“When New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves got into an online spat last summer over the success of austerity in the small Baltic nation, they probably never considered that their argument might find its way to the rarefied world of opera.”
Category: music
Opera Dead? That’s Not What The Evidence Says
Opera, then, seems to me “not completely dead”; in fact, it seems to be doing rather well. Call off the funeral and get in line to see for yourself.
Want To Be Smarter? Listen To Vivaldi
In an experiment, the work’s evocative Spring section, “particularly the well-recognized, vibrant, emotive and uplifting first movement, had the ability to enhance mental alertness and brain measures of attention and memory.”
Royal Opera Chief: Today’s Singers Lack Stamina
Speaking at the announcement of the company’s 2013-2014 season, Antonio Pappano said singers “are either weaker in their bodies or don’t care,” and need more periods of rest than previous generations.
Vasily Petrenko Extends Indefinitely With Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
“A new, on-going agreement will see the charismatic Russian maestro stay at the helm of the UK’s oldest professional symphony orchestra for the foreseeable future, with a minimum three-year notice period.”
Today’s Opera Singers Are Weak Wussies, Says Covent Garden’s Music Director
Antonio Pappano: “It happens more and more. There’s something about this generation of singers, that they are weaker in their bodies or don’t care. I don’t know what it is, but it’s something that is very, very frustrating for me personally.”
Report: Vienna Philharmonic Was Shaped By Nazis
“A startlingly frank new report posted on the orchestra’s website (in German only, for now) makes it clear that when the Germans swept into Vienna, they found an orchestra that was a ready, even eager tool of Nazi propaganda.”
Could A Passport For Instruments Make Musicians’ Lives Easier?
“U.S. delegates have proposed passports for instruments made with exotic woods, old ivory or tortoise shell parts because, as it stands now, instruments can be seized if musicians don’t have import and export permits for each country they visit.”
Benjamin Britten Didn’t Want To Do Young Boys, He Wanted To Be Them
Paul Griffiths: “Meanwhile, the tide of performances and critical studies goes on confirming how deeply his music was affected by his irresoluble personal quandary: the wish to be forever a boy among boys. … Britten’s desire for youth and innocence, to possess them not sexually but in his own being, became, though impossible in life, the source of an abundant creativity.”
“Harlem Shake” Musicians Say Their Voices Used Without Permission
“Reggae artist Hector Delgado and rapper Jayson Musson say the producer of the chart-topping hit Harlem Shake did not have permission to use their voices.”