June 8, 2012  |
| | | Thought of the Day | | There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
--Alphonse de Lamartine
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| Quote of the Week | | A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it. --Francis Bacon
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| | New Opera "Center" Planned for Manhattan | | 
Just a little over a year after the opening of the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, a spectacular performance and rehearsal facility on New York's Lower West Side, Opera America is planning its own performance and rehearsal facility on New York's Lower West Side, set to open Sept. 24. Like DiMenna, the National Opera Center - as it will be called, presumably until a generous opera fan steps forward for naming rights - is being built out of an extant structure, in this case a former fur factory; its location is 330 Seventh Ave., in the same building as Opera America's offices. Unlike the DiMenna, say the new facility's promoters, NOC is "designed for the specific needs of the opera singer," a job that is in the hands of acoustician Robert F. Mahoney & Associates of Boulder, CO. There will be ten vocal studios, an 89-seat "recital/audition" hall, plus a "large rehearsal hall." Orchestras in need of space are advised to wander a few blocks uptown to the DiMenna, which has among its studios at least two that can accommodate their forces comfortably. Cost of the new opera space is estimated at $6 million. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
The Other Mary Argues for Life Today |  LOS ANGELES--At the end of The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Mary Magdalene-the "other" Mary-comes to Christ's tomb, finds the body gone, and turns to a man she thinks is a gardener, asking him if he knows where the body has been taken. The gardener, of course, is the risen Christ, who only has to speak her name softly for her to know a miracle has happened. For Mary, the journey to this moment of awe has been filled with wild mood swings and anguished, neurotic doubts. Such is the crux of John Adams' new oratorio, which received its world premiere in concert form at Walt Disney Concert Hall on May 31. As was the case with El Niño, his 2000 nativity oratorio, Adams and longtime collaborator director/librettist Peter Sellars have combined and overlapped biblical, religious, and contemporary secular texts, pursuing them as events on different planes, all to make the story both ancient and modern. The two-part work begins without prologue, with Adams plunging us into immediate, turbulent action, with the arrest of Mary. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | In Salzburg: Handel's Giulio Cesare as Farce |  SALZBURG -- It wasn't that long ago when scandals, theft on a grand scale, international escapes, and a (failed) suicide attempt tainted both the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, an offshoot of the main Salzburg Festival in summer, and the Salzburg Easter Festival, an independent venture begun by Herbert von Karajan in 1967 to showcase his Berlin Philharmonic. But now, it's a whole new deal in Salzburg. The artistic leadership of the Whitsun Festival changes every five years, and after Riccardo Muti's fascinating-but-somewhat-pedantic exploration of Venetian School operas not heard since the 18th century, Cecilia Bartoli, the new artistic director, whisked into town with a week of music and events devoted to the theme of Cleopatra. They ranged from music (Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto starring guess who; Berlioz' La mort de Cléopâtre, etc.) to a film festival (including not just the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton potboiler, but a rare 35 millimeter print of Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 epic starring Claudette Colbert) to an hours-long Egyptian-style dinner with entertainment in the Karl Böhm Saal. There was eye candy, too: in a foyer I stumbled across Travis Banton's drop-dead costume of gold lamé embellished with emeralds for Cleopatra's seduction of Mark Antony in the DeMille film on loan from its owner and absolutely mesmerizing. With final ticket sales at 96 percent of capacity, Bartoli is off to a good start. |
Pianist Fazil Say Indicted for Derogatory Tweets | | 
ANKARA, Turkey -- A court in Istanbul has formally charged pianist/composer Fazil Say with insulting Islamic religious values in comments he made on Twitter. The 42-year-old Turk faces charges of inciting hatred and public enmity, and insulting "religious values." Say, who has served as a culture ambassador for the European Union, allegedly mocked Islamic beliefs about paradise in April. Meltem Akyol, a lawyer for Say, said the pianist has denied the charges. The trial will be held in October. "We certainly do not accept the charges," Akyol said by telephone in an interview. "He has stated in his initial testimony during the probe that he had no intention to humiliate any religion. He was basically criticizing those who are exploiting religion for profit." Akyol said Say's tweets and retweets on social media cannot be considered as public remarks because only people who follow him can see them. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Wagner Concert Cancelled Due to Angry Protests |  So much for the Israel Wagner Society's plan to perform the works of Wagner on June 18 at Tel Aviv University. Apparently, the Society's head and founder, Yonathan Livni, neglected to inform the school either of the organization he represented or of the repertoire planned for the day-long event, when he booked the auditorium. The Society had emphasized that "An Academic Musical Encounter: Herzl-Toscanini-Wagner" was privately sponsored; it had contracted with 100 musicians individually to form an orchestra to play Wagner's works. Asher Fisch was to conduct. Once news of the event became public, Israelis revolted against playing the music of Hitler's favorite composer, which had been blasted through loud speakers at concentration camps. "You deliberately concealed this basic fact from us," university principals wrote in a letter to Livni, referring to the subject of the day. "We received angry protests calling to call off the controversial event...[which] would deeply offend the Israeli public in general and Holocaust survivors in particular." MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| Do Competitions Need To Withhold Taxes On An Artist's Prize Money? |  To submit a question to FTM Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com We hold a piano competition where artists, some from abroad, pay their own way to come here to compete. If they win any prize money, do we need to withhold taxes? For artists who are nonresidents of the U.S., I'm afraid you are required to withhold taxes! The general rule is that any payment of "U.S. income" made to a nonresident of the U.S. is subject to the 30% withholding requirement. In effect, 30% of the gross income paid to the artist must be withheld by the payer and deposited with the U.S. Treasury. This deposit will be credited toward any taxes the artist may owe at the end of the year. Read the full story
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| lassical: NEXT debuts in Munich | 
From Berlin Times by Rebecca Schmid
Classical:NEXT, an exclusively classical professional forum which held its first edition from May 30-June 2 in Munich, set out with high ambitions. Founded at the behest of the Association of Classical Independents in Germany (CLASS) as an alternative to MIDEM, which has left many attendants disappointed in recent years both for its high costs and lack of innovation, the new event included not only a trade fair and networking opportunities but live showcases, video screenings, panel discussions and after-hours concerts exploring classical club culture. Naxos, a partner of Classical:NEXT, brought its entire brigade alongside countless small labels, distributors, independent entrepreneurs, managers, and more to mingle at Munich's Gasteig, an elegant event space that also serves as home to the Munich Philharmonic. 700 delegates attended in total, 60% of which came from outside Germany.
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| Latest Roster Changes | |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2012 edition of the Musical America Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com with the names of artists and attractions that have been either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate "added" or "removed."
NEW THIS WEEK Baldini, Christian, conductor, added, Victoria Rowsell Artist Management (worldwide) Hilley, Clay, tenor, added, Alpha Artists Management Krasovec, Kathryn, mezzo-soprano, added, Alpha Artists Management Peter, Mauro, tenor, removed, Artistainternational
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