Category: music

Or not. Ann Powers, NPR’s music critic, published this piece about the singer Lana Del Rey, and Del Rey tweeted some of her displeasure on Twitter, and then her stans – super fans – started to attack Powers. “The slap-back backfired — not only did Del Rey get called out, but her tweets drew people to a story that many might have missed — in part because it was so uncalled-for, but also because it revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of criticism.” – Los Angeles Times

As a launching pad, a young quartet could hardly ask for more. And in the case of the Marmen Quartet, the prize followed on the heels of a first-prize victory in another of the world’s leading chamber music showcases — France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. – Toronto Star

“Classical singing is very beautiful but very specific. I meanwhile was developing an interest in all the other things my voice could do – I felt that I had such a rich instrument and I was only being taught to sing with 15% of it. I was listening to a lot of other styles of music, and what I enjoyed most was the singers who dared to be very raw, like Björk or Thom Yorke, incredible musicians and singers who are not afraid – if the emotion asks them to – to sound really rough and even ugly.” – The Guardian

“Technically, the lockout ends Monday, but the musicians’ first work obligation isn’t until 10 a.m. Wednesday. If the players show up for rehearsal, the work stoppage would be over. If, instead, they are picketing outside the Meyerhoff, expect the dispute to continue for some time. (Whether the work stoppage could then be categorized as a strike or merely as a continuation of the lockout is one of those complicated legal questions that attorneys wrangle over and courts ultimately decide.)” – The Baltimore Sun

The tenor’s performance at the benefit concert next March would have been his first appearance with The Dallas Opera since his U.S. operatic debut in 1961. (The one accuser in the latest report who was willing to be named publicly, soprano Angela Turner Wilson, is the daughter of the president of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.) – The Dallas Morning News

“We were all trying to impress him. When it said fortissimo, we got a little out of hand. He said, ‘We all have different levels of fortissimo. Never take the sound past beautiful.’ The entire violin section applauded, which I don’t think I’d ever seen before.” – Dallas Morning News

One of the biggest missteps was transitioning from a fall and winter schedule to a spring and summer schedule. Implemented in 2014, the transition was an attempt to address the opera’s already unstable earnings. It had the opposite effect. – Willamette Week

Additionally, “several … backstage employees described for the AP how they strove to shield young women from the star as administrators looked the other way.” (These include staffers at Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo remains General Director.) “Taken together, their stories reinforce a picture of an industry in which Domingo’s behavior was an open secret and young women were left to fend for themselves in the workplace.” – AP

“These kinds of investigations historically have raised more questions than they have answered, leaving victims and the public in the dark about what behavior was documented in the inquiry, who might share some responsibility for wrongdoing and whether institutional problems that allowed misconduct to fester have been, or will be, rectified.” Exhibit A: New York City Ballet’s investigation of longtime head Peter Martins, which some former dancers suggest was a deliberate cover-up. – Los Angeles Times