London’s mayor: “We have heard the clarion call from Sir Simon Rattle and many others who wish to see a brand-new and world-class centre for music in London.”
Category: music
Carnegie Hall’s New Chairman Of The Board Would Like More Pop Music There
Ronald O. Perelman, billionaire business titan and a self-described ‘frustrated musician,’ … [has] succeeded Sanford I. Weill, who has served as chairman for nearly a quarter-century. … Mr. Perelman, 72, said that he was not much of a classical music enthusiast and would push for the hall to stage more of the pop performances it was known for decades ago.
The Refugees Who Created The Sound Of Hollywood
Violinist Daniel Hope looks at the composers who fled the Nazis and settled in Los Angeles – and supported themselves by creating a style of music that defined an industry.
Intersecting Tributaries In A Delta: Alex Ross On The Music Of Björk
“It overruns the boundaries separating art from pop, mainstream from underground, primeval past from hi-tech present. … It is as though, in a reversal of tectonic drift, isolated land masses of taste were re-forming as a supercontinent.”
Met Opera And ENO Commission Second Work From Nico Muhly
The two companies, which developed and premiered Muhly’s recent Two Boys, will work with the composer on an adaptation of Marnie, Winston Graham’s 1961 novel (made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock) about a woman blackmailed into marrying one of her bosses after she gets caught embezzling.
How The L.A. Phil Is Facing The Future
“‘Our audience is segmenting. There isn’t such a thing as a classical music audience. There are dozens of classical music audiences,’ said Chad Smith, the Phil’s vice president of artistic planning. ‘We want to be seen as relevant to what’s happening in our world. L.A. is the most contemporary city. You miss a beat and you are forgotten.'”
National Symphony To Let Eschenbach Go In 2017
“The National Symphony Orchestra announced this morning that Christoph Eschenbach will become Conductor Laureate of the orchestra in the 2017-18 season. In other words, his contract, after what will have been seven seasons as music director of the orchestra and of the Kennedy Center, is not being renewed.”
New Opera Boss’s First Decision: Fire Wagner’s Great-Granddaughter
When Darío Lopérfido took over last week at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the very first change he made in the house’s program was to cancel the contract of Katharina Wagner – great-granddaughter of the composer and director of the Bayreuth Festival – to direct Parsifal in December. His stated reason: “I wanted something artistically stronger.” (in Spanish)
How Bad Has The Mess At Buenos Aires’s Once-Brilliant Opera House Been?
Enormously, breathtakingly bad. The Teatro Colón, once the peer of almost any opera company in the world, has gone through years of badly-targeted staff cuts, unfinished renovation and construction, labor unrest (justified and not), and disastrous political interference. Now a new general director faces the fearsome challenges of cleaning up. (in English)
A Compelling Case For Translating Opera Into English
“It’s curious that the Royal Opera’s new venture into smaller spaces has coincided with an unprecedented new approach to translation. No attention has been drawn to this shift in policy, which has slipped through as part of a wider attempt at accessibility, at reinventing opera for the youthful audience of the Camden Roundhouse (with the recent Orfeo, also in English) and the more theatrically-inclined audience at the Globe.”