Category: music

Four-part series examines a behind-the-scenes crisis in Berlin’s opera landscape. Part I examines the Deutsche Oper – Last October, on the day of the important premiere of a new production of Schönberg’s “Moses und Aron,” fifteen members of the orchestra phoned in “ill,” forcing the company to frantically phone around several European cities and fly in replacements literally at the last second. Within days the entire orchestra was out on a full-blown strike, resulting in numerous cancelled performances, including all subsequent presentations of “Moses und Aron.” – Die Welt

Contemporary opera is suddenly hot, and amid the wave of premieres, other late 20th Century operas are also getting a rehear. Among them Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten,” revived at Boston Lyric Opera, the work’s first production in 11 years. Glass reflects on the piece and the business of modern opera. – Boston Globe

Reviews for John Harbison’s “Great Gatsby” were all over the map. A third loved it. Another third thought it awful, and another regretted that it didn’t work, though they wanted it to. “As a whole, the reviews present a more dismaying portrait of the profession of music criticism than they do of ‘The Great Gatsby.’ The opera was criticized for both being too old-fashioned and traditional, and for being too modern and ‘cacophonous’ in sound.” – Boston Globe

• Harbison undaunted by reviews. Already planning for revivals and subsequent performances. – Boston Globe 01/21/00

Placido Domingo’s role with the Los Angeles Opera expands – singer, conductor and director. – Los Angeles Times

The Baltimore Symphony’s new music director of an aristocrat. “If his tenure builds on the strengths of this performance, the Temirkanov years could be legendary.” – Washington Post

• Previously:GETTING TO KNOW YOU: The Baltimore Symphony gets to know Yuri Temirkanov, its new music director. He’s definitely not a timebeater. – Baltimore Sun 01/20/00

“Six years after its premiere, John Adams’ Violin Concerto is already a repertory staple — which is to say that interpretations vary as widely as those of the Beethoven or Sibelius concertos …” – San Francisco Chronicle

• About time we heard this. – San Francisco Examiner 01/21/00

Okay, so it’s a new “Golden Age” of American Opera. But before everyone gets too excited, consider a disturbing trend. Some recent new operas have been invented backwards – with someone other than the composer controlling the composition. A disturbing trend, writes Josh Kosman, and one that makes for unsatisfying opera. – San Francisco Chronicle

The Vienna Philharmonic is one of the world’s great orchestras. Also one of the few to retain a distinctive sound that is theirs alone. Trouble is, they don’t believe in women musicians in their midst. The international campaign taking on the VPO’s sexist discrimination has been fertilized on the internet in a real cyber-grass roots effort that has exerted considerable pressure on the orchestra to change its ways. (be sure to take the musical gender test part way through the story). – MSNBC

An international consortium of 150 recording companies meets in Seattle this week to discuss how to make money from music over the internet. “[The record companies] have made it clear,” says Kevin Unangst, group product manager for Microsoft’s streaming media division, “that to bring their content online for digital distribution, they need copyright protection.” – Seattle Weekly

The Detroit Symphony’s appointment of Itzhak Perlman as principal guest conductor is a bit of a stretch. Perlman as conductor is so new, he admits that much of what it takes to be a conductor is still a mystery to him. “A jaundiced eye might look upon this whole venture as pure marketing — had the DSO not recently rid itself entirely of a cumulative deficit that once hit $8 million, or if classical subscriptions were not on a steady climb.” – Detroit News

• Previously: MAESTRO PERLMAN: Star violinist Itzhak Perlman will become principal guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony beginning with the 2001-2002 season. – Detroit News 01/19/00