Category: music

The highly anticipated performances in the Wiener Staatsoper’s new production of “Siegfried,”, directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf, were to mark Voigt’s first-ever assumption of the role of Brünnhilde in any of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle operas.

First there’s the problem of finding places to play that can accomodate the orchestra…

The Independent reruns the Washington Post’s experiment of putting a star musician in a train station to see see if anyone notices. This time it’s cellist Natalie Chen. In an hour, “barely one in four people even turned their heads as they walked past, and of the first 100 or so passers-by, scarcely a handful broke stride.”

Peking opera has been dying out in China. Now “China’s education ministry has launched a pilot program which will make traditional Peking Opera a compulsory part of music teaching in schools around the country.”

“The days when an artist blew into town for a recital and just as quickly blew out are becoming scarce. Now, it’s no surprise to find those same pianists, violinists, singers, whomever, spending the better part of a week in residence. They play at schools, give master classes, chat on the radio and schmooze with the public.”

“The $3 million winning bid for the Record Rama collection on eBay was a fraud, according to J. Paul Henderson, agent for the sale. Mr. Henderson said he got a call from an eBay executive last night explaining that the “jopsoup” bid was not legitimate and the account has been suspended.”

“We need defenders of our tradition of classical music if classical music is to survive. It could very well be that one of the most important defenders of classical music will be found in the country of China.”

The Black Crowes were surprised to see a review of their latest in Maxim. The magazine didn’t have the album, and when challenged, an editor replied: “Of course, we always prefer to (sic) hearing music, but sometimes there are big albums that we don’t want to ignore that aren’t available to hear, which is what happened with the Crowes. It’s either an educated guess preview or no coverage at all, so in this case we chose the former.”

Broadening her attack to decry the popular genre, which has seen singers such as Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins rise to stardom, Dame Kiri said: “They are all fake singers, they sing with a microphone. These people, two or three years and they’re gone.”

A federal judge has tossed a racketeering lawsuit seeking to represent those falsely sued for copyright infringement. The plaintif had sought damages against the Recording Industry Association of America, claining that the association was wrongfully suing thousands of consumers.