Category: music

In America the business of opera is built on Puccini, and on a mere handful of his works, at that. “Puccini, of course, isn’t responsible for the lack of artistic diversity in American opera houses, but a mere trio of his works are so fundamental to the financial stability of American opera that they have had a stultifying effect.” Yet in the history of music, Puccini has not been accorded the respect that his popularity suggests. New books re-evaluate…

Restoration of the La Scala opera house has now been going on a year. The anniversary has been marked with court challenges, filed by preservationists arguing that “the new designs were ugly and the contracting for the work was flawed.” The city briefly opened the building to allay fears, and city officials defended the project against court challenges.

It’s been a rough year for the Los Angeles Opera. But the company has announced a bold next season, and seems to be moving into the passing lane. Mark Swed suggests the company is on the road to becoming a major force in American opera. “Five years ago, no operaphile would think to mention Los Angeles in the same breath as San Francisco and Chicago, American’s second and third opera cities, after New York. But compared with San Francisco Opera’s upcoming 81st season and Lyric Opera’s 49th season, our 17-year-old company looks to become not only their artistic equal next season, but perhaps even a leader.”

Kent Nagano has been appointed director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, succeeding Zubin Mehta. Nagano had been widely touted as the next music director of the Montreal Symphony, and the Munich appointment likely kills that possibility. “Canadian journalists had whipped the public into a frenzy of anticipation, praising the 51-year old Nagano’s musicianship, his ability to speak French and his ‘cool’ image.”

Folk music has its roots in small intimate places. But now, “with few venues willing to hire folk acts and few middle-class suburbanites willing to make the schlep downtown, search out parking and elbow other patrons to get the bartender’s attention, folk house concerts are quietly spreading like wildfire with the help of e-mail and Internet advertising.”

David Schiff tries to sort out what’s Stravinsky and what’s Robert Craft in Craft’s revisionist history of his time with the composer. It’s a daunting task. “Are Stravinsky’s ventings on contemporary music, delicious to read but often spiteful and self-serving, omitted here, because, as Craft says, the musical scene has changed beyond recognition – wouldn’t that make them all the more interesting? – or because Stravinsky’s judgements have not stood the test of time, certainly not his dismissals of Britten and Messiaen and the plaudits for Stockhausen? Or because the stinging verdicts were not actually Stravinsky’s?”

One musician is angry about the recording industry’s attempts to shut down music file-trading. “The Internet means exposure, and these days, unless you’re in the Top 40, you’re not getting on the radio. The Internet is the only outlet for many artists to be heard by an audience bigger than whoever shows up at a local coffeehouse. The Internet allows people like me to gain new fans; if only 10% of those downloading my music buy my records or come to my shows, I’ve just gained enough fans to fill Carnegie Hall twice over.”

“Cuba is producing musicians of Herculean technique, many of whom have applied their intensive classical training to the art of jazz – and thus have come to tower over their counterparts around the world. The last two generations have yielded larger-than-life jazz players whose mastery of their instruments and exalted level of musicianship enables them to conquer audiences wherever jazz is played. Exactly why Cuban jazz musicians sound consistently brilliant may be a mystery to the outside world, but in Havana it is no secret…”

Are today’s symphony orchestras better or worse than the orchestras of yesterday? The technical level of the players is better, but is the way they play together superior? The Boston Globe asked five prominent conductors to make comparisons.

Last week the European Commission issued a draft directive to try to discourage music file traders. The directive “called for counterfeiters to be jailed and their bank accounts frozen.” Evidently even the threat of jail isn’t enough for the big recording companies. “The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said the measures failed to introduce ‘urgently needed measures to hold back the epidemic of counterfeiting’.”