
May 19
FOR
THAT KIND OF MONEY, IT OUGHT TO PLAY ITSELF: There is no arguing that
Beethoven's 9th Symphony is one of the great musical and artistic achievements
of the Western world, so when the earliest known draft went up for auction at
Sotheby's in London, experts expected it to fetch up to £200,000. Guess
again: an anonymous telephone bidder snapped up the score for an astounding £1.3
million (US$1.8 million,) stunning other bidders, Beethoven experts, and,
presumably, the winner's accountant. BBC 05/17/02
TORONTO
PUSHING FOR THE MAGIC MILLION MARK: Last winter, with the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra in imminent danger of financial collapse, board chairman Bob Rae
brokered a deal with the provincial government of Ontario for a
"matching" gift of $1 million, if the TSO could raise a million of
its own by June 30. With slightly over a month to go, the orchestra is still
$300,000 short of the goal, and blood pressures are rising. In most respects,
the TSO's rebuilding effort has been going remarkably well, but without the
matching gift from the province, the process would be set back considerably. Toronto Star 05/19/02
HOW
ABOUT CORDUROY AND CARDIGANS? The Hallé Orchestra, of Manchester,
England, is considering a plan to change the style of dress worn by its
musicians on stage. Orchestras the world over have been nearly single-handedly
keeping the white-tie-and-tails business afloat for decades, and there have
always been mutterings that symphonies will never reach a young audience
wearing 19th-century outfits. The plan is far from final, but you can bet that
other ensembles will be watching Hallé closely. BBC
05/17/02
TEMIRKANOV
GETS OPEN-ENDED DEAL: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has agreed to
extend the tenure of music director Yuri Temirkanov on a year-to-year basis,
meaning that the conductor is expected to remain in Baltimore for a long time
to come. Temirkanov has garnered mixed reviews with the BSO: he is credited
with nurturing a darker, lusher overall sound than the orchestra previously
had, but has been sharply criticized (by former BSO music director David
Zinman, among others) for his programming decisions, which appear to ignore
contemporary music and focus on too narrow a range of repertoire. Baltimore Sun 05/16/02
- FINALLY,
SOME GOOD NEWS: "After this season's string of bad news days at
the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra - the dreadfully managed canning of the
BSO Chorus, a projected $1 million deficit - [the] announcement that music
director Yuri Temirkanov has agreed to stay in the job beyond his initial
contract period shone with an extra brightness... There was reason to be
concerned about the prospects for Temirkanov's commitment. The stark truth
is that the BSO needs him more than he needs the BSO." Baltimore Sun 05/19/02
MAKING MUSIC IN
THE SHADOW OF THE CITY: Over the last decade, the New Jersey Symphony has
become what many believed it could never be: an excellent and well-respected
ensemble completely separate from its competitors in nearby New York City, and
possessed of a striking combination of marketing savvy and infectious
enthusiasm. In an era when many orchestras are struggling for survival, the
NJSO has thrived. Now, music director Zdenek Macal, credited with driving much
of the orchestra's artistic growth, is stepping down after a decade at the
helm. Andante (AP) 05/19/02
IT'S
GOOD TO HAVE PRIORITIES: "Tenor Luciano Pavarotti has postponed a
performance in Britain to train for an appearance at the World Cup. The
Italian opera star is scheduled to perform in a Three Tenors concert at the
tournament in Japan in late June and said he needed time to rehearse." Nando Times (AP) 05/17/02
- IT
AIN'T OVER 'TIL... oh. IT'S OVER, THEN: The jilted opera lovers at the
Met last weekend may have been disappointed, but they shouldn't have been
surprised, says one critic. Pavarotti's career "ended more than a
decade ago. Ever since, the credulous punters have been applauding a
bloated, vocally enfeebled, tottery parody of the great tenor, or - as the
public at a recent alfresco concert in Italy discovered - listening to him
lip-synch to a recording." The Observer
(UK) 05/19/02
THE
SONG-SWAPPER THAT WOULDN'T DIE: Two days after ArtsJournal reported
that Napster would finally die a merciful death in the wake of continuing
lawsuits and employee resignations, German media giant Bertelsmann has
announced that it is buying the now-legendary song-swapping service, and will
turn it into a music subscription service that won't run afoul of copyright
law. The twisted irony of Napster being acquired by the very type of media
conglomerate that has been trying to kill it off for the last two years has
escaped no one. Wired 05/17/02
THE
FUTURE (OR LACK THEREOF) OF WEBCASTING: Depending on who you talk to,
recent U.S. Copyright Office action requiring webcasters to pay royalties to
the copyright holders of the songs they play was either a much-needed updating
of media regulations, or the death knell of the web radio industry. But does
either side really have any idea about what the future will hold for online
audio? And isn't it about time that the U.S. got past this silly notion that
copyright holders (read: record companies,) rather than performers, receive
the royalties for the airplay? Boston Globe
05/19/02
THE
LITTLE GENRE THAT TIME FORGOT: Garrison Keillor has written an opera.
