Archaeologists have opened a grave in Salzburg thought to contain the remains of Mozart’s father and other relatives. Experts plan to compare the remains’ genetic material with a skull to determine if it belonged to the famed Austrian composer. Legend has it that a gravedigger who knew which body was Mozart’s sneaked the skull out of the grave. Through different channels, the skull came to the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1902.
Category: music
How Do You make New From Old?
There are no new sounds in music – just musicians using familiar notes in new ways. But. “It is rare that governments and the industry at large are ahead of the curve when it comes to cultural trends, and recent legal rulings have made the creation of new music from appropriated sources problematic. It is a sensitive issue because while intellectual property needs to be protected, new intellectual properties can only be born in a nurturing environment and appropriation has become such an important element in a substantial body of new work.”
Cleveland Orchestra Continues Contract Talks
The Cleveland Orchestra and its musicians agree to continue negotiating on a new contract after the old one expired Sunday. Musicians say this is a contract about maintaining the orchestra’s elite status. “If you fall below a certain level, you are going to fall out of the top tier of orchestras. I am concerned that Cleveland will no longer be a destination orchestra, but an orchestra musicians want to get to and then go to another orchestra.”
Voigt Out Of Another Strauss Production
Deborah Voigt was supposed to sing her first-ever Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at Vancouver Opera this month. “The diva arrived a week late for rehearsals but everyone understood. A resident of Florida, she had just come through some terrifying hurricanes. What everyone did not understand was her unpreparedness. It soon became apparent that she was not ready to sing what could become one of the most important roles of her career. And so, her management announced that she would be withdrawing from the production, stating in a news release that she had stretched herself too thin, a singularly unfortunate turn of phrase considering that she had been released from a production earlier in the year by London’s Royal Opera, Covent Garden for being too fat.”
What’s Next For The Met?
What does the appointment of Peter Gelb to run the Metropolitan Opera mean for the country’s artistic future? “What will his artistic priorities be? This question can’t be answered without knowing what James Levine intends his own role to be now that his title has been downsized from artistic director to music director. Will Mr. Levine, busy in his new job as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Mr. Gelb divvy up the artistic responsibilities? It’s not yet clear – not even, I suspect, to them.”
Shostakovich Looking For Home
A home is being sought for Shostakovich’s collections of thousands of recordings and manuscripts. “The collection was owned by conductor Roman Matsov, a close collaborator of Shostakovich. The recordings are stacked in the Estonian apartment where Matsov lived before his death in 2001, aged 84. Matsov’s son, Mark, is having trouble paying rent on the flat and fears the collection could lose its home.”
Philly Hoping To Avoid A Strike
“A contract extension for musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra expires just after midnight tonight, but players say a strike is not imminent.” That doesn’t mean that a settlement is near, only that the orchestra is scheduled to play children’s concerts this week, and striking against a bunch of kids wouldn’t look too good. Still, there seems to be at least some optimism that a deal could be reached without a work stoppage, especially with the mayor of Philadelphia now taking an aggressive and active role in the process.
Play-And-Talk In Cleveland
The Cleveland Orchestra will avoid a work stoppage when a 2-month extension of its current contract expires tonight, with an open-ended play-and-talk agreement and an agreement from management that the existing deal will be honored until a new one is settled.
Crossover, A Primer
“Crossover used to be the special realm of opera singers, who dipped into the vernacular by enthusiastically singing folk songs or reluctantly pandering with a bit of pop fluff.” But that was then. Now crossover is a way of life for performers and the genre has been mainlined…
You’re A….Ooh… Rockist?
“A rockist isn’t just someone who loves rock ‘n’ roll, who goes on and on about Bruce Springsteen, who champions ragged-voiced singer-songwriters no one has ever heard of. A rockist is someone who reduces rock ‘n’ roll to a caricature, then uses that caricature as a weapon. Rockism means idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncher. Over the past decades, these tendencies have congealed into an ugly sort of common sense.”