Category: music

As part of the lead-up to its annual simulcast in Nationals Park, Washington National Opera “held a baseball-related contest, challenging all comers to write new, opera-themed lyrics to ‘Take me out to the ball game.’ This yielded more than 40 entries, many of them strikingly funny.”

“While arguments over who might be the best living conductor are not even worthwhile for a parlor game, Riccardo Muti might indeed be the best conductor active today in repertoire that no longer figures in the programs of a number of other leading conductors.”

“Chicago music lovers have long regarded the CSO music directorship as a combination of holy grail and public trust, a prize many have sought but few have deserved. Muti, in the overwhelming view of orchestra members, the press and the public, is the most deserving among the few remaining lions of the podium.”

“What interests me is the capacity of some musicians and bands to inspire a reaction of pure loathing. It mystifies me. What is it about these artists (not forgetting James Blunt, U2 and Bono in particular) that so polarises hate?”

“Britain is to get an unconventional new opera house – the first to open in London for 40 years – when the King’s Head, the capital’s first and most famous fringe venue, turns permanently to musical theatre next month under the guidance of illustrious patrons Jonathan Miller, Joanna Lumley, Alan Parker, Tom Stoppard and leading West End actress Janie Dee.”

“Can a once-great city that is now the size of Austin, Texas, afford a top-rank symphony orchestra with a 52-week season? Does it even want one? The DSO, after all, is not the only one of Detroit’s old-line high-culture institutions that is sweating bullets.”

“Patrons need to line up during the day for standing room tickets. Of course, someone who is willing to queue for hours to secure their preferred place is usually a hardcore opera fan, which — depending on the atmosphere of the house — can lead to some intimidating behaviour.”

“With advance ticket sales lagging and Levine without a signed contract, the orchestra’s management is not talking about the esteemed music director’s long-term future, only getting through the next few months.”

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra announced Wednesday that it has named Norwegian conductor Arild Remmereit its 11th music director in the orchestra’s 88-year history.

“The Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin has long been damned faintly by two facts – that he is the husband of the Bolshoi prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and that he was for a long time the president of the Russian Composers’ Union in the USSR.”