“The Danish film-maker Lars von Trier has thrown Bayreuth into confusion. Not by his outrageous take on the operas of Richard Wagner, nor by spectacular fallouts with divas – but by admitting that he is not up to the job of directing the festival’s forthcoming Ring cycle.”
Category: music
Mr. Mortier At The Paris Opera
Gerard Mortier takes over the Paris Opera from Hugues Gall. “While Mr. Gall held the job for almost a decade before reaching the official retirement age of 65, Mr. Mortier, 60, has only five seasons to make his mark. His first, the 2004-5 season, with 9 new productions and 10 revivals, already suggests a more daring approach, notably in the selection of directors who, he hopes, will seek out “the modernity” in established works.”
Scottish Opera Carved In Half (And Worse)
“The long-term future of Scottish Opera was cast into doubt last night after the company and the Executive unveiled plans which will mean the firing of nearly half its staff and productions being halted for nine months. The executive promised up to £7 million in funding for a radical “restructuring” plan that it said would enable the company to live within its £7.5 million annual budget.”
Scottish Opera – Cutting Off The Limb To Save The Body
So cutting Scottish Opera’s operations is meant to save it. But “rather than a rescue plan, this could be the death of opera of an international standard in Scotland.”
Cutting Forces Will Make Scottish Opera Better?
“If this is going to be a company “in better voice”, then the collective throats of the Scottish Arts Council need examining. The main musical redundancies are almost certainly going to come in the chorus, which will be completely disbanded as a full-time ensemble.”
Unions Protest Scottish Opera Cuts
“Unions representing staff at Scottish Opera have urged company directors to resign following news that almost half the workforce will lose their jobs.”
Are Record Stores About To Slip Into History?
A new report says that with the increasing popularity of music downloading and the availability of CDs in supermarkets, record stores in the UK are in danger of disappearing. “The pressure of new players competing for the record buyer’s pound could make music stores ‘irrelevant’, it stated.”
New Music In Little Pieces
Greg Sandow observes that new music has difficulty widening its appeal. “New music in New York seems fragmented, right now, at least to me, and I’d like to see more going on that would bind us together. We talk as if we have common interests, and we have organizations that support us all. But how much do we even know about what we all are doing?”
Regretting The Pulitzer Changes
Josh Kosman doesn’t like the decision to open the Pulitzers to different genres of music. “In truth, the prize has now been thrown open to all musical comers — pop, classical, jazz, bluegrass, salsa, hip-hop, written and improvised, recorded and live and everything in between. Any musical utterance heard within the 50 states is now, in theory, eligible for a Pulitzer. Does that amount to inclusiveness, eclecticism, a postmodern abolition of restrictive conceptual categories, or any other warm and fuzzy gesture of goodwill? Not at all. It’s an attempt to be all things to all people, something that you and I know never works. The result will inevitably be to drive an already marginal accolade further down the path to insignificance.”
Club Owners Protest Aussie Nightclub Music Fee
Australian nightclub owners are angry about an increase in fees for playing music in their clubs. “A proposed increase in licence fees to play music in nightclubs has angered owners who say it could put them out of business. The record industry’s proposal would see licence fees soar 14-fold from 7 cents per patron to $1.”