Category: music

SF Opera Cuts Concerts, But Not Brain Cells

The San Francisco Opera, forced by budget constraints to trim its season, unveiled the revised schedule of performances this week, and the results are at least somewhat encouraging, says Joshua Kosman. While the number of productions may be down, the company “has refused to compromise on some of [its] more adventurous programming decisions. The season will open Sept. 6 with the company premiere of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s 1947 collaboration The Mother of Us All, and will also include productions of Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.”

And Joni Begat Anne, Who Begat Celine, Who Begat…

What is it about Canadian women and their dominance of the American pop music scene? From Joni Mitchell to k.d. lang to Alanis Morissette to Avril Lavigne, Canadians produce an astonishing percentage of America’s favorite music. Is it the simple purity of the Great White North, as contrasted with the over-produced, predictable offerings coming out of market-driven L.A. studios? Is it savvy Canadian marketing infiltrating the Yankee sensibility? Is it just a big coincidence? Um, yes. All of that, and probably a few more things we haven’t thought of yet.

Washington Opera’s New Digs

Washington Opera moves into tiny Constitution Hall while its home at the Kennedy Center is renovated. “Longtime concertgoers have been shaking their heads. An opera house? With that tiny stage? In that vast, cavernous diffusion of bluish space? An opera house. It was not only home to the National Symphony Orchestra for that ensemble’s first 40 years, but it has been the site of countless recitals by the great, the near-great and the long-forgotten, both before and after the Kennedy Center opened in 1971.”

Big Times In A Small Town

In Annapolis, Maryland, a drama is unfolding surrounding the local symphony orchestra, and while the ensemble may be small, the intrigue is worthy of a much larger organization. It all began when Annapolis music director Leslie Dunner’s contract was not renewed last fall, sparking protests from the orchestra’s musicians, and shock from donors and concertgoers. At the time, the board cited declining ticket sales as the reason for the change. Speculation has been growing that there may have been other, darker reasons for the dismissal.

In Search Of The Center Of Music

“New music right now — and in fact, or so I’m thinking, most likely the entire music world—is best described with the old story of the blind people and the elephant. You know the drill. The blind people approach the noble beast. One touches its tail. “This is a rope,” he says. The next one reaches out a hand, and finds the elephant’s trunk. ‘It’s not a rope,’ she says. ‘It’s a snake!’ And so on, till they’re lost in confusion.”

Canada’s Crucial Year

“There is general agreement that 2003 will be a watershed for the Canadian music industry — a year that could either set the industry on a course of renewed viability, or make it as moribund as those dust-covered eight-track cartridges piled in the furnace room.” From digital music to file-sharing, Canadian producers face all the challenges of their American counterparts, compounded by an abysmal exchange rate, and a controversial national tax on blank, recordable CDs.

Colorado Springs Will Miss Payroll

The beleagured Colorado Springs Symphony, already in bankruptcy and facing the probable resignation of its music director, will miss its mid-January payroll today, leaving musicians and staff to fend for themselves, and almost certainly prompting the musicians’ union to file a grievance claiming that the CSS is in material breach of contract. The orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after musicians refused to accept the board’s demands for a large cut of their already-bargain-basement salaries. Musicians also claim that the organization’s upper management has been grossly incompetent, and should be held responsible for its own failings.

Colorado Springs Music Director Will Resign (Or Will He?)

“Lawrence Leighton Smith, the nationally known music director of the financially strapped Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, all but admitted Monday that he will resign his position today.” Smith had threatened as much before the cash-strapped ensemble declared bankruptcy last week, as a show of support to the orchestra’s musicians, who were being asked to take a pay cut. However, although this report claimed that Smith would announce his resignation on January 14, a subsequent article (see above) reports that he has not yet followed through.