The Berlin Staatsoper has commissioned a bust for its resplendent foyer of an Austrian conductor who made his career behind the Iron Curtain. Otmar Siutner, from Innsbruck, took up a popst as principal conductor of […]
From my new monthly essay in The Critic magazine (out now): … I was not surprised to receive a 72-page book from the Ministère de la Culture, listing all the events the state has planned to […]
So What Click here to watch I’m not on TikTok but I was sent this priceless clip of Liz Minnelli performing So What,a song from the stage production of Cabaret that never made it into the […]
From our agony aunt: Dear Alma, A concertgoer waited to meet me after a concert several months ago. We went on several dates, and he is nice enough. It’s just not the perfect thing for […]
The death is reported, after a lengthy illness, of the Italian countertenor and conductor Roberto Balconi. A Milanese, he studied in England with Evelyn Tubb and worked with English Baroque Soloists, Il Giardino Armonico, Il […]
We are sorry to learn of the death of conductor and writer Christopher Fifield, author of fine biographies of the German composer Max Bruch and conductor Hans Richter. Christopher conducted the Lambeth Orchestra in South […]
The Board of Wexford Festival Trust has announced Randall Shannon’s term as Executive Director of Wexford Festival Opera will end when his contract finishes this week. He has been in the job four years and […]
Gareth Ritter, conductor of Ebbw Valley Brass Band and the Lydbrook Band, has been sent to trial in Cardiff charged with sexual assault, two counts of making an indecent image of a child, and one […]
When Malin Bystrom called in flu-stricken on the morning of Richard Strauss’s rarely-seen Die Liebe der Danae, Bavarian State Opera had just hours to save its new production. Amazingly, there was one other singer from […]
With the Washington coup still ringing in our ears, we learn that Barbara Berlusconi, third daughter of the late Italian president, has been appointed to the board of La Scala Milano by the president of […]
