Category: music

Does size really matter in opera singers, wonders Justin Davidson? “There is a rough, unofficial consensus that in some operas size matters more than in others. Companies will bend over backward not to cast a fat Carmen or a slow-moving Zerlina in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” but all of Wagner, some Strauss and much Verdi are open to singers of any dimensions. As we whittle down the options for large singers, we also deplete the pool of people who can sing these demanding roles. Voices like Deborah Voigt’s are a precious resource.”

Franz Welser-MÖst was offered the top job at the Vienna State Opera Friday, and turned it down, citing his contract commitment to the Cleveland Orchestra through 2012. “I’m not somebody who breaches a contract. I believe both institutions deserve 100 percent focus. I cannot divide my focus and give each institution 50 percent, which would mean in the end both institutions would suffer.”

David Patrick Stearns has no problem reconciling the physical size of a singer with the role he or she’s supposed to assume. “The opera world is splintering in ways that make big-blast singers – most often those with weight problems – not always necessary. Directors are the new stars of the opera houses, which for some operagoers is a sign of defeat. If there are so few great singers out there, voice connoisseurs think, at least opera can tell interesting stories. There’s an even wilder card with opera’s changing venues: What used to be a medium of standardized grandeur now comes in all shapes and forms, some demanding physical appropriateness, some not.”

Violinists in a German orchestra want to get extra compensation for playing extra notes. Howard Reich likes the idea and proposes a compensation system that would be fair to every player in a symphony orchestra. It starts with one cent for every 64th note and two pennies for every quarter note. Rests, of course, count towards vacation time. “Musicians are responsible for counting the notes they play. This is an honor system, so remember, mistakes do not count. Follow the score as directed and we won’t have to levy fines for playing sharp or flat.”

Unions at the Scottish Opera have done an unusual thing – they’ve drafted their own budget for the financially sick company. “The unions believe the current management’s plans for the future of the company will lead to extensive job cuts and its eventual dismantling.
Instead, the union proposes a halt on the large scale operas that play at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow and the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, for the next two years.”

So much high-end contemporary music of the past century is so difficult, you need to be highly skilled to perform it. But shouldn’t there be more new music for amateurs? “We need to look at new ways of keeping musical culture going, and composers need to think more broadly about how their music is performed, and who is performing it.”

“Deep in the silos of the American midwest, a Cold War missile is being readied for launch. From the University of Indiana Press at Bloomington, advance copies are being mailed out this week of what is academically warranted to be ‘the definitive statement on the Shostakovich controversy’.” Norman Lebrecht is sick to death of this whole debate, and in particular, has had just about enough of the “counter-revisionist academics” who persist in their delusion that Shostakovich was nothing more than a cowed stooge for Stalin and the Communist Party. “Evidence of his moral courage and political disgust is so overwhelming that it is hard to imagine how even an ivory-towered musicologist could pretend otherwise.”

The Tampa-based Florida Orchestra is battling the tide of red ink that has swamped so many American ensembles in recent years, and to hear orchestra officials tell it, the group is on the comeback trail, following a difficult season in which the musicians were forced to reopen their contract early and accept a pay cut. But with one of the orchestra’s key wind principals set to leave for the more financially secure San Diego Symphony, and rumors constantly swirling that music director Stefan Sanderling is being wooed by other ensembles, it’s proving difficult for the organization to shake the taint of its recent troubles. Still, Sanderling insists that he’s in this fight for the long haul.

When the Long Island Philharmonic canceled the remainder of its 2003-04 season earlier this month for fiscal reasons, questions about the viability of a small-budget regional orchestra playing in the shadow of New York’s juggernaut of a music scene were inevitable. But the orchestra’s chairman insists that the arts are as valuable on Long Island as they are in Manhattan, and is calling on state and local government to increase their commitment to funding regional arts groups. Larry Austin also denies reports that the Philharmonic is in danger of permanent collapse, saying that the decision to cancel this season’s last concerts will make the orchestra stronger overall.

So what do musicians in other orchestras think of violinists in a German orchestra demanding more pay because they play more than other colleagues? “It’s a completely fatuous argument – and I’m not just saying that because I’m a piccolo player. That line of reasoning doesn’t apply in any other world. Certainly not in the sports world. In an American football team there’s a guy who just comes on to kick goals, and he works for maybe a total of one minute in the whole game, but he gets paid just as much as the rest of the team. Maybe even more, if he’s good.”