Category: music

American orchestras’ proposed agreement about streaming their performances over the internet is a forward-thinking idea for an artform generally thought to be mired in the past. “This whole agreement was not driven by the idea that this is a major new revenue source, but how can you use this to sell tickets and raise money to keep subscribers loyal. We want to find ways to use this new Internet technology to generate new audiences and keep our institution alive.” – Chicago Tribune

John Adams’ “Nixon in China” just closed – but not before it became the hottest ticket in London. The opera’s success “has given pundits here yet another opportunity to engage in one of their favorite pastimes: sneering at America. ‘Nixon in China’ has been taken as further proof among some Brits that the United States, for all its wealth and power, has never quite matched the worldly sophistication of its mother country.” – Washington Post

Lofti Mansouri prepares to retire from the helm of San Francisco Opera after next season, and the tributes have already begun. – Los Angeles Times

Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project opens in Seattle with a weekend full of music. It’s not so much a museum of pop culture as it is the ultimate hand-on journey. Pictures, video and a review of the bash. – MSNBC

In Europe and America, the ensemble opera company is virtually extinct – the ease of jet travel and the huge rise in fees have made loyalty to a single company almost impossible. “Yet in cash-poor Eastern Europe, great operatic ensembles survive and even flourish.  The Kirov Opera  in St Petersburg  is a company rich in big voices of a splendour that is virtually extinct in Europe and the US, as well as a superb chorus and many promising newcomers.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Dying? Orchestras dying? Not to hear these orchestras talk about their future. The American Symphony Orchestra League holds its annual meeting and looks forward, not back. – Boston Globe

Women from all around the world are in a bidding frenzy, hoping to get their hands on the much-coveted tickets to see Australian actor Russell Crowe’s band “Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts.” The concert will be held at Stubbs BBQ restaurant in Austin, Texas – tickets are presently going for around $200 on internet auctions. – The Age (Melbourne)

— dies at age 89 in Seattle. The prolific American composer “embraced melody in an atonal age and drew heavily on music of the East.” – New York Times

“For all the record companies’ bleating about lost sales, nobody is about to starve. But in highlighting how hard it is to control digital content once it is let loose on the Internet, Napster and its sort are merely the tip of a far bigger iceberg. As books, videos and other digitisable works go online, the same problems over copying and distribution are likely to arise. And the biggest difficulty is that, even if Napster, say, were shut down by the courts, many other, more powerful, systems are waiting to take its place that have been designed to be still harder to control.” – The Economist