Carlo Fuortes, who turned around the disastrous finances at the Rome Opera and then headed Italy's state broadcaster, RAI, was appointed superintendent of Florence's debt-ridden opera house. Then he got a 16-month jail term for the death of a cleaner who fell off a ladder at the Rome Opera. - Gramilano (Milan)
Both the Concertgebouw and the Chicago Symphony are orchestras at the very highest level, and they deserve a conductor’s full attention. The definition of a music director has undergone a mutation in recent decades: such doubling- and tripling-up of appointments has become commonplace. - The New Yorker
It’s reportedly because of audiobooks. Spotify added audiobooks to its service last year on a trial basis. The price increase is how the streaming service will pay for letting subscribers access those books. - Gizmodo
Two hundred musical artists, including Pearl Jam, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, and the estate of Frank Sinatra call on AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music services to stop using AI to "infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists." - Ars Technica
"Raffaele Cardone, the founder and long-time general and artistic director, … said the main reason for closing the company was, no surprise, money difficulties. … The upstart troupe provided idiomatic and often inspiring performances of Italian opera and provided a career springboard for talented local artists." - South Florida Classical Review
Classical music has an image problem that feels like an existential threat. The pernicious idea of “elitism” — a word that was only coined in the 1980s — spread like Japanese knotweed through the pages of the press as the century neared its close. - The Critic
“I better warn you. I do talk a lot,” she said last Saturday night in Los Angeles. “I have 10 songs and the rest is chat.” In fact, Adele performed 16 songs that night, but she was true to her word. - The Wall Street Journal
In some ways he seems the archetypal modern man, prone to anxieties and constantly on the move, pushed around by world-historical forces. - The Telegraph (UK)
"A Finn who turned 28 in January, Mäkelä has had an astonishing rise in the music world. … Mäkelä will become CSO music director designate immediately and start a five-year tenure in 2027-28" — at the same time he begins as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. - AP
"The financial crisis (is) so dire that the leadership is willing to take this huge public black eye (Salonen's departure) rather than let it go on a minute longer. … The perception that the (orchestra) is an organization in decline is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
"Puccini’s universalism was sincerely felt, even if it’s unfashionable today, and it deserves to be appreciated rather than cynically apologized for — as some opera companies seem to do while continuing to reap the ticket-selling benefits of his popularity." - The New York Times
One in six live music venues closed in the past year, according to figures from the Music Venue Trust. But amid the gloom, there are venues opening, too – albeit with a broader remit than focusing solely on club nights or gigs. - The Guardian
For the past 20 years, he has been releasing album after album of songs with the object of producing a result to match nearly anything anybody could think to search for. These include hundreds of songs name-checking celebrities from the very famous to the much less so. - The New York Times
The catch is that he left it, and a lot more, with a friend, and never returned. So “the fate of hugely valuable collection of stage costumes, notebooks and never-before heard music is about to be decided." - BBC
"No matter how you feel about Cowboy Carter, this is a historic moment. Not only is Beyoncé using her enormous platform to deliver an artistic statement and raise the profile of other Black country artists, the highly-hyped album could help reframe the way audiences feel” about country. - Washington Post