Well, okay, he hasn't so much written it as thought it up, and had one of his
prairie home companions write it. And it isn't so much an original opera as it
is a parody of some existing bel canto arias. And it isn't exactly
totally finished yet. But it does have Keillor's name on it, and it has a Lake
Wobegon feel guaranteed to sell tickets, and it gets its premiere this coming
week in (of course) Minnesota. Saint Paul Pioneer
Press 05/19/02
KANSAS
CITY GETS A SUPER-PAC: The trend towards huge, multiple-use performing
arts centers is proceeding apace, with Kansas City the latest American
metropolis to sign on for the ride. The city's PAC, which comes with a $304
million price tag and looks something like the Sydney Opera House turned
inside out with all the corners pounded flat, will include a "2,200-seat
theater/opera house and an 1,800-seat orchestra hall. A 500-seat multipurpose
'experimental theater' remains part of a future phase of development and fund
raising." Kansas City Star 05/17/02
AND
HE SHOWS UP FOR PERFORMANCES, TOO: While the arts world trades gossip
about the spectacular collapse of the most famous of the Three Tenors, one of
the others has quietly gone about securing his place in operatic history.
Placido Domingo, still a fine singer at the age of 61, has broadened his
activities over the last decade to include conducting, directing, and the art
of running a major opera company. In all these things, he has found success,
to the surprise of many observers, and, in so doing, has crafted one of the
most impressive operatic careers of the last century. Washington Post 05/22/02
ROBESON
REDUX: "On May 18, 1952, Paul Robeson -- who will be remembered as
one of the greatest singers of the 1940s, the first black superstar in the
United States, a civil-rights hero and a tragic figure destroyed by
McCarthyism -- stood on the back of a flat-bed truck parked at the edge of the
Canadian border and sang songs of solidarity to a crowd of 40,000. Fifty years
later, that legendary concert will be recreated at the very same park." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/02
Friday
May 17
THE
CRITICS TURN ON KISSIN: Pianist Evgeny Kissin was the wunderkind, a
critical favorite. Apparently not anymore. The critics have turned on him:
"One short, furious blast in The Guardian managed to squeeze in the
phrases 'totally repellent', 'profoundly unpleasant', 'heartlessly dazzling'
and 'entirely monochrome', concluding that Kissin was some mechanical doll and
that the whole event (a recital in Birmingham, part of a tour which reaches
London at the end of this month) was 'the biggest pianistic circus act since
David Helfgott'." What happened? London Evening Standard 05/16/02
BRINGING
JAZZ INSIDE (OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND?): The Detroit Symphony is
branching into the jazz world. The orchestra has announced an endowed position
for a prominent jazz musician. "It's very important for us to present art
that reflects the heritage of our community, and jazz is a part of that."
His duties include "conducting workshops for area students, acting as a
liaison between the DSO and local and national jazz musicians and helping DSO
leaders plan future jazz programs." Detroit Free Press 05/13/02
KEEPING
THE JAZZ FREE: The Detroit International Jazz Festival is "the
largest free jazz festival in North America." Now the festival is at a
crossroads. "The last two festivals have run deficits of more than
$300,000 per year, and attendance has dropped from a high of 857,000 in 1998
to 550,000 last year. Organizers say the festival is not in danger of folding
or scaling back, but the red ink cannot continue without consequences.
Festival leaders have hatched an ambitious menu of new ideas to increase
revenue, boost sponsorship and beef up attendance." Detroit Free Press 05/13/02
THE VIRTUAL
VIOLIN: Electronic music is everywhere. But some instruments - for
example, the violin - just don't translate well in MIDI. Now an inventor has
developed a device "that tells a computer everything about a bow's
motion, allowing it to generate a more realistic, emotional sound." The
idea is to produce a sound that can compete with that made on a real
instrument. New
Scientist 05/16/02
Thursday
May 16
SAN JOSE
TO FILE BANKRUPTCY? The San Jose Symphony, which shut down earlier this
season with a $3.4 million deficit, and which has been trying to reorganize,
is considering shutting down and filing for bankruptcy. An orchestra violinist
says the board is considering the idea after a meeting last week: "The
bottom line of that meeting was a recommendation that we completely go dark,
for a period of no less than six months, and probably more realistically of 12
to 18 months." The board's interim chairman denies the plan. San Jose Mercury News
05/13/02
LA SCALA
RESTORATION SPARKS CONTROVERSY: "The long-awaited final architectural
plan for the restoration of La Scala, which was offically presented to the
public and the press at Milan's city hall on 10 May, has aroused a heated
debate... In [the] plan, the depth of the stage and backstage in combination
will increase from 48 to 70 meters, thus eliminating the Piccola Scala, an
auxiliary venue for chamber opera seating 250. A new new stage tower in the
shape of a parallelepiped (a kind of modified cube) will rise 40 meters (the
current tower is 35 meters) at the building's rear facing." Andante 05/16/02
THE
DOCTOR EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU: Ever wonder why singers lose their voices
with age? "When our vocal cords get saggy, we lose the range of our
voice, the ability to hit high notes in particular, and we lose the power of
our voice, the ability to project or amplify, which is key for a
Pavarotti-type opera singer. As the body changes, ages, the muscles become
less strong and the supporting tissues lose their elasticity, and let's face
it, elasticity in the vocal cords is everything. That's what makes our vocal
cords pliable and able to vibrate. When we lose that elasticity we lose the
vocal quality we enjoy so much in someone like Pavarotti." Toronto Star 05/15/02
DEAD FINISHED GONE
KAPUT (REALLY): How many Napster's-finished stories have we run in the
last year? But this really really really looks like the end. Like, the CEO and
founder both quit this week, and all the workers are about to be set free...
