Category: music

“Talking this morning about his decision to stay on [until 2020] … Pappano said simply ‘I don’t want to go to any other opera house’.”

“Throughout all the talk, all the arguments, I’ve never heard anyone voice what I think is the root cause of all the problems: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is, essentially, anti-rock’n’roll.”

“A growing number of [composers] are turning their attention to languages that are extinct, endangered or particular to tiny groups of speakers in far-flung places with the aim of weaving these enigmatic utterances into musical works that celebrate, memorialize or mourn the languages and the cultures that gave birth to them.”

Dick Clark Productions said there’s interest in the show from China and Japan and the company is working on a deal with U.S. networks.

“We have been building a body of evidence over the past six years to show that singing in a choir can have a range of social, emotional, and psychological benefits,” says co-author Dr. Ian Lewis, director of research and policy at Tenovus Cancer Care. “Now we can see it has biological effects too.”

Charging that he had not provided the production and set designs on time, the management of the Wiener Festwochen dismissed Dmitri Tcherniakov, a 45-year-old Russian known for inventive and sometimes controversial stagings, from a high-profile period-instrument production of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Theater an der Wien. (in German; Google Translate version here)

Patrons were already arriving for the performance by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra on Tuesday evening when the management of the Salle Métropole in the Swiss city closed the venue for safety reasons. (in French; Google Translate version here)

“The [five-year] agreement that will carry the Grand Rapids Symphony through its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20 maintains the present 40-week performance season, preserves the current complement of musicians, and makes no changes to the orchestra’s health insurance.”

Latvia, with a population of 2m, has some ten youth choirs of international prizewinning calibre. In the 2014 World Choir Games in Riga (awarded to the city after another Latvian youth choir, Kamer, won the top prize in three categories), the host nation won more medals than any other country, followed by China, Russia, the United States and Indonesia.

“A combination of factors has fed the trend for smaller-scale productions: Many large houses are struggling to fill their seats, while some of the most creative work recently has been in chamber opera, which has attracted new composers and new audiences.”