Category: music

Anthony Tommasini: “It’s telling that both sides have latched on to the role of new productions to buttress their arguments. Mr. Gelb has long said that bold new productions will … entice new audiences to the house … The unions claim that the new productions are too risky and expensive. … But this argument over the new productions could compromise the artistic ambition and global influence of the company.”

Tim Smith: “Today, you tend to hear more talk about what orchestras are playing, not how; more about what operas are being staged, not how they are being sung. I don’t think there’s nearly enough attention paid by current musicians and audiences to the many ways that music used to be played and felt, how differently it communicated – and how much more grippingly it could be performed today.”

“I had that attention when I was a very excitable, immature young man. And I look at my colleagues because now there are so many of us, of our generation, and I’m jealous of those who started later and have their great moment in the sun when they’re kind of grown up. I’m always going to be paying for the impression I created as an obnoxious 22-year-old.”

They have multiple children; they cover their hair and knees and elbows; they perform for female audiences only. And their music fits right in at any Williamsburg or Lower East Side club. Meet the women of Bulletproof Stockings.

“Opera singer Christiane Karg soldiered on until the end of a performance at Glyndebourne despite dislocating her knee during the show. The German star fell on stage during the first act and received swift medical treatment. But she declined painkillers and performed the rest of her role in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera seated.”

“Last year’s $2.8 million deficit followed a backlash to an increase in ticket prices that, along with superstorm Sandy, hurt box-office sales. The latest disclosure document, dated July 25, attributes this year’s deficit to a decline in charitable contributions.”

“Lawrence A. Johnson, a Chicago music critic, got tired of complaining that musical organizations were not performing enough American music and decided to do something about it. Mr. Johnson, the founder of The Classical Review, a group of websites with Chicago, Boston, New York and Florida editions, … [has founded] the American Music Project, a nonprofit foundation that hopes to put a brighter spotlight on the American repertory, old and new, and to commission new works.”

“Not only has TV switched successfully from “giving it away” to a subscription model, but the shift has also spurred a new golden age of television. The same economic pressures that are killing the music business have led to the highest quality shows in the history of the medium.”

“The decision follows months of financial uncertainty for the Sacramento Region Performing Arts Alliance, the organization formed last year when the philharmonic merged with the Sacramento Opera. … It remains unclear whether its musicians will return to the stage in the spring of 2015.”