“German director Peter Stein has withdrawn ‘for personal reasons’ from the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Boris Godunov, the company announced on Wednesday. Stephen Wadsworth will take over the production, which is set for its debut on October 11.” The sets and costumes for the staging have already been made, and conductor Valery Gergiev and bass René Pape remain scheduled.
Category: music
The Top Ten Highest Paid Musicians
“U2 have earned $130 million over the last 12 months.”
A Little TXT With Your Symphony?
“Even the tradition-bound classical music world has embraced the democratizing influence of new technology, allowing audiences to participate in programming in a way that would have been unthinkable a short time ago. It is less surprising that music organizations are using the technology to sell themselves or raise money.”
Clap Along With The Proms (And In The Middle Of The Proms)
“I detect a subtle change in concert manners going on at the moment. Thank all that is holy: it seems as if the fatuous snobbery of not clapping after any movement as proof of holier-than-thou cognoscenti-dom may be becoming a thing of the past.”
What’s The One Song That The Whole World Has In Common?
“Happy Birthday to You,” of course. “[B]ecause it can be sung anywhere (and by anyone) – needing no special effects or soundstage or rehearsal – it is quintessentially egalitarian, and therefore, it’s the song that belongs to us all.” Yet this ubiquitous ditty “is not an accidental success. It is not a traditional song nor did it appear ex nihilo.“
Jane Eaglen Explains How To Sing High Notes
“Squeeze your bottom That’s the key to high notes. I have a big bottom, and big high notes.”
Is Now The Golden Age Of Classical Music?
“In many respects, we live in a golden age of classical music. Such an observation defies received wisdom, which seizes on every symphony budget deficit to herald classical music’s imminent demise. But this declinist perspective ignores the more significant reality of our time: never before has so much great music been available to so many people, performed at levels of artistry that would have astounded Berlioz and his peers.”
El Sistema USA’s First Class Of Teachers Gets Down To Work
Last year, New England Conservatory of Music launched an institute to train teachers for an American version of Venezuela’s celebrated music education program. The first class of graduates has now left the institute, and two of them are beginning their work in Boston-area schools.
A Sistema For The Banlieue: Intensive Music Education In A Poor Paris Suburb
“Six months ago none of these children had played a musical instrument. Now, they are a handful of rehearsals away from performing in the prestigious Pleyel Hall in central Paris … The concert is the culmination of the ‘Demos Orchestra’ project, an ambitious scheme which took 450 children aged seven to 12, living in disadvantaged areas of the Parisian suburbs, and taught them to play an instrument from scratch.”
The Overlooked (and Overheard) Gems Of Incidental Music
“Few terms in the realms of musical composition and theater are as imprecise, let alone patronizing, as incidental music. … Yet since the 17th century when Purcell wrote ingenious music for English plays, notable composers have written music for the theater that was hardly incidental.” (Grieg’s Peer Gynt and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream are but two famous examples.) Anthony Tommasini looks at the new scores accompanying this year’s two Shakespeare in the Park (that’s Central Park) productions.