“While classical recordings dwindle, or self-feed on repackaged reissues, the flood of video operas continues unabated and, for the most part, rewarding. I can remember when experiencing just the sounds of Wagner’s Ring at home meant piecing together several albums of excerpts with varied casts and agonizing omissions. Now my shelves bend under the weight of five complete videos of the cycle.”
Tag: 01.12.06
Baker’s Dozen For Beck’s Prize
Artists for this year’s Beck’s Futures prize have been chosen. The thirteen artists up for the £20,000 award include sculptors, film-makers and illustrators working in the UK.
In LA – Immersed In Images
“Los Angeles has recently been home to several large-scale immersive image environments. A cynical perspective would suggest this is due to museums’ waning importance and the subsequent need to attract viewers with big, sparkling, cinematic images. Further, the easy mixing of disparate cultures and histories in massive mash-ups of artists and image-based technology suggests a utopian global village and a narrative of unity and harmony wrought by digital tools.” On the other hand, maybe not…
Prague – Home Of Mozart?
Prague is staging major celebrations of the 250th Mozart anniversary this year. Is the city competing with Austria as Mozart-Central? “With more than 150 events costing more than 100-million koruna (around $4-million U.S.), Prague aims to highlight its special significance as the place where the composer met his greatest success.”
The Puzzling Case Of The Conductor Who Abandoned His Orchestra
Why did Pinchas Zukerman abandon his National Arts Center Orchestra in the middle of the season? Officially the orchestra says the conductor is taking sick leave. But “his freelance schedule between now and the end of the season includes dozens of concerts on three continents, including a European tour with the National Orchestra of Belgium. That doesn’t look like the agenda of a man dragging his feet with fatigue. Nor does it seem much in keeping with Zukerman’s formal obligation, in the contract he signed with the NACO in 1998, ‘to ensure that his role and responsibility to NACO are a top priority of his career’.”
Frey: 18 Pages In Dispute? I’m Shocked!
Author James Frey defended his memoir Wednesday night on Larry King. Frey, 36, told King that only 18 pages of his 432-page memoir were in dispute, an “appropriate ratio for a memoir.” He said there was a “great debate on what a memoir should serve: the story or some kind of journalistic truth. I’ve been shocked by the furor that’s erupted. I don’t know any memoir in the history of publishing that’s been so carefully vetted so long after publication.”
Mozart’s Diary Online
“A digital version of Mozart’s musical diary is being put online by the British Library to help celebrate 250 years since the composer’s birth. The digitised diary lets people click on and hear music from the opening bars of many of the works it mentions.”
San Diego Chamber Orchestra Gets A New Leader
In the midst of auditions for a new music director, the San Diago Chamber Orchestra suddenly canceled the rest of them and hired conductor Jung-Ho Pak, the San Diego Symphony’s former artistic director.
Remembering Birgit Nilsson
It used to be said of Nilsson that she had “dimples of iron.” She insisted upon being paid the highest fee an opera house could offer. Rudolf Bing, who was general manager of the Met from 1950 through 1972, was asked if Nilsson was difficult. “Not at all,” he replied. “You put enough money in, and a glorious voice comes out.”
Nilsson – A Wonder Of The World
“The size, power and precision of Ms. Nilsson’s voice was long considered to be one of the seven wonders of the operatic world, starting in her 1946 Stockholm Royal Opera debut in Der Freischütz and her 1951 Glyndebourne Festival debut in Idomeneo.”