Category: music

“Friday evening, with Philip Glass’ 1984 minimalist masterpiece Akhnaten, the Atlanta Opera proved its supposedly conservative audience is willing to enter the late 20th century. It was the hottest ticket of the season, with sold out performances and great acclaim at evening’s end.”

Donald Rosenberg, the Plain Dealer writer who was reassigned away from reviewing the Cleveland Orchestra last fall, has abandoned charges “that the newspaper defamed him, breached public policy and broke promises he had relied on,” leaving only a claim of age discrimination. (His claims against the Orchestra’s parent body remain unchanged.)

The company has had to make no changes in its schedule for this season or next, thanks to “built-in buffers against any further economic weakening.” General director William Mason, “who has been criticized for putting on ultrasafe, conservative opera seasons that avoid adventurous initiatives, may be excused for having the last laugh.”

Said conservative company’s plans include Tosca, The Merry Widow and Marriage of Figaro, but there are also rare Verdi (Ernani), Janácek (Katya with Karita Mattila), and the Fausts of Gounod and Berlioz.

After two fiscal years of surpluses, the orchestra posted a $161,000 deficit (on a $10 million operating budget) in FY 2008, the final year of the strategic plan. But the CEO doesn’t blame the country’s economic crisis: he says the main problem was staff turnover.

Apply Marxist-Leninist principles to an orchestra, with the workers owning the means of production, and what do you get? This: “Formed in 1922, Persimfans – a Sovietized shorthand for Perviy Simfonichesky Ansambl, or First Symphony Ensemble – sought to embody the avant-garde spirit of the time.” The original group didn’t survive Stalin’s purges, but this week some musicians are trying out the idea again.

“It is the largest single-year operating loss for the orchestra since the early 1990s, during another economic downturn. The figure includes $800,000 in expenses from the orchestra’s April 2008 European tour, which did not have a sponsor.”

“The company said today that it had laid off 17 employees, or approximately 17% of its staff. It has also mandated a pay cut for all employees, averaging 6% but with higher-paid staffers taking an 8% cut.” The stagehands’ and orchestra musicians’ unions will be asked to help find savings as well.

Mid-season budget cuts is response to the worldwide economic crisis have forced the Bolshoi Theater to cancel a tour of Mexico and a new production of Verdi’s Otello, described by general director Alexsei Iksanov as one of the most expensive stagings the house had planned in recent years.

Tenor Christoph Prégardien tool Best Vocal Recital and Recording of the Year for his Schubert Schöne Müllerin, while countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, already named Vocal Artist of the Year, took Best Baroque Recording for Carestini: The Story of a Castrato. Among other winners were Doctor Atomic, Charles Mackerras, La Venexiana, Kaija Saariaho, Christoph Eschenbach and The Sixteen.