“Today’s virtuosos and super-virtuosos are reluctant members of the club. Many of the younger generation are shunning the repertoire and the older ones are shunning the label. So why are pianists wary of being associated with this tradition?”
Category: music
Rolando Villazón Says His Voice Is Back
“In a new video that was posted on his official website last month and has since been making the rounds on YouTube, [the tenor] declares that his [vocal cord] surgery was a success and even provides a brief vocal demonstration for his fans.” He says he will return to the opera stage next year.
Vancouver Opera Celebrates Its Golden Anniversary
It’s been an eventful 50 years for opera in the City of Rainshine: a legendary 1963 Norma with Sutherland and Horne; Sutherland’s husband, Richard Bonynge, as boss during the ’70s; a lively Britten-and-Janacek phase; and plenty of the argument, strife and money troubles that are endemic to the art form.
Real-Life Dead-Baby Mystery Becomes Serialized Radio Opera
“Baby Kintyre, a radio opera by composer Dean Burry to be broadcast in serial over five Saturdays starting Nov. 7 on CBC Radio 2, … takes its inspiration from a real 1920s Toronto household where a baby was wrapped in newsprint and buried between the floorboards of an attic … only to be discovered more than 80 years later.”
White House Kids’ Event Signals Shift For Classical Music
“For administrations past, classical music was the logical, even the only, form of entertainment: socially acceptable, properly high-church.” Yesterday’s White House classical music event for kids suggested instead “that classical music no longer automatically holds a position of predominance among today’s power elite.”
Salmonella Silences I Musici Di Montréal
“The chamber orchestra … has cancelled a concert for the first time in the 25-year history of the organization after a majority of its 15 musicians contracted salmonella on a recent tour of China.”
Tommasini Gets His Wish: NY City Opera’s ‘Sound-Enhancement’ System Is No More
“Before hearing a note in the [company’s] spiffily remodeled auditorium, which I toured on Monday, I can make one sure prediction: There will be a marked improvement in the integrity and naturalness of the sound. How can I know this in advance? Because the theater’s dreaded amplification system … is gone.”
The Complete Beatles, On A Flash Drive
“Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music said that they were releasing a limited edition USB drive that contains the stereo versions of the Beatles’ albums, as well as the bonus materials that were included in their re-release.”
LA Radio Passes On NEA Opera Honors
“There will be a recurring California motif at the National Endowment for the Arts’ second annual NEA Opera Honors ceremony on Nov. 14 — but there are no plans for the national radio broadcast of the musical proceedings and award presentations to grace Southern California’s airwaves.”
Honolulu Symphony Faces Bankruptcy (Again)
“The symphony, the oldest American orchestra west of the Rocky Mountains, has struggled in recent years to pay its musicians. Two months ago it received a $1.8 million cash infusion to cover operating expenses for the upcoming season.” The HSO may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as early as Wednesday (Nov. 4).