Stafford Hartman, a 24-year-old member of Opera Memphis’s young artists’ program, performed the role of the Shepherd Boy in the company’s production of Tosca this weekend – despite the fact that she had been shot twice by a robber three days earlier.
Category: music
Obey Thoven – The Composer As Radio Station Marketer
“The extent of the WQXR campaign mirrors its ambitions. The ads seek to help WQXR find new listeners — never an easy task for a classical music station — and remind casual and regular listeners to tune in.”
Helene Grimaud – The Pianist Who Goes Her Own Way
“She has this willingness to take a piece of music apart and free herself from the general body of practice that has grown up around it.”
The Fastest, Funniest Don Giovanni, Like, Ever
No matter what you saw in Amadeus, Mozart intended Don Giovanni to be a comedy. A damn fast comedy. One Canadian company tries to show that the proof of the pudding’s in the eating (or listening).
Thirty Measures Later, One Musical Partnership, Dissolved
Pianist H̩l̬ne Grimaud and maestro Claudio Abbado had worked well together during 15 years of occasional performances and recordings. But when Grimaud wanted to perform a Mozart cadenza one way and Abbado preferred that she stick to his plan, the partnership soured Рleaving a concert promoters in the lurch.
Time For Fright Night: Cue Screechy Violins, Please
Maybe scary music is all in our heads – we wouldn’t be terrified by the ominous sound of the Jaws score if we didn’t know it meant death. Or maybe it’s more than that. In honor of Halloween (the day, not the movie), consider the sound of fear.
A Familiar Face Returns To Offer Reassurance, And More, To The Colorado Symphony
The Colorado Symphony’s new interim executive director, who also did the job 1990-94 and a couple of other times, says the troubled organization will survive. “We know how to fix it. We don’t know all the answers yet, but we’re going to get it fixed. And we’ve done it before. We’re not new kids on this block.”
Fighting Facism With Music (And Words): JanáÄek and Murakami
Haruki Murakami’s new novel, 1Q84, begins with a blast of music “so strange and powerful that it literally propels the heroine, Aomame, out of the taxi and into the subtly changed reality.” That music? LeoÅ¡ JanáÄek’s “Sinfonietta.”
The Maestro Myth, Twenty Years Later
“There is still some way to go before history is over. Women have yet to make an impact at the top and the cumbersome music business continues to cultivate vanities. Nevertheless, I am confident that The Maestro as we have known him since 1865 is now defunct. And the terminal date to be carved on the tombstone will be 2011.”
English Rockers Discover What Classical Fans Knew: Churches Can Make Good Concert Venues
“Brit Award-winning singer Laura Marling and the band Elbow are the latest performers to shun the bawdy, beer-stained venues of the conventional gig circuit to perform in sacred surroundings. Marling is currently on a 16-date tour of English cathedrals.” (Just like The Sixteen does.)