classical

The unsettlingly slow avantgardist Alexander Knaifel died today suddenly at the age of 80. He made his living writing for Soviet movies and his reputation with two Eng-lit operas, operas The Ghost of Canterville and […]

The veteran Alain Lanceron has signed Nathalie Stutzmann to Warner Classics & Erato. Her debut recording will be Dvorak with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, out in August. The post Label news: Stutzmann gets record deal […]

The Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili has walked out on HarrisonParrott after 27 years. She has joined up instead with second-gen management at Impresariat Simmenauer in Berlin. Her transition may be linked to the recent retirement […]

The Audite International Conducting Masterclass takes place this week in Budapest with the Solti Chamber Orchestras. The tutors are Jonathan Brett (UK) and Maciej Zoltowski (Poland/US). Of the 15 candidates selected, eight are young women. […]

Remember the concertmaster in Schleswig-Holstein who fed rat poison to his mother and two colleagues? He was jailed for six and a half years last October. Now, the federal superior court has ordered a retrial. […]

A couple of years before Covid, the NY Times stopped reviewing all the classical music that’s fit to print. After a century or so of covering the musical waterfront, the paper scrapped smaller venues and […]

The culture minister has renewed Volksoper chief Lotte de Beer by five years to 2032. The Dutchwoman, 42, has managed a smooth transition of music directors, from Omer Meir Wellber to Ben Glassberg, and has […]

Some responses to our Twitter trawl for pescatarian operas: Salom(on)e Tur&bot Porgy and Bass The Frying Dutchman Twilight of the Cods Madama Batterfry Figaroe Attilapia The Eelixir of Love The Exterminating Angelfish Lucia di Lampreymoor […]

Titian’s  Rest on the Flight Into Egypt  Click here to watch Here’s another of those delicious short art history videos that I love so much. Dr James Fox, art historian and broadcaster and Letitzia Treves, who […]

The diva is 52 years old and on her own. She can choose between embracing Putin onc e more or denouncing him sufficiently to appease western employers who are anyway eager to harness her undiminished […]