Category: music

“[T]he art show titled ‘Work:Fragment’ gathers 70 works by artists such as Ingres, Cézanne, Degas, Delacroix, Kandinsky, Klee, Giacometti and Picasso alongside scores from Wagner, Bartók and Varèse and works by writers from the 19th and 20th centuries.” The program, the first at the Louvre ever to be curated by a musician, also includes 11 live and six filmed concerts.

Faced with money troubles, a nearly dark season and the departure of artistic director-designate Gérard Mortier, New York City Opera is turning for help to “the performing arts world’s Mr. Fix-It,” Kennedy Center CEO Michael Kaiser, who has famously presided over turnarounds at Covent Garden and American Ballet Theater and helped steady Miami’s teetering Adrienne Arsht Center.

“A Swiss researcher said Thursday he had hit on an unlikely way of recreating the unique sound of a Stradivarius violin – by treating the wood of a replica instrument with mushrooms.”

The DSO is replacing its concert performances of Madama Butterfly, scheduled for next May, with a conventional orchestra-and-chorus program. For once, it’s not due to the current economic mess: the orchestra is avoiding conflict with The Dallas Opera’s new Butterfly planned for the following spring.

“Since last week, hip-hop artists have issued a host of new songs in tribute to Obama’s victory… There’s obvious joy and celebration, but also a sense of historic moment, and almost a tragicomic awareness of what it took to get to this point.”

The Sydney Symphony’s controversial general manager is reportedly leaving the organization next year. Sources say that a number of important behind-the-scenes figures have left the orchestra during GM Libby Christie’s tenure, having chafed at her micromanaging style.

“A decade or two ago, rock stars teaming up with a nationwide department store chain to hawk back-to-school clothing would have raised more than a few critical eyebrows and accusations of ‘selling out’.” But this year, the Kohl’s chain is doing just that – “unveiling several brand-new apparel lines inspired – and pitched – by famous musicians, including Lenny Kravitz, Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton.”

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s “Night Shift” concerts are pulling in that much-sought-after younger audience. “It’s been running for a couple of years, and the idea is simple: after a full-scale concert, the OAE players and their conductor for the evening perform an hour-long concert for a more relaxed clientele (who, mercifully at 10pm on a Friday night, were allowed to bring a drink into the auditorium).”

Like a couture designer who likes the challenge of creating a clothing line for Kmart, Gerard Mortier might have enjoyed running an opera company on a shoestring — if he were a completely different person, argues James Jorden, editor of the opera blog Parterre.com.

“In the end, the whole affair was a remarkable act of hubris. To summarily jettison an opera company’s history, completely alter its artistic and audience profile, and redesign its funding structure without having identified sources of capital beforehand seems like an exercise in wishful thinking and a highly irresponsible act. City Opera is an essential public institution with a valuable history; boards are supposed to take that trust seriously, but this one was blinded by a shiny new toy.”