soon there won't be anyone left. Too bad. "Napster and its founder held
the promise of everything the new medium of the Internet encompassed: youth,
radical change and the free exchange of information. But youthful exuberance
would soon give way to reality as the music industry placed a bull's-eye
squarely on Napster." Wired 05/15/02
BYE
BYE CLAUDIO: Claudio Abbado finishes up his tenure as music director of
the Berlin Philharmonic. "Abbado, allowing himself the capricious wisdom
of resigning from his job, has done much for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
in the past 12 years. How he shaped, changed and promoted it will not be
completely assessed until some time has gone by. What has already become clear
is that a strong, new post-Herbert von Karajan generation has found its
place." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 05/15/02
Wednesday
May 15
GLYNDEBOURNE'S
DELICATE BALANCE: The Glyndebourne Festival is about to open another
season. It sells out and tickets are difficult to get. Therein lies a problem.
"On the one hand, opera ranks as an art form that offers the opportunity
to dress up and experience something expensively and exceptionally glamorous;
on the other hand, in order to avoid the accusations of elitism (that
pretentious modern synonym for snobbery) and sustain its moral claim to public
subsidy, opera must also present itself as accessible to all." But
attracting new audiences that aren't, shall we say, respectful of tradition,
is a strain on the old guard... The Telegraph(UK) 05/15/02
ATTACKING THE
CONSUMER WHO BUYS YOU: Music companies are embedding ever stronger copy
protection into CD's. One problem - the measures prevent some computers
(particularly Macs) from playing the music at all. "CDs manufactured by
Sony seem to be the biggest headache. Not only do many discs not play on the
Mac, but they cause the machine to lock up and refuse to eject the offending
disc." Wired
05/14/02
FAKE SCORES:
Manuscripts said to be newly discovered scores and poetry by Declaration of
Independence signer Francis Hopkinson have been withdrawn from sale because
they are fakes. "What seemed to be a manuscript for the Revolutionary War
oratorio The Temple of Minerva as well as a number of marches, songs and poems
by Hopkinson are thought to be the work of an infamous Philadelphia forger,
Charles Bates Weisberg, who died in prison in 1945."
Philadelphia Inquirer 05/15/02
GRACELESS
ENDING: "By canceling a gala appearance in Puccini's Tosca at
the Metropolitan Opera an hour before curtain Saturday night, Pavarotti has
apparently ended his opera career with a singular lack of grace. The
66-year-old tenor has no further opera performances scheduled, and none are
expected." Though he had a marvelous voice, Pavarotti's lack of curiosity
and introspection marred his career. Los Angeles Times 05/15/02
- FAILURE
TO APPEAR: Should anyone have been surprised that Pavarotti was a
no-show at the Met last weekend? In 1989 the tenor withdrew from a Tosca
that Chicago Lyric Opera had essentially created for him. Fed up, the
company announced Pavarotti would be banned from the company. By then
"Pavarotti had walked away from 26 of his scheduled 41 Lyric
performances over nine years. The action earned headlines around the world
and the bravos of managerial colleagues who wished they'd had her
guts." Chicago
Tribune 05/15/02
Tuesday
May 14
ANOTHER
REASON NOT TO BUY CELINE: Sony Music has gotten aggressive in its attempts
to stop music fans from copying cd's. The company "has planted a
'poisoned pellet' of software in Celine Dion's latest CD, A New Day Has
Come, that is capable of crashing, and in cases permanently freezing, the
optical drives of personal computers into which the discs are inserted." The Age (Melbourne)
05/14/02
I KNOW CARNEGIE HALL,
AND THIS AIN'T IT: When Philadelphia's Kimmel Center opened, officials
crowed - "watch out Carnegie Hall." But the hall wasn't really ready
acoustically then. Six months later, one can venture some better judgments. At
least one New York critic still isn't sold on the comparison. "The
Philadelphia Orchestra might have sounded better to me in its new home had I
not just heard the same program in Carnegie Hall, where, true to form, the
sound of the Brahms was glowing, warm, clear and present without being
overwhelming." The
New York Times 05/14/02
JAZZ
BY ANY OTHER NAME: Has labeling your music "jazz" become a
liability? Some of the most successful jazz artists today have stopped calling
their music jazz, trying to sell more recordings. "To some people, jazz
is a turn-off," Part of the problem is that acoustic jazz is mired in the
past. Ironically, decades ago, that wasn't the case." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 05/12/02
Monday
May 13
PAVAROTTI
MAY HANG IT ALL UP: Following his cancellation at the Met last weekend,
Luciano Pavarotti has told an Italian newspaper that he may retire completely
from the stage. The tenor, who has eschewed most operatic roles in recent
years for arena concerts and gala events, told Corriere della Sera,
"It's the most difficult decision because I don't know yet if the moment
has come or if the crisis of the past few days is down to health
problems." BBC 05/13/02
- PAVAROTTI
WRITES TO FANS: After canceling out of a much-anticipated final
performance at the Met, Pavarotti has written a letter to his fans.
