Musical chairs: Minnesota finally lands a chief
The Oregon Symphony has just told us that CEO Isaac Thompson will be leaving to become president of his hometown orchestra in Minnesota. He starts there in October. Oregon will be run by an interim […]
Slipped Disc
Death of a US music director, 93
The death has been made known of Oswald Lehnert, music director of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra for 25 years, 1971-1995. He also served as professor of violin at the Univrsity of Colorado. Wisconsin born, he […]
Question to a BBC Proms opener: Did you ever think of giving up?
The Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili will play the Sibelius concerto at the opening concert of the BBC Proms series tonight. Ariane Todes asks her the unanswerable question: So did you ever think you might give […]
US opera suffers massive shortfall
The season-opener at Detroit Opera – Puccini’s Golden Gil of the West – has been cancelled after the company disclosed substantial losses. The Free Press reports: From fiscal year 2023 to 2024, contributions fell $1,889,226, […]
Deutsche Grammophon signs billion-strong Chinese composer
The yellow label has recruited its first Chinese composer, it was announced today. The new DG artist is Yu-Peng Chen, 41, a gaming composer known as ‘Archon’ (master) with 1.5 billion audio streams to his […]
How can you sing Salome without a dance?
This week’s review of London performances by our critic in residence, Alastair Macaulay: Everything about Richard Strauss’s opera “Salome” is specific, atmospheric, descriptive. We know where in the East we are, at what point in […]
Benjamin Britten is outed by the NY Times
The composer was a man of his times, private and even prudish about his sexual arrangements. While he dealt with homosexual themes in several operas, he never expressed homoeroticism or encouraged nudity on stage. The […]
Just in: Gergiev beams anti-Ukraine slogans onto Bolshoi curtain
One of our Moscow moles attended Valery Gergiev’s new production of Sergei Prokofiev’s opera, Semyon Kotko. He was horrified to see propaganda slides beamed up onto the curtain, justifying Putin’s Ukraine war. The slides were […]
Anna Netrebko’s balancing act
The Russian soprano is preparing to sing at the Arena di Verona. She’s due to be readmitted to Covent Garden in September. Be prepared. View this post on Instagram A post shared by […]
New boss is dropped into Bayreuth
The Bavarian and German federal governments have imposed Matthias Rädel as General Manager of the Bayreuth Festival. He will oversee all financial and administrative matters, freeing Katharina Wagner to focus entirely on the artistic side. […]
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%20TallWall%20Media_Oxford%20Song.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "There was no closure here: four Irish women composers give voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries in remarkable performances from Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner in Oxford")
