Category: music

The L.A. Opera’s James Conlon works with musicians from the Colburn School and singers from the opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program on two operas suppressed by the Nazis. Conlon: The young musicians “are like sponges. And now every one of these young artists is going to know what it’s like to be in one of these operas. They will know there’s a lot of great music to be discovered.”

The Sonata in B Minor “is music of drastic intellectuality, clothed in a Dantesque drama. Looking within the sonata’s mighty inner conflicts, one finds the most daring structural innovation in large-form composition since Beethoven. Claudio Arrau called it Beethoven’s 33rd sonata, probably meaning that had Beethoven lived, he would have eventually fused all elements of sonata form into a one-movement plan.”

Robin Gibb is writing it. “Composed with his son RJ, Titanic Requiem will be performed in London on 10 April by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – the anniversary of the doomed ship’s departure from Southampton. The event will boast a hologram show depicting the sea, the ship, and – naturally – the iceberg.”

Conductor Michael Christie, newly-appointed head of Minnesota Opera, will give up another of his jobs, music director of the Phoenix Symphony, at the end of next season.

“Los Angeles Opera is the latest arts group to adopt a dynamic ticket-pricing policy. The company will announce Wednesday new pricing programs for the 2012-13 season, including a new low ticket cost of $18 for every performance.”

“New York City Opera has reached a tentative deal with its unions, ending a lockout that began on Jan. 9 and potentially resolving a bitter labor dispute that threatened the company’s entire season.”

“Music director is a title that’s been missing from the Minnesota Opera’s personnel list for decades. After a 13-year search, the company has chosen Michael Christie, the 37-year-old music director of the Phoenix Symphony and former head of New York’s Brooklyn Philharmonic.”

The New England Conservatory has dismissed Zander, something of a cult figure among maestros and a faculty member for 45 years, from his post leading the school’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. The issue is Zander’s hiring as a videographer a convicted sex offender after his release from prison.

The troubled company, which derailed preparations for a very truncated season by locking out its unionized workers, has settled on terms of a contract with Local 802 of the orchestral musicians’ union. The more contentious negotiations with AGMA, which represents singers and some backstage staff, are ongoing.

“On Tuesday, the Juilliard School is announcing a $20 million gift to endow its graduate-level program in historical performance. The sheer size of the gift is enough to make heads snap in the early-music world, whose practitioners typically struggle to stay a step ahead of poverty.”