Category: music

“Some of the evening sputters, most of it is a forceful blend of tenderness and urgency leavened with occasional touches of graveyard wit. But any piece crowned by a stretch of writing as visionary and as stubbornly unforgettable as that Act 1 finale is already some kind of masterpiece.”

“A montage of sounds runs through the score: alarms, screams, strange metallic grindings, scratchy tunes poking through radio static. In the orchestra, the tension jumps from tectonic timpani rumbles to dry staccato sprints in the strings, to gelid woodwind chords. Occasionally, Adams’ score rises to a raging shout, and at other times it relaxes into arias of consolatory beauty. But it never ceases to quiver.”

Sales of downloaded music have tripled in the past year and now account for 6% of record industry sales, worth $790 million. “However, revenue from sales of physical music formats, like CDs, fell 6.3% and the overall market by 1.9%. That translates to a global drop in the market from $13.4 billion (£7.6bn) to $13.2 billion (£7.5bn), for all music sales – regardless of format.”

“New operas are always big events, but the hype surrounding this one went off the scale. This climax contains some of the most powerful and haunting music Adams has written. It relies on one of the most astonishing bits of stagecraft Sellars has conceived. It expands your consciousness in the way opera is uniquely qualified to do on those rare occasions when the art form is working with all its cylinders firing.”

“As was the case with the previous John Adams-Peter Sellars piece, the Nativity oratorio “El Niño,” Sellars’s idiosyncrasy and obsession with concept leeched much of the theatrical vigor from this promising project. Recent productions of “Nixon” and “The Death of Klinghoffer,” not directed by Mr. Sellars, brought out previously unnoticed power in those works. Perhaps it is time for Mr. Adams to find a different collaborator.”

The website Sanjosesymphony.org is being occupied by a cybersquatter. “Now, the only way to remove the embarrassing link is to buy the domain or file legal action. No bargain solution either way.”

John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” debuts in San Francisco. “In a risky stroke Peter Sellars assembled a libretto from interviews with the project participants, history books, conversation transcripts, declassified documents and poetry. His cut-and-paste job has produced a libretto of heightened emotional resonance and surprising dramatic continuity. With Mr. Adams’s haunting score, what results is a complex, searching and painfully honest if somewhat problematic opera.”

Pittsburgh Symphony musicians have agreed to a new contract with some big concessions. “During the first year of the new contract, which runs through Aug. 31, 2008, musicians will take a 4.2 percent pay reduction, resulting in a savings of $500,000. The orchestra, which posted a $500,000 deficit last year, will reduce the number of musicians from 99 to 95 and institute a hiring freeze. In year two of the contract, an unpaid week of vacation and the hiring freeze will save $1 million. In year three, the PSO will save $900,000.”

Of course they do. Just look at Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. The training program was launched in 1974 to “give promising young opera singers professional-level training and stage experience.” Look at what its graduates have accoplished…

“Canadians illegally download 14 music CDs or other files from the Internet for every file they take from the web legally, a new recording-industry poll suggests.”