"I am writing, because today I have influenza, a common disease which
would mean nothing were I not a tenor. From some of the newspaper reports,
it seems almost as if my cancellation were considered something of a
betrayal or a weakness, not to show up on that stage and undertake the
profession to which I have dedicated almost my entire life." Toronto Star 05/13/02
- THE MAN
WHO REPLACED THE BIG MAN: The audience had paid as much as $1,800 for
their seats. They were all expecting the final performance of one of the
great voices of the 20th Century in one of the world's great opera houses.
So when Pavarotti failed to perform Saturday night at the Metropolitan
Opera, you had to feel sorry for the tenor brought in to take his place.
"Salvatore Licitra, 33, was flown in at the last minute on the
Concorde, courtesy of the Met, which was determined to salvage the
evening. If this was not to be the farewell of a faded superstar, then at
least it would be the starry anointing of a potential successor." The New York Times 05/13/02
- SO
FAR, IT'S UNANIMOUS: A star may have flamed out at the Met this
weekend, but so far, all the critics are much more excited about the one
that may have been born. "The burly, commanding tenor was having a
blast. The voice unfurled effortlessly into Puccini's vocal lines, with
their sun-drenched, rhapsodic lyricism... The voice is quite big.
Licitra's Act II shouts of victory were enough to rearrange your
hair." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/13/02
SAN
JOSE BENEFIT MAY GIVE SYMPHONY LIFE: Three benefit concerts have now
raised over $169,000 in an effort to save the San Jose Symphony, which
severely cut back its schedule and declared a fiscal crisis eight months ago.
Clearly, the orchestra has supporters who don't want to see it vanish, but
persistent reports leaking out of the SJS's musician ranks suggest that the
benefit money may be too little, too late, and the orchestra may be near
filing for bankruptcy. San Jose Mercury News
05/13/02
OZ LOOKS TO
ATTRACT ORCHESTRAS: "It's been a decade since the world's great
orchestras stopped touring Australia. A handful of ensembles have come for
festivals... But the regular visits that once brought orchestras to three or
four Australian cities have stopped." One local arts administrator is
looking to reverse the trend. Andante 05/13/02
Sunday
May 12
NO
MET FINALE FOR PAVAROTTI: Luciano Pavarotti, the 66-year-old tenor who has
been rumored for some time to be winding down his career, cancelled his final
scheduled appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this weekend on
less than two hours notice, saying he was ill with the flu. Met general
manager Joseph Volpe reportedly pleaded with the famed tenor to at least put
in an appearance before the sellout crowd, but Pavarotti refused. He had also
skipped a performance earlier in the week, prompting a scathing story under
the screaming headline "Fat Man Won't Sing" in the New York Post.
Rising young Italian singer Salvatore Licitra stood in, to much acclaim. BBC 05/12/02 & New York Post 05/10/02
WHY NO ONE SINGS
ALONG AT SYMPHONY HALL: "Classical music's advocates in the cultural
marketplace must contend with the fact that the clichés of the concert hall
are much more familiar than the content of the music itself. Everybody knows
them: the pianist's tails draped over the piano bench, the conductor's
flipping forelock, the orchestra tuning, etc. But when the music starts, I
would contend that only a handful of members of the audience have any idea
what to expect — or, in the case of Beethoven's Fifth, know what's coming
after the first few bars." Is this a failure on the part of educators and
performers, or does it speak to the enduringly complex quality of the music? Andante 05/10/02
ALAS, POOR
KURT, WE HARDLY KNEW YE (DID WE?): As the New York Philharmonic bids adieu
to music director Kurt Masur this month, New York still doesn't seem to know
quite what to make of his tenure with the nation's second-most-recognizable
orchestra. Some called him an autocrat, but the players seem to respect him;
others accused him of lacking subtlety, yet few would deny that the Phil
sounds better today than it has in years. The bottom line may be that Masur
was a music director whom the city took for granted. New York Times 05/12/02
- ONE
CRITIC'S ASSESSMENT: John Rockwell of the Times, for one, will
miss the maestro: "I cannot claim to have heard every one of Kurt
Masur's 860 New York Philharmonic concerts. I have not even heard his
every Philharmonic recording. He is not a close friend. But I do know him
in two rather different contexts, journalistic and collegial. I admire
him, I think he's a noble conductor, and I will regret his
departure." New York Times 05/12/02
CARVING OUT A
LIVING AMONG THE OLD MASTERS: The conventional wisdom among string-playing
musicians is that if you're not playing on an expensive old instrument,
preferably Italian and at least 200 years old, you're just never going to
amount to much. But today's luthiers would disagree, and some musicians are
starting to come around to the idea that a new instrument can have a power and
resonance that the old masters never conceived of. One rural fiddlemaker's
experience with the strange and mysterious world of the violin (and viola,
cello, and bass as well) may not be typical, but it says much about the future
of the industry. Minneapolis Star Tribune 05/12/02
TOSCANINI'S
LOVE LETTERS: He defined a generation of conductors with his rages and his
passionate performances, but off the podium, Arturo Toscanini was a private
man. Still, much has been written of his life, and many writers have spent
many pages speculating on his motivations. A new collection of letters, many
written to his several mistresses, sheds some fresh light on a legend which
has threatened to grow stale in recent years. The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/12/02
Friday
May 10
LACK OF
DISCIPLINE: Should anyone have been surprised that Pavarotti bailed out on
short notice of Wednesday night's performance of Tosca at the Met?
