Category: music

“His ambitions carried him far from fashion into the worlds of politics and culture. Though his clients were mostly rich and conservative, he was a staunch supporter of the Socialist Party, a contributor to liberal causes and a patron and arbiter of literature, theater and music.” President Mitterand appointed Bergé head of the Paris Opera, where his six-year tenure was stormy even by the standards of that notoriously contentious institution.

The grand old theater shut down for renovations two summers ago; the work was supposed to take only one season, and the extra year of delays forced the company to (literally) put up a tent to perform in. Now the company has come back to its home stage with a brand-new work about which Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim writes, “It’s undeniable: Philippe Boesmans’ Pinocchio is a hit.”

“What perhaps makes Walker’s story even more unusual is that while he is now arguably the eldest statesman among still-active composers, he began his career as a child prodigy. He started studying the piano at the age of five, composing as a teenager, and had become something of a cause célèbre by his early 20s. He made his New York piano recital debut at Town Hall at the age of 23 in a program of mostly standard repertoire, which also featured three of his own compositions.”

How well do we really know Tatum? Read further, and the contradictions begin to pile up. You’ll learn that he was heavily influential, but you will also read the opposite — that his style was so personal and technical that he had little actual influence.

By 1999, Tower was operating more than 150 stores in almost two-dozen countries, generating annual revenues of a billion dollars. But in 2004, the company was forced into bankruptcy, a victim of its own unchecked appetite for expansion, cutthroat competition from consumer-electronics retailers, tone-deaf marketing decisions on the part of the record industry, and viral file-sharing applications like Napster. Two years later, in 2006, Tower’s assets were unceremoniously liquidated.

The director and curator of the Smithsonian Folkways record label consulted with colleagues to identify five clusters of forces that affect the health and sustainability of various musical cultures. “[Then] nine international research teams carefully examined traditions ranging from Mexican mariachi to Korean samulnori; from Indian ragas to West African ewe dance-percussion; and from Aboriginal women’s songs in Central Australia to Western opera.”

The appointment of Oliver Mears, who previously ran the Northern Ireland Opera, founded in 2010, “was a surprise, and I don’t mean that negatively,” said John Allison, editor of Opera Magazine. “He has a reputation as being a nice guy and a talented director, but he has no real international profile.”

“Berklee College of Music will try to revive one of New York City’s most storied recording studios, where artists from Bruce Springsteen to Lady Gaga and the cast of the Broadway show “Hamilton” have produced hit albums.”

“When the city committed itself in 2008 to renovating the Staatsoper, which needed to be reinforced from groundwater leaks, the conductor Daniel Barenboim insisted that the acoustics also be improved. While he and Stefan Rosinski, the former Berlin Opera Foundation general director, advocated a full modernization of the interior, the mayor at the time, Klaus Wowereit, favored a historic preservation in keeping with German laws about cultural heritage.”