Category: music

The plucky, innovative Long Beach Opera “is ending its 2010 season with a double splash. The company, which is staging Ricky Ian Gordon’s swimming pool-based [sic] Orpheus and Euridice this weekend, is also finishing in the black – with a 35% increase in subscribers.”

A post at the law blog Balkinization observes, “The fictional high school chorus at the center of Fox’s Glee has a huge problem – nearly a million dollars in potential legal liability” for crimes like performing “a near-exact copy of Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ music video.” Andrew O’Hehir points out that the show “is itself an example of a new business model for generating revenue from popular music … Glee is a music business revenue machine. The cast spawned 25 Billboard top 100 singles in 2009.”

“On a Wire begins with the six musicians” of the ensemble called eighth blackbird “gathered around the open-lidded piano, most of them ‘bowing’ the interior strings with horsehair (it worked better than fishing line) to eerie, almost electronic-music effect.”

“Achim Freyer’s staging of ‘Das Rheingold’ is as much a pop experience as it is a classical one. That’s not to say it’s easily digestible. … Pointing to all corners of culture, Freyer’s set and costumes argue vehemently against any division between high and low.”

“The handful of recordings Delta blues icon Robert Johnson made in 1936 and 1937 are among the most influential songs in music. Disciples praise his high, moaning voice and fleet-fingered guitar work. But have we been listening to them at the wrong speed?”

“[Some of his] basic ideas have been part of operatic writing ever since, and they don’t strike me as very good ones a lot of the time – in particular, the tendency to have the melody in the orchestra and the singers sort of noodling away on top of it.” Tchaikovsky nailed the problem back in 1876.

“Across New England, church coffeehouses, library cafes, and eateries that pass the hat to pay local musicians or open their doors to casual jam sessions are experiencing a crackdown by performance rights organizations, or PROs, which collect royalties for songwriters. Copyright law requires that any venue where music is performed publicly … have a performance license. “

“$152 million to create underground truck access and new scenery lifts for the Opera Theatre will be confirmed in tonight’s NSW state budget. The work will take about three years to complete and performances will continue uninterrupted.”

“Madly as I adore opera, consuming it for breakfast, lunch and dinner reminds me of the Shakespearean view that surfeit can lead even the most voracious appetite to sicken and die. The opera season is asking a lot of us – time, for one thing.”

English National Opera’s website has crashed due to the high volume of people trying to book tickets for The Duchess of Malfi, which went on sale this morning.