"It was only reasonable to doubt that he would sing these performances.
Mr. Pavarotti has had one of the indisputably greatest voices in opera history
and enjoyed a sensational career. Still, he is 66. Several distinguished
tenors with disciplined work habits, like Carlo Bergonzi and Alfredo Kraus,
sang strongly into their 60's. But for at least 15 years, Mr. Pavarotti has
been woefully undisciplined." The New York
Times 05/10/02
MASS
BAD TASTE: Charles Spencer is all in favor of lists - especially lists
that rank pop songs. But this week's Guinness Poll that ranked Bohemian
Rhapsody as the best single of all time..."The poor misguided fools! How
could they possibly think that such poncily portentous, sub-operatic claptrap
was the greatest single of all time? Thunderbolts and lightning, very very
frightening' indeed. For goodness sake, you deluded saps, get a grip." The Telegraph (UK) 05/10/02
SUPER SLAVA: Is
Mstislav Rostropovich one of the great cellists in history? "The
former music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.,
for 17 years has been awarded more than 40 honorary degrees and more than 90
major awards in 25 different countries, including the Presidential Medal of
Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honors in the United States." Christian Science Monitor 05/10/02
Thursday
May 9
THE UK'S
TOP SONG OF ALL TIME? Don't read too much into this - polls where people
write in to vote aren't worth much - but here goes. According to the new
Guinness Hit Music poll, the most popular single of all time is Queen's Bohemian
Rhapsody. "The six-minute epic first topped the charts in 1975. It
hit the top spot again in 1991 when a fund-raising version was released after
the death of the band's singer Freddie Mercury." Predictably, according
to the 31,000 who voted, four of the top 10 songs of all time are by the
Beatles: Hey Jude, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever, Yesterday
and Let It Be. The
Guardian (UK) 05/08/02
THE
MAHLER MOUNTIES: Early-music puritans drove audiences away with their
picky academic concerns about being "authentic," writes Norman
Lebrecht. But new adaptations of Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony are
something else. "The Mahler Mounties are frontiersmen, pushing out
horizons. Rather than bemusing us, their Pooterish proliferation of Mahler
Tenths undermines the academic notion of authenticity. It suggests that there
is no correct way of reading a dying man's intentions - and that, in these
politically correct times, is no small victory for freedom of thought." London Evening Standard 05/08/02
NOT
A CLUE: Last fall three of the world's largest music companies finally got
online with a music download service. It's been a big bust. It doesn't offer
as many songs as the free sites, it can't transfer files efficiently and there
have been all sorts of glitches. And for all this you're supposed to pay. And
people aren't. So now some retooling. “The first offering was too clunky and
too consumer unfriendly to hold much hope for its success. So we are going to
go back, and we will come out with a 2.0 product which will be more consumer
friendly, easy to use. ... This is a business of trial and error.” MSNBC (WSJ) 05/08/02
DEATH
BY MARGINALIZATION: Is jazz still a potent and evolving art form or has it
become a museum piece? With its most popular artists sticking to old times and
experimenters marginalized, jazz is none too healthy these days. Maybe the
definition of what can be called jazz needs to expand. But the places to try
out new jazz is shrinking... San Francisco Weekly 05/08/02
PAVAROTTI
BOWS OUT OF MET: So Pavarotti canceled another performance at the Met.
Nothing much unusual about that (it was the flu this time). Except that it was
his second-to-last scheduled performance there, and he's not on the schedule
next year or thereafter. Some feel he may never appear at the Met again. And
expectations for this Saturday's performance of Tosca are high. Philadelphia Inquirer
05/09/02
- GREAT
EXPECTATIONS: "The Met is charging $75 to $1,875 instead of the
usual $30 to $265 for Saturday night's performance, followed by a formal
dinner and dance, and is setting up a video screen on Lincoln Center plaza
and distributing 3,000 free tickets for a simulcast." New York Post (AP)
05/09/02
MONTREAL
SYMPHONY - GETTING WORSE: Things continue to get worse for the Montreal
Symphony. With Charles Dutoit abruptly quitting as music director, the
orchestra has been scrambling to find replacement conductors for the rest of
this season and all of next. Rostropovich and Ashkenazy have both pulled out
of MSO engagements in solidarity with Dutoit, and ticket sales have gone dead.
The orchestra finds itself having to reprint all of its season brochures for
next year as it reworks its programming (the season had been planned as a
celebration of Dutoit's 25 years with the orchestra. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/09/02
Wednesday
May 8
DOWN
BUT NOT DIRTY: New Orleans' Jazz Festival wrapped up ten days of music
last weekend. "Over half a million music fans attended the festival. The
announced attendance of 501,000 was a sharp drop from last year's record
turnout of 618,000, but with tourism off significantly around the country,
Jazzfest more than held its own with what has to be deemed a healthy turnout.
