Category: music

One of the world’s best violinists turns to conducting, making his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut. How’d he do? – Los Angeles Times

Eliesha Nelson, the newest addition to the Cleveland Orchestra’s viola section, is the first black woman to become a full-time member of the orchestra. – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Why did British Customs agents seize the Beatles’ gold records when the discs were being shipped to the UK back in 1967? And why does Customs still have them? “On 10 March 1967, a Customs officer, B Lampert, wrote to a manager, saying: ‘If it is considered that sale of these plaques will not embarrass the department, then sale would have to be of a specific nature with advertisements in the ‘music papers’. I have no idea of the price we could expect to realise but I understand the Beatles are on their ‘way out’ (result of quick market research on teenage neighbours!)’.” – The Independent (UK)

Angry opera fans led a candlelight vigil and marched in front of La Scala before the opening of La Bohème Tuesday to protest the opera house’s recent decision to replace its popular standing-room section with seats. – Nando Times

Ever since moving into its new home in Covent Garden last winter, the Royal Opera has been plagued by financial and management crises. “Almost everything that has gone wrong at the Dome was dry-run at the ROH. The long-running crisis is neither a matter of money (the usual excuse) nor of human frailty, but of a deep-seated structural fault that can only be remedied by a radical rethink.” – The Telegraph (UK)

The City of Berlin says that Daniel Barenboim will not renew his contract as director of the Staatsoper, after the city’s culture minister flies to Chicago for negotiations with Barenboim.  “Given Barenboim’s stature in the international classical music world, Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen has stated that the city should try to keep him at the Staatsoper ‘no matter what’. But so far, the city’s senate has refused to allocate additional money.” – Chicago Sun-Times

As the Hispanic population grows in the US and Latin music becomes part of the mainstream, traditional Latin music forms are being changed – some say diluted – in a widening cultural schism in the booming Latino community. – Chicago Tribune

Vilar’s L.A. Opera donation breaks down into two parts – $6 million will go for new productions over three years, starting in 2001. One million dollars a year over the next four years will support and expand the company’s training and coaching program for young singers. These donations come on the heels of a separate Vilar pledge to L.A. Opera of $2 million, announced by its new artistic director Placido Domingo on Monday. – Los Angeles Times

“Plácido Domingo, the new artistic director of the Los Angeles Opera, announced today that George Lucas’s special effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, would design a new version of ‘The Ring.’ The epic, beginning with ‘Das Rheingold’ in 2003, will span two seasons.” – New York Times

High-tech investor Alberto Vilar – a friend of Placido Domingo – has given $24 million to the Los Angeles Opera, the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia to fund permanent traveling productions. – Nando Times (AP)