Category: music

“When his seminal long portraits are blended with his shorter album reviews and reports from gigs, concerts, and festivals, what unfolds is a panoramic, novelistic chronicle of post-War America. Everything reverberates and gains value. Fifty or a hundred years from now this new publication would be the most important single document of twentieth century American jazz outside of the recorded sound.”

“Filling a post that has been vacant for two years, the British conductor David Angus has been named as the next music director of Boston Lyric Opera. He will begin at the start of the 2010-11 season; his initial contract is for three years. Angus has conducted widely in the UK and also serves as music director of Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y.”

Anne Midgette: “A lot is happening in American opera. The past 20 years have seen an increasing number of new works, but this spring hit a critical mass with three world premieres at major American companies within five weeks. … The question is: How many people are really listening?. … Will new works help revive the opera field or help sink it under the weight of $3 million productions?”

In their plainspoken-ness and length, Levine’s poems hardly seem like promising material for choral composers. “[I]magery based on the smell of gasoline – and witty lines about how TVs seem to talk to themselves – ‘is not something you’d put in Debussy’,” says one composer who has taken on the Levine challenge for a commission from the Philadelphia choir called The Crossing.

“The National Endowment for the Arts’ $25,000 NEA Opera Honors lifetime achievement awards for 2010 will go to composer Philip Glass, soprano Martina Arroyo, opera executive David DiChiera and music director Eve Queler.”

It was supposed to be a highlight of the summer 2010 concert calendar: the return of Sarah McLachlan’s all-female music festival Lilith Fair, rebranded for 2010 as simply Lilith. But with “brutal” ticket sales, more dates are quietly being cut from the tour.

“Instead of using money, festival goers will be forced to pay electronically for everything from food and drink to t-shirts and fairground rides. Payments are likely to be made via a wristband, which also acts as the event ticket. Festival goers will have to pre-load the devices with money.”

Including leadership changes. “Delegates, if there’s anyone out there who still doubts the power of union democracy, today you got your reason. It’s the answer told by 273 delegates who believe that now the AFM must be different.”

The “small but beloved institution for fans of off-beat repertory and big voices … said Thursday it would end its financially induced hiatus and mount two concert productions next season: Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine, and a double bill of Massenet’s La Navarraise and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana.“

George Stelluto, who has just signed a three-year contract to lead the Illinois orchestra, is resident conductor at the Juilliard School and the Chicago Symphony’s assistant conductor at the Ravinia Festival. He plans to keep those other two jobs – and to use the connections they give him to expand what plays in Peoria.