Category: music

“The business plan I had for it is that it would make a modest profit so from a financial point of view it has exceeded those expectations significantly. But, at the same time, we were very fortunate that it did because if it hadn’t we would be in trouble right now.”

Andrew Patner: “The calendar year gives a frame for comparisons and evaluation even in a healthy scene, such as Chicago has now, where narrowing great performances and presentations to 10 is not easy.”

“As it aged — past 30, then 35, then 40 — the production came to seem less charming than vaguely pernicious: a symbol of the deep-seated resistance to change, the allergy to experimentation and newness, that remains at the core of opera’s American mainstream.”

“Reading about the truly insane things audiophiles will do in pursuit of the perfect sound, I can’t help reflecting back on that unfortunate period in my life when I almost fell down the same rabbit hole.”

“In 1973, Raimundo Pereira do Nascimento, known as ‘Nonato,’ walked into the Manaus Opera House with a contract to hang drywall and help with some restoration work. His deal was for three months, but he stayed on – and over the past 40 years he has held almost every job in the house, from box office clerk to usher to backstage technician.”

Nine-year-old singer Amira Willighagen won Holland’s Got Talent on Saturday evening with a moving performance of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”

“This has been the year of sound art, a year when museums and galleries, alternative spaces and train stations, parks and Beverly Hills formal gardens, even the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva went after a decent-sized piece of the acoustical action. Why now?”

“Any orchestra could slide off the road into the ditch the way Minnesota has done.”

“I really wish MusicMetric had advised Iron Maiden on how to make millions of dollars from music pirates. It’s such a good story. Too good, evidently, to be true.”

“Most music worldwide has been tuned to A=440 Hz since the International Standards Organization (ISO) promoted it in 1953. However, studies regarding the vibratory nature of the universe indicate that this pitch is disharmonious with the natural resonance of nature and may generate negative effects on human behaviour and consciousness.”