Category: music

The fierce new competition seems to have caught Italians by surprise. “There are good voices in Italy but many of them think a good voice is enough and don’t want to learn the other aspects such as acting.”

“Those who know me understand that I have a personal commitment to classical music of all types, but they also know I will squeeze every ounce of value out of taxpayers’ cash. … [ENO] has been bailed out over the years by the Arts Council to the tune of millions of pounds. … Although we are seeing clear signs of improvement, as stewards of public money we cannot ignore its track record.”

“[A Federal judge] refused to overturn an arbitrator’s decision that upheld the July 2012 firing of Pierre Roy, who had been the orchestra’s principal oboist for more than 15 years.” Roy had been fired from the BPO once before, in 2010.

The first and only time before now the Metropolitan Opera has produced an opera by a female composer was in 1903 (Ethel Smyth’s Der Wald).

“The Twa Sisters,” a ballad about deadly sibling rivalry that was first notated and catalogued in Scotland in 1806; it turns out to have at least 531 variants (with several different denouements) spread throughout Europe and over much of the rest of the world.

“The process involves the original master tape being played back at 16 2/3 RPM, precisely half its recorded speed, while the cutting lathe is similarly turned at half the desired playback speed.”

“Of the 24.95 million viewers who watched, 9.7 million were aged 18-49 – advertisers’ most sought-after audience age-group – said broadcaster CBS. But the overall audience dipped from last year’s 25.3 million viewers, which was the smallest TV audience since 2009’s 19.1 million.”

It’s steady growth, but not hit-it-out-of-the-park yet. Here are the current numbers…

“The Czech Museum of Music presented on Tuesday a rare piece of music composed in three parts by Mozart, Salieri and an unknown composer, Cornetti, that was considered lost for more than 200 years.”

“It’s startling to see how quickly the opera world has changed, which composers (according to Operabase) are most popular and which no longer are. Of the 100 in this new concise book, more than 50% have flourished since 1900 and 18 of them – almost 20% – are living.”