In fact, it was the second-largest crowd in the festival's history." Nando Times (UPI) 05/07/02
BOMBS COME IN MANY
GUISES: A recent production of Mozart's Idomeneo at the Paris Opera
was a bit unconventional. It featured an "Act I ballet with a dancing
jellyfish attacked by Greek soldiers and then being comforted by nuzzles from
a seahorse. Idomeneo's sacrifice of his son, Idamante, was foreshadowed by the
simulated slaughter of a goat while dancing mermaids provided levity."
And the critics? "Critical reaction was, in some quarters, incredulous.
How could this happen in a major opera house? How could a conductor of Ivan
Fischer's caliber have such judgment lapses as a stage director? Didn't
anybody try to tell him?" Andante 05/07/02
MURRAY
ADASKIN, 96: Murray Adaskin, one of Canada's most prominent composers, has
died in Victoria at the age of of 96. "Adaskin, born in Toronto to a
musical family on March 26, 1906, had a distinguished and varied career that
spanned most of the 20th century. One constant was a passion for Canadian
culture." The
Times-Colonist (Victoria) 05/08/02
- FOR
THE JOY OF MUSIC: "Adaskin was a complete musician. He worked as
a violinist, composer, teacher and mentor, and served as an unfailingly
good comrade to five generations of colleagues."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/08/02
DIVA DREAMS:
Soprano Joan Sutherland is 75. "It's nice to be remembered. But the whole
opera thing has changed from top to bottom. It has all changed. Even the way
that the productions are geared. I'm glad I finished when I did. I might have
done a few walkouts." Did she ever think about singing again? "Only
once since 1990 has Sutherland thought to let it rip one last time. A year or
two after her retirement, her husband was flying home from Canada and 'I
decided to surprise him'. But after a day's strenuous vocal exercises she
found herself coughing and choking. 'So then I really did give up'." The Guardian (UK) 05/08/02
Tuesday
May 7
WE'RE
LISTENING: A new study of who listens to classical music shows a broad
listenership. "Nearly 60 percent of 2,200 adults polled at random said
they have some interest in classical music, and about 27 percent make
classical music a part of their lives 'pretty regularly,' according to a study
commissioned by the foundation. Nationally, 17 percent said they attended some
kind of classical-music concert in the previous year. About 18 percent listen
to classical music on the radio daily or several times each week." Philadelphia Inquirer
05/07/02
COLOSSEUM
CONCERT: Rome's Colosseum is to stage its first concert in 200 years. Ray
Charles is "headlining Time for Life on 11 May, an event dedicated to
promoting global harmony. He will be joined by artists from around the world
including Algerian pop star Khaled and Argentina's Mercedes Sosa." BBC 05/07/02
GOT THE BUZZ:
Software writers have developed a program that performs improvised jazz that
musicians can use to accompany themselves. "A team at University College
London has written a program that mimics insect swarming to 'fly around' the
sequence of notes the musician is playing and improvise a related tune of its
own. Their software works by treating music as a type of 3D space, in which
the dimensions are pitch, loudness and note duration. As the musician plays, a
swarm of digital 'particles' immediately starts to buzz around the notes being
played in this space - in the same way that bees behave when they are seeking
out pollen." New Scientist 05/07/02
DETROIT'S
NEXT MAESTRO? Neeme Jarvi has announced he'll leave his job as music
director of the Detroit Symphony. Who might succeed him? "Handicapping
the field is folly, but some names are obvious: Frenchman Yan Pascal Tortelier
has been one of the DSO's most vital guest conductors in recent seasons.
Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam developed a close rapport with DSO when he
subbed for an ailing Jarvi on last fall's European tour, though one wonders
how his eccentricities would play if he were music director. Young American
Alan Gilbert made an impressive debut with the DSO in 2000. More experienced
Americans who deserve a look include David Robertson, Kent Nagano and Marin
Alsop." Detroit
Free Press 05/05/02
FIRST
COUPLE: Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu are opera's star couple.
