“After two years of touring America, the Irish Tenors have their treble act off pat, all flirty good humour with the girls, thigh-slapping crack with the lads and soft-focus nostalgia for the audience. But behind the conviviality is a steely sense of purpose that has made them one of the biggest concert draws in America. They joke as they are interviewed, but the trio’s belief in their product is unbreakable, with awkward questions bouncing off their jocular presence. They are the Teflon tenors.” – Sunday Times (UK)
Category: music
GRAZIE, PREGO AND BRAVOS
Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras get together for a rare conference call joint interview. But can anyone get a word in edgewise? – Chicago Tribune
CAUTIOUS ROUTE TO STARDOM
“Who could predict that an immigrant from war-torn Lebanon who took her first singing lesson at 19, who had never appeared on a professional stage before arriving at the Met in 1997 – who was faxing her homework back to engineering school on the opera-house fax, for goodness’ sake – would now be the name on every opera-house director’s lips?” – The Globe & Mail (Canada)
MAKING RECORDING PAY
At a time when classical music recording labels are floundering, the London Symphony Orchestra, which started its own recording label last year, is actually turning a profit.”This may not be the answer to all the industry’s ills, but it certainly promises a wider variety of new recordings than might otherwise be on offer, whatever happens to all those labels that have dominated the field for so long.” – The Guardian
WIDOWS FOREVER
In 1905 Franz Lehar modernized opera, and made himself a fortune. His “The Merry Widow was the “Cats” of its day. “Within three and a half years of its premiere Merry Widow’ racked up more than 18,000 performances in German, English and American theaters. Twenty years on, its audience was counted in the millions.” – Opera News
PEOPLE GO DOWN
Up With People, the ever-bright enthusiastic singing organization founded in 1965 is shutting down. Members paid $14,000 a year each to belong, and the group has five touring troupes. “The group’s 262 employees worldwide will lose their jobs, including 66 at the headquarters north of Denver. The headquarters land and building will be sold to help pay off the group’s $7.3 million in debts and leasing commitments and provide operating cash.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) (AP)
ALL THAT JAZZ
“At least 50 books about jazz were published in the last few months or are scheduled to arrive in bookstores in the next several months.” Why now? – New York Times
RECORD ST. LOUIS GIFT
“The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will receive a record-breaking $40 million gift, it was announced Wednesday morning. The money, from the Jack Taylor family, owners of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, is in the form of a four-year challenge grant, and is the largest single personal contribution ever made to an American orchestra for its operations and endowment.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
OLDEST LOVE SONG
“Archaeologists excavating a 4,300 year-old Egyptian tomb at Abu Sir near Cairo have found what they believe is the world’s oldest known written music — a love song.” – Discovery.com
WHERE’S A YENTA WHEN YOU NEED ONE?
The New York Philharmonic’s search for a new music director has turned into agony. “The search could be likened to the plight of picky single New York women. It’s like being a marriage broker. You ask, ‘Are you interested?’ Then you go out on a date. But it seems the best ones are always taken.” Handicapping the field. – New York Observer