“That difficult history was of course a terrible tragedy, and it affected my family as well. But it’s clear that people here are coming to terms with that history and probing ever deeper into it. That wonderful exhibition Silenced Voices … portrays Jewish artists and theater personnel who once worked at the Bayreuth Festival and describes their fates. Every day I go by there and look at another one. I feel so honored to be able to stand on their shoulders and work here as an independent stage director without it being a major issue. My religion and heritage are irrelevant to my work anyway. It only comes up in conversation.”
Category: music
Italian Parliament Members Furious At Mozart Production
“A British opera director has been lambasted by [right-wing] Italian MPs after staging an ‘anti-racist’ performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute featuring a bulldozer poised to raze a migrant tent camp. Graham Vick, of Birmingham Opera Company and a former director of Glyndebourne, revised the original plot in an experimental production at the Macerata opera festival.”
A Surge Of Interest In Jazz Among Younger Listeners?
Spotify told the BBC that in the past six months, the number of UK users aged 30 and under listening to their flagship Jazz UK playlist had increased by 108%. Smaller streaming platforms such as Deezer and Amazon Music reported similar increases. The growth has been attributed to a flourishing UK scene which fuses jazz with a variety of genres.
National Record Album Day? Really?
You would never guess, from the way the album remains the centre of the musical conversation, that it is dying. Though MSM revenues are rising, album sales have halved since 2010, down last year to 45.8m physical sales and 13.8m digital sales.
Preserving Cuba’s Musical History Is No Easy Matter, Even In 2018
EGREM, the state recording label, has sound archives capturing thecomplete history of Cuban history from 1964 onward as well as a lot of what came before the Revolution. Maintaining those archives remains a struggle, thanks to very tight money and the still-not-lifted U.S. embargo. Even a clogged air-conditioner filter presents a major danger: if it can’t be repaired or replaced quickly enough, EGREM’s tapes and records could literally melt.
Brian Kellow, Longtime Editor At ‘Opera News’, Dead At 59
“Brian left behind an extraordinary legacy within the magazine’s pages — thirty years’ worth of news features, personality profiles, reviews and opinion pieces, every one of them lit by a writerly spark that was uniquely his own. He was also the author of a series of dazzling biographies exploring the lives of Pauline Kael, Sue Mengers, Ethel Merman and Hollywood’s Bennett sisters.”
Florida Orchestra President Michael Pastreich Steps Down After 11 Years
“In his time at the helm, the orchestra has achieved record concert attendance, become more involved in the community and grown its endowment from $8 million to $21 million. A major growth factor entailed reducing ticket prices in 2011 to a range of $15 to $45. Paid attendance has since increased by 49 percent and eliminated the orchestra’s debt.”
Audience Member Steps In To Save Performance At London’s Royal Opera House
Opera singer Charles Castronovo saved a performance of La Boheme at the Royal Opera House starring his wife Ekaterina Siurina, when he stepped in mid-show to sing the role of her lover.
Anne Midgette: How I Came To Dislike Leonard Bernstein
I am emerging from this supersaturation with an emotion bordering on healthy dislike. “Hate the man, love the music” is the favorite counsel of music-lovers in such instances (Richard Wagner comes to mind). In Bernstein’s case, I’m no longer sure that I have all that much tolerance for either.
The Highest-Earning Musicians Of 2017
Of the tens of millions these big pop stars earn, note that selling records and streaming accounts for a small percentage.