Married in real life, they also collaborate onstage. But the nicknames of
"the world's greatest French tenor and the most celebrated of its young
sopranos are not affectionate. They include 'the Ceausescus', while director
Jonathan Miller famously nicknamed them 'Bonnie and Clyde' after Alagna failed
to turn up for some rehearsals of his production of La Boheme at the
Bastille opera in Paris. The Bastille also dubbed the Romanian-born Gheorghiu
'La Draculette'." The
Telegraph (UK) 05/07/02
Monday
May 6
DIGITAL
DOWNLOADING HELPS MUSIC SALES: A new report says that experienced digital
music downloaders are 75 percent more inclined to buy music than the average
online music fan. "This shows that while the RIAA (Recording Industry
Association of America) and IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry) continue to scapegoat file sharing for their problems, all
reasonable analysis shows that file sharing is a net positive for the music
industry." Wired
05/05/02
THE PROGRESSIVE:
"Does music (or any other art) really move forward? Yes, it changes, as
time moves on. But can we really call those changes progress? What would
progress be, anyway? Which aspect of art would be progressing?" If you
allow for the idea of progress, "then why won't sophisticates lose
interest in anything earlier? Why won't Mozart sound too simple, once you've
heard Brahms? Why won't Brahms himself sound too simple after we've heard
Schoenberg?" NewMusicBox 05/02
SUMMING
UP MASUR: Kurt Masur is finishing up his last few weeks as music director
of the New York Philharmonic. "The Masur decade sometimes seems like a
barrier island, a sandy, pleasant enough strip of beach between relief and
anticipation. All this is very unfair. Masur's tenure was not only full of
musical accomplishments, it produced some genuine New York City rowdiness of
its own. If Masur did his part in raising the orchestra's sense of dignity and
common purpose, he did so by an odd mix of old-school tyranny and democratic
participation." Newsday
05/05/02
- BUILDING
A LEGACY: Christoph von Dohnanyi is in his final month as music
director of the Cleveland Orchestra. He's "had the artistic time of
his life in Cleveland, where he achieved remarkable things: uncommon
ensemble finesse, arresting performances, adventurous programs,
distinguished recordings, a gleaming Severance Hall renovation. Along the
way, the Berlin-born conductor experienced a few scuffles with management
over artistic control, and he saw his ambitious project to record and to
perform Wagner's four-work Ring cycle aborted after the first two
operas because of the collapse of the classical recording industry." The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland) 05/05/02
SVETLANOV,
DEAD AT 73: Yevgeny Svetlanov, one of Soviet Russia's most-enduring
conductors, has died at the age of 73. Russian president Vladimir Putin
"wrote in a message to Svetlanov's wife, Nina, that the musician's death
was an 'irreplacable loss for all of our culture'." Two years ago
Svetlanov was "dismissed from his post conducting the State Symphony
Orchestra after Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi said he was spending too
much time conducting overseas." Yahoo News (AP) 05/05/02
Sunday
May 5
LATIN
UPBEAT: The Latin music recording industry gathers in Miami this week.
While CD sales for all kinds of music slipped six percent last year in the US
"sales of Latin CDs rose 9 percent and the Latin music market overall
grew 6 percent, to $642 million, according to the Recording Industry
Association of America." The industry is meeting to figure out how to
keep up the momentum. Miami
Herald 05/05/02
NOT
FADE AWAY: Older Canadian composers are feeling ignored and neglected by
"a younger generation of composers, and by changes in the Canadian
cultural ecology." They know it's nothing personal, that "each new
generation has to fight for its own space." But "with oblivion
staring them in the face, the old guard knew it had to fight or fade" so
they staged an assault on the CBC. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/04/02
ALL ABOUT
PEOPLE: The Tokyo String Quartet once was considered one of the top two or
three quartets in the world. But personnel changes changed the group's
character and then its fortunes. Now a young Canadian violinist joins after a
turbulent few years. "Martin Beaver will replace Mikhail Kopelman as
first violinist after a period of artistic differences if not conflict."
Can the Tokyo regain its lustre? The New York Times 05/05/02
CRITICAL
AFTERLIFE: Will Crutchfield was a music critic - and a good one - when he
quit the New York Times in the mid-90s to conduct opera. Now he's got a
serious career on the podium. "Singers Crutchfield once reviewed seemed
either not to remember he was a critic or were 'nice enough not to say
anything if they had any animosity - or they arranged not to be working with
me. If any singer had a right to be irritated with me, it was Placido Domingo.
As a critic I would sometimes use him as an example of certain technical
things in modern tenor singing that I would like to see different. Domingo
nonetheless invited Crutchfield to conduct at the Washington Opera." Miami Herald 05/05/02
Friday
May 3
SAFETY
NET: The English National Opera had a disastrous season, which translated
into a deficit. "The company, battling to redress its deficits, had been
accused of peddling an 'alarming series of flops' and losing its artistic way,
following the scandalised reception of a production of Verdi's A Masked
Ball, which featured anal rape, chorus singers on toilets, simulated sex
and masturbation." So in putting together its next season the company has
burrowed into the core repertoire and come up with some crowd-pleasers. The Guardian (UK) 05/01/02
BRITPOP
HAS LOST ITS WAY: British pop music, which once dominated American Top Ten
charts, has dropped off the American map altogether. Things are so bad, the
Brits are even opening an office in New York to promote their music. Won't
help, says American critic John Pareles. "British rock has lost its
willingness to face the present or interact with the outside world." The Guardian (UK) 05/03/02
OPERA
IN A BURNED OUT THEATRE: Lima, Peru's main Municipal Theatre burned down
in 1998. "But that hasn't kept the charred opera house from becoming one
of the smartest places in town for shows and celebrations. Plays, concerts and
musical revues usually sell out, with patrons filling the folding chairs that
line the once-carpeted concrete ground floor and balconies." Los Angeles Times (AP)
05/03/02
JARVI
QUITS DETROIT: Neeme Jarvi, 64, has decided to step down as music director
of the Detroit Symphony at the close of the 2004-05 season, leaving a 15-year
legacy that will be remembered as one of the orchestra's most important eras.
