Category: music

Symphony Silicon Valley “has become locally famous, almost notorious, as an orchestra without a music director. Circumstances at first did not allow for the hiring of one — concerts in the first two seasons were infrequent and there were budgetary concerns as well as worries about putting the orchestra’s fate in one pair of conductorial hands. Perhaps surprisingly, the orchestra has just gone on that way.”

The Washington Post last week hired a permanent staff music critic to succeed Tim Page. Anne Midgette, who has been in the job on an interim basis since January, when Page took a leave of absence, has been hired officially as The Post’s classical music critic.

Francis Menotti, facing persistent criticism as ruler of Spoleto’s Festival of Two Worlds, has been sent packing after being placed in charge a dozen years ago by his adoptive father, Gian Carlo Menotti, the festival’s founder.

David Cronenberg’s 1986 horror flick, “The Fly,” has undergone a bizarre metamorphosis. It’s now an opera. For an opera, it’s pretty scary — even if there are touches of dark humor. Giggles broke out among those invited to Monday’s dress rehearsal when a mezzo-soprano belted out the film’s catchphrase: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

“It’s so much work. You spend years on this sucker. Then you have to deal with casting, and you have to deal with all of the egos and all of that. And yes, indeed, you do have to work with the singers, you have to work with the stage director, you need to work with the scene people, the lighting people, the musicians, the conductor, all of these extra people. And then it probably will be staged once, get ho hum reviews, and disappear forever. Uh, I don’t know. There are other things I guess I’d rather be doing.”

“It will be the first video recording of a Bayreuth performance since 1991, and the first ever in front of a live audience.” It will be filmed with robotic cameras. And it will cost $77 to watch over the internet.

“Activities such as licensing songs, merchandising and tours, helped boost sales by 13.8% to £122m in 2007. The BPI – the British record industry body – said these deals now account for 11.4% of the income of firms.”

“The Philadelphia composer created 3,000 works over 60 years – 32 symphonies, an opera, songs inspired by Lord of the Rings – but was barely known to artistic colleagues living only blocks from his apartment at 19th and Pine. His concerts were off the grid, his recordings few, his recognition level nothing remotely resembling what composers crave – and need, in order to grow.”

“While classical musicians around the world fight for a glimmer of media attention, their counterparts in China have no trouble drawing the spotlight. Western classical music is big business, or, at least, official business.”

Slatkin the conversationalist is like Slatkin the conductor: You get a lot of material, flecked with flashes of apparent revelation that recede as quickly as they appear. Talking about one subject, his firefly mind is already on to the next one.