Category: music

“On his Twitter account, @1000TimesYes, [Christopher] Weingarten has been making good on his vow to provide bite-sized reviews of 1,000 albums over the course of the year.” The final tweet was sent at midnight Tuesday/Wednesday at a party Weingarten hosted in Brooklyn (at which he DJed a set of Christmas rap.)

“Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, … stressed that the possible return of the [Franco] Zeffirelli ‘Tosca’ was unconnected to the response to the [controversial Luc] Bondy production. A final decision will be made by the time the Met’s 2010-2011 season is announced in late February, he said.”

“There are compelling musical reasons to name someone [as music director] soon. In some ways, the ensemble is rudderless. … But there are equally convincing arguments to wait, since the musicians have not been galvanized by any current contender.”

“Though it said she performed in starring roles with several A-list companies in Europe and San Francisco, a Globe review has found that four institutions have either no record of her or cast her in minor parts. In one case, in which she is listed as principal soprano, she was actually the fifth of six flower maidens in a 1974 production of Wagner’s ‘Parsifal.'”

The Craighead-Saunders organ in Rochester, N.Y., “is a nearly exact copy of a late Baroque organ” in Vilnius, Lithuania. “Modern instruments take advantage of technologies that have given organ-makers generations of new tools and materials, like air compressors, composites and the electric circuit. But before all that, the builders did it another way.”

“After 10 years that shook the music world, I still don’t see a soulless and soundless landscape akin to that in the film The Road. I see signs of green. Industry watchers are quick to say it’s a great time to be a music fan, with more ways to hear more acts than ever.”

Exactly why Elena Doria, director of the Met Opera children’s chorus left “has been something of a mystery. A Met spokesman recently said she had retired, though it was midseason, and she was immersed in rehearsals, planning and auditions. Ms. Doria has declined to comment, not even to confirm whether or not she had retired. ‘I will not talk to you,’ she said.”

It’s been quite a year for spectacular stage accidents…

“We’re doing everything that we can to stick together,” said Steve Dinion, chairman of the musicians’ Orchestra Committee. “It’s been very difficult.”

“Vancouver’s Olympic organizing committee has apologized for putting the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra “in a difficult position” after asking other musicians to mime its work during the 2010 Games opening ceremonies.”