Jarvi - who says he has fully recovered from the ruptured blood vessel he
suffered at the base of his brain last July - announced his plans to the
orchestra at Thursday's rehearsal at Orchestra Hall." Detroit Free Press 05/03/02
HEPPNER
RE-EMERGES: Tenor Ben Heppner has been a major star in the past decade.
But when he walked out of a recital in Toronto a few months ago, then canceled
the rest of his North American tour, he left critics whispering that he was
having some major problems with his voice. Perhaps the kind of problems that
could end a career. His concert in Seattle this week leaves some of those
questions unanswered. "His formal program was only about an hour. He sang
few fortissimos and a handful of fortes. High notes were at a strict minimum,
and there were few technical challenges. The musical ones were substantial.
Good sense dictated those terms. And even at that, there were some tiny, tiny
breaks in the voice, an indication he is still not wholly recovered." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 05/02/02
Thursday
May 2
NOT
JUST DUMB BABES: The OperaBabes are "classically trained opera
singers who ended up busking in Covent Garden as they attempted to make some
cash to pay for extra singing lessons. However, their burgeoning classical
careers came to a juddering halt when they were spotted by a talent scout and
asked to sing live to millions of people at the FA Cup Final, and then the
Champions League final, last year. This was a huge success, and launched the
duo into a new world of recording contracts, big name concerts, photo
sessions, new clothes and into the clutches of Des Lynam - their number one
celebrity fan. What is absolutely indisputable, is that the OperaBabes are the
latest example of what opera stalwart Sir Thomas Allen would call the dumbing
down of classical music. " The Telegraph (UK) 05/02/02
CASUAL
INTEREST? The Los Angeles Philharmonic has started a "Casual
Fridays" series in which everyone (including musicians) attends in street
clothes. The concerts are short and meant to be as informal as possible. Fine
- but "with music programs cut back in high schools, too many students
have little or no knowledge of classical music. And there's the widespread
perception that I encountered among the friends I lured to performances that
classical concerts are boring." Los Angeles Times 05/01/02
BOLSHOI ON THE
ROAD TO RECOVERY: "After almost a decade of turmoil, uncertainty and
artistic decline, Moscow's Bolshoi Theater seems on the road to recovery. The
theater, which houses both a ballet and opera company under its venerable
roof, has a newly reorganized leadership team and has released plans for an
ambitious new season. But soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, a legendary figure at
the theater until she left for the West in 1974, says that far more drastic
changes are required." Andante 05/02/02
DON'T
JUDGE A CELLIST BY HER COVER: A new album of little-known works by
established "dead white guy" composers might not sound like the
future of the classical recording industry. But Sony has taken an interesting
approach to the release, which features Canadian cellist Denise Djokic: the
presentation, from the cover art to the marketing of the star, is pure MTV,
while the content is real, serious music by a rising young talent. Could it be
that the industry has found a way to do "crossover" without driving
away serious fans of classical music? The Globe
& Mail (Toronto) 05/02/02
STREAMING MEANIES:
The debate over how musicians and recording companies should be compensated
for streaming webcasts of their music continues to grow louder, and the two
sides could not be farther apart. Webcasters claim that the current law, set
to take effect May 21 of this year, will effectively shut down the webcasting
industry with its high royalty payments. The music industry's position is that
it doesn't care what happens to the utopian webcasters, and if they want to
distribute the music to a worldwide audience, they'll have to find a way to
pay for the privilege. Wired 05/02/02
Wednesday
May 1
DUTOIT
THANKS THE FANS: In an open letter to the concertgoing public of Montreal,
recently resigned Montreal Symphony music director Charles Dutoit reminisces
about his quarter-century of music-making in the city, and thanks his fans and
supporters among the public, saying "My gratitude to Montrealers is as
intense as it is deep." The letter makes no mention of the events which
led Dutoit to resign from his position last month. Montreal
Gazette 05/01/02
BUFFALO
STAMPEDE DELAYED: The Buffalo Philhamonic Orchestra, which had planned to
move its offices to an old mansion the group recently purchased, has announced
that the plan will be delayed, after fund-raising for renovations hit a snag.
The mansion needs $45,000 in repairs and restoration just to get up to code,
and the BPO is not saying when the move might happen. Buffalo Business First 04/29/02
L.A. MUSIC CENTER
HEAD RESIGNS: "The head of the Los Angeles County Music Center
announced her resignation Monday, saying the center is 'structurally sound'
and ripe for new theatrical leadership. Joanne Kozberg, president and chief
operating officer of the downtown arts megaplex, said she will serve until the
center secures her replacement. Music Center officials say they plan to
conduct a nationwide search for a new president." Andante (Los Angeles Daily News) 05/01/02
ABBADO
LEAVES BERLIN: Claudio Abbado conducts his final concert as music director
of the Berlin Philharmonic. His tenure after the storied Karajan years
"led to fluctuations within the orchestra and the taciturn Milanese, who
was never a big one for rehearsals, had a rather lax style that did not always
meet with universal enthusiasm. By and large, however, the choice of Abbado
can be viewed as fortuitous, especially as he proved himself to be by far the
most open-minded of the world's top conductors." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 04/30/02
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