Category: music

“David [Gockley] has this extraordinary legacy behind him in Houston. But I think David and I have different ideas about where the San Francisco Opera should be going, and those differences became apparent early on. … [O]f course one should aspire to have the finest singers. But singers are to opera what grapes are to wine. It’s the environment – what the singer is surrounded by, enriched by, supported by – that makes the difference.”

“The L.A.-based public radio station [KUSC], which already simulcasts on outlets in Palm Springs, Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara, has purchased KESC-FM (99.7) in Morro Bay and can now be heard throughout the area surrounding San Luis Obispo.”

This July in southern England, “[a] conductor will lead 12 members of the [Royal Philharmonic] orchestra and the [William Tell] overture will be played through loudspeakers all the way around the track for the benefit of the horses.”

“Celebrating his 50-year association with the London Symphony Orchestra,” Sir Colin Davis has “pledged what a spokesperson called a ‘significant amount of money’ towards the orchestra’s endowment fund” and challenged fans “to increase the fund by £1m. Aside from the huge personal gesture … Sir Colin’s idea makes good business sense.”

“The Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, the organization responsible since 1387 for overseeing the Duomo, said the five concerts will feature a 60-piece orchestra and choir performing about 50 meters (165 feet) above the ground.”

Following a two-year search, the orchestra has chosen Christopher Warren-Green, who is currently at the London Chamber Orchestra and takes over in Charlotte in 2010. “[H]e joins the ranks of the Charlotte non profit as it faces funding cuts by the Arts and Science Council and expected cuts by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, where they offer educational concerts.”

Mezzo Sarah Connolly badly wanted to record Purcell’s Dido, which she felt nobody else sang the way she thought it should go. With no record label behind her, she put together the cast and raised the money herself. Same with her Handel “Heroes and Heroines” CD. “I know I don’t pay sufficient court to the media. I don’t chase them, and consequently they don’t chase me … I can out-diva anyone, but promotion is not my main priority.”

“What this [statistic] suggests to me is that more young children are being dragged along by their well-intentioned parents and fewer want to come of their own accord. My conclusion is that opera has less and less to say to teenagers: it remains an art form that people come to appreciate later in life, and it may be better just to accept this and stop trying to sell it to the young like a salutary dose of cod liver oil.”

“The Charlotte Symphony’s musicians are ‘shocked and outraged’ by the Arts & Science Council’s decision to slash the financially troubled orchestra’s funding, the Charlotte Symphony Players’ Association says in a letter to the ASC.” Noting that they understand the symphony’s need “to address its serious financial problems,” the musicians add: “Unfortunately, the ASC’s ‘tough love’ approach could kill the patient.”

“This year’s anticipated $1.3 million shortfall is devastating considering the controversial merger of the orchestra and opera company in 2002 created annual deficits, and the organization didn’t see its first surplus until the 2006-07 season. But then, by the next season the company had lost $2 million.”