Category: music

“Believe it or not, this used to be a fairly common dining experience, offered by more than 100 such establishments in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.” There are still three left in the U.S., and CityLab visits the one in Mesa, Arizona, which has a Wurlitzer bigger than the organ at Radio City Music Hall. — CityLab

The fall festival on the Irish coast, known for presenting rarities, has removed Weber’s Der Freischütz from its schedule, replacing it with Vivaldi’s Dorilla in Tempe. The Weber opera, which is on the fringes of the mainstream standard repertory, requires 12 soloists, a chorus, and a relatively large orchestra; the Vivaldi requires 6 soloists and a much smaller pit band. — Irish Times

The popular instrumentalist will end her three-decade concert career in the summer of 2020, at which point she’ll be 55. In her announcement, she ran through her considerable list of accomplishments before concluding, “I’ve decided it’s time to find a little more space in my life for some of my many other interests!” — The Strad

“The results show a clear trend towards a more negative tone,” write Kathleen Napier and Lior Shamir of Lawrence Technological University in Michigan. “Anger, disgust, sadness, and conscientiousness have increased significantly, while joy, confidence, and openness expressed in pop-song lyrics has declined.” – Pacific Standard

In the 1980s and ’90s, she was one of the Metropolitan Opera’s reigning sopranos, considered a latter-day exemplar of Golden-Age Verdi singing. “Then, at what should have been the height of her career, things petered out, … [and] over the past decade, she has barely sung in public at all.” But now she’s aiming to return to the Met stage. “It’s not about voice; the voice has been functioning,” she says. “But when you go through a lack of confidence, you’re not going to want to be anywhere.” — The New York Times

The British conductor — the second man to lead the oldest performing arts organization in the U.S. since it made the switch to period instruments and a small-ish professional chorus in 1989 — will have been with H&H for 12 seasons and recorded a dozen albums with the group when he steps down at the end of the 2020-21 season. — WBUR (Boston)

“When an orchestra faces an existential threat — that’s understandably how the players see this — you have to deal with it in a fundamentally different way. You don’t just follow some symphony industry playbook and toss an incendiary contract offer onto the table. In the midst of the concert season, no less. Seems to me this situation demanded a fresh approach.” Tim Smith offers some ideas for such an approach. — Tim Smith

The 35-year-old Italian, currently chief conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence and the Opéra National de Lyon, succeeds Rafael Payaré, who leaves in July for his new job as music director of the San Diego Symphony. — Belfast Telegraph

Locked inside the trunk were drafts and sketches for 12 operas written over nearly half a century, from “Luisa Miller” to “Falstaff,” as well as for works like the Requiem and “Four Sacred Pieces.” They have been cataloged and digitized and will be made accessible to scholars.  – The New York Times