Category: music

“The opera is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, was first seen at the 2008 Holland Festival in Amsterdam, and was produced in association with American film director Hal Hartley.”

“A large anonymous donation has reportedly been given to the Louisville Orchestra. The donation will allow the ensemble’s musicians to be paid this week. The players say the administration told them their paycheck two weeks ago would be their last unless they agreed to pay cuts, a shorter season and a reduction in contracted musicians.”

“The Salomon Prize, a new gong launched by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Association of British Orchestras, … is for orchestral players – or, rather, for a single orchestral player in a UK-based professional ensemble who in the eyes and ears of their fellow musicians has been ‘an inspiration to their colleagues and engendered a greater spirit of teamwork within the orchestra’.”

“The English National Opera’s latest production of the opera, which began its run on 6 November, has come under fire for its two rape scenes, one implying the gang rape of a woman by a masked mob wearing T-shirts featuring the image of Jesus Christ.”

“Explanations for the abiding resistance to musical modernism have proliferated, their multiplicity suggesting that none quite holds the key. One theory holds that a preference for simple tonality is wired into the human brain.”

“Ross is definitely right that we need to let the classical masters out of the cult of “consoling beauty” that we have created for them, by connecting them with the present. But my hunch is that it’s slowly happening – even if the process needs to speed up.”

“Riccardo Muti has denied published reports that he has signed a contract to become artistic director of Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera. Combining the Rome job with his responsibilities as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would be too demanding, the Italian maestro said.”

“Amid new talk of a possible bankruptcy, and with major holiday concerts looming, musicians with The Louisville Orchestra will soon find out if they will still be paid for their work. … Robert Birman, the orchestra’s CEO, would not indicate whether players will receive their next paycheck on [Nov. 30] as planned.”

“The state’s second orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, faces a significant deficit next year and could go into receivership by May. But the national companies whose performances are accompanied by the orchestra, Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet, appear guarded in response to its plight.”

The company that has recreated recordings by Glenn Gould, Art Tatum and Serge Rachmaninoff for live performance has more on the way: composers Gershwin, Albeniz and de Falla playing their own music; more Gould playing Bach, and jazz by Fats Waller and Oscar Peterson.