“Under Schwarz, 53, [Theater] Basel was chosen last year as ‘Opera House of the Year’ in the German-speaking world in a survey of critics…. The Deutsche Oper, the largest of Berlin’s three opera houses and the second biggest in Germany with 1,865 seats, hired Donald Runnicles as the new music director this season.”
Category: music
The Problem With Hurricane Placido
At age 69, he blows in and out of one town after another, singing, conducting, and (nominally) running two now-troubled companies, Los Angeles Opera and Washington National Opera. His critics argue that “it is sometimes hard to get a decision from Mr. Domingo, that his artistic ambitions have outstripped economic realities, and that both companies are struggling from the lack of a firm local hand.”
Why Opera For The Cinema Caught On
“Anyone who has seen clips from the Met’s old closed-circuit telecasts will realize that improved technology is the reason opera is a hot commodity in movie houses now but wasn’t back then. … But any innovation has its detractors.”
Under Domingo’s Hands-Off Leadership, WNO Is Suffering
“Why can’t a general director with the fame, charm and ability of [Placido] Domingo roll up his sleeves and work to realize his vision [for the Washington National Opera], rather than distancing himself from the results? The answer: because he isn’t actually there, running the company.” And so the recession is exposing the cracks in its structure.
Audience Rebels Against Changes To NH Music Festival
“In the end, mutiny won out. A group of tenacious, concert-going retirees around Lake Winnipesaukee told the famous, big-city outsider not to mess with their popular New Hampshire Music Festival. And he blinked first.” That outsider was none other than renowned orchestra manager and former ArtsJournal blogger Henry Fogel.
Long Beach Symphony Board Threatens To Cancel Season
“The Long Beach [California] Symphony Orchestra’s concert this Saturday might be its last for this season unless its musicians agree to changes in their contract that will cut their income, according to Symphony management.”
Who’s That Clarinetist? The NY Phil Won’t Say
When a New York Times critic wanted to give a special mention to the clarinetist who played the big solo in the New York Philharmonic’s recent performance of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony, the orchestra’s press office refused to identify him.
WNO’s Shorter Season Will Be More Conventional, Too
The five operas in Washington National Opera’s 2010-11 season “will be repertory staples that sell tickets…. In short: As the company trims its budget from $32 million to $26.5 million, this is not a season for risk-taking.”
Why Are We Teaching Children To Undervalue Singing?
“Parents sing, sing, sing in the early years of children’s lives–and then it stops. … Once children are at school age, after a toddlerhood of joy in singing, parents begin to consider their musical ability, they look into the future, ambition sets in, music lessons enter stage left, and suddenly, without anyone noticing it, singing has been dealt a critical blow.”
In Opera, A Spare Production Can Be A Good Thing
At a time when opera companies’ formerly lavish production budgets are out of reach, it’s worth noting that “many of the greatest moments in stage directing for opera have involved bare-bones approaches that got out of the way and allowed the music and its drama to take center stage.”