Category: music

“From its debut in 2011, the Haymarket Opera Company has thrived by putting on repertory of the sort no other Chicago group has investigated as thoroughly – unusual baroque chamber operas using period instruments and historically informed stage direction, movement and design. These intimate rarities have felt perfectly at home in Mayne Stage, a cabaret-style theater in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood that seats 230 and serves drinks during performances.”

Says Jay Scheib, director of the company’s production of Adès’s Powder Her Face (opening Friday), “In the original production meeting, I said I was looking for 88 men. But it became apparent that they wouldn’t fit on the stage. It became a hazard – you don’t want anyone to fall into the orchestra pit.”

Leading the pack were the San Francisco Symphony (its 15th Grammy) and chamber group eighth blackbird (third Grammy in a row). But the winning works were a surprise: out of ten classical awards, only one (to the Met Opera for its Ring cycle) went to music from before World War II.

“In 2010-11, VO reported a budget shortfall of $1.4-million, resulting in an accumulated deficit of $831,000 and the elimination of four positions. A surplus in 2011-12 of more than $500,000 helped counter that, but the company was still running a deficit.” Maintaining corporate contributions is a particular challenge as headquarters move out of Vancouver.

“Can any kind of music actually be dangerous? This rhetorical question has an obvious answer: it cannot kill you, but something in it scares enough people…”

“There’s the hyperbole again. It’s hard to write about Jansons and avoid it. He’s a brilliant musician, and everybody likes him.”

The music’s great; the man himself was rather inexcusable. We’re stuck with one if we want the other.

The planned EU cultural subsidy “caused tensions over Bulgarian culture, morals and values, that have divided the nation for two decades, to explode.”

You’ll also need a music box, a Möbius strip, and a mathemusician.

“The cancellation of five more weeks of concerts came two days before the Grammy Awards, where the orchestra’s recording of Sibelius’ Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 is one of five nominees for best orchestral performance.”