February 8, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | | I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it. --Igor Stravinsky
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| Quote of the Week | | Genius is initiative on fire. --Holbrook Jackson |
| | Kurt Masur Falls, Breaks Hip |  Kurt Masur has suffered another bad fall, this time breaking his hip. According to Stefana Atlas, the 85-year-old maestro's operations director, he fell in his hotel room Tuesday evening in Tel Aviv, where he was scheduled to conduct the Israel Philharmonic over the next two weeks. She further reports that he has since undergone hip replacement surgery and has had to cancel the remainder of his concerts there. Doctors have not yet predicted when the conductor can return to podium duties, but for younger patients in robust health, recovery from hip replacement takes about six weeks. Full recovery can take longer. Masur fractured his left shoulder blade last April when he lost his balance and fell sideways from the podium while conducting the ONF in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Chicago's Music Scene, 2013-14 |  CHICAGO -- The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago announced their 2013-14 seasons within 24 hours of each other this week, and the CSO, in particular, will be honoring the big anniversaries--Verdi's bicentennial, -Benjamin Britten's centennial-with big programs. Britten's War Requiem and Sinfonia da requiem are on the schedule, and Music Director Riccardo Muti, a Verdian to his very bones, will open the season with a concert version of Macbeth on one program and the Requiem on another. Discussions about Britten, a pacifist, and Verdi, who tangled regularly with political censors, led the CSO artistic team to think about other, more modern composers who grappled with similar issues. In May 2014 Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden will lead the CSO in a three-week festival titled "Truth to Power" that will focus on music of Britten, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. Meanwhile at Lyric Opera of Chicago, aside from the company's first presentation of Dvorak's Rusalka, repertoire for its 59th subscription season is resolutely mainstream. The big news is the company's longterm commitment to American musicals. In addition to performances in May 2013 of Oklahama!, Lyric will offer The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I, and South Pacific--one musical each season through 2017. |
| | | Key Critic Knocked Off La Scala Press List |  Italian daily Corriere della Sera may have to find a new critic to review opera at La Scala. The house has knocked critic Paolo Isotta off its press list citing unnecessarily scathing reviews. Isotta seems particularly unhappy with British conductor Daniel Harding, 37.k Isotta called Harding's conducting of Falstaff "heavy and pedantic." But the last straw for La Scala was the review of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. "Harding's conducting was so soft it made you think he wanted to back the unfounded theory that Wagner was homosexual." exposure. |
Lyric's Fire Eater Will Be OK |  The fire eating stilt walker in Lyric Opera of Chicago's Meistersinger appears to be out of the woods, according to his dad, Clifton Daniel. Wesley Daniel, 24, was released Thursday, and that there has been no damage to his lungs. "Doctors likened [the burns] to a severe sunburn and he will heal," says Daniel, Sr. "He shouldn't have any scarring."
His son was rushed to the hospital Monday when his fire-eating trick went awry during a dress rehearsal in front of an audience of about 1,000. He was apparently a stand-in for the original fire eater, who stepped aside after his mustache got singed.
Lyric's Deputy General Director Drew Landmesser reports that the company is still investigating the fire's cause, but that Daniel was a trained fire eater. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
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| David DiChiera to Exit MOT | |  Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT) founder and general director David DiChiera will step aside in about one year to assume the slightly less all-encompassing role of artistic director. The plan is for the company to hire a new general director to succeed him and for DiChiera, 77, to retire altogether by 2016.
"When you've been in the forefront of something for 40 years and you realize that the time to let go has come, there is a sense of relief," DiChiera tells the Detroit Free Press. "But there's also that sense of, 'Oh my God, I won't be there anymore. Will everything be OK?' "But, look, there is a time for everything, and this is that time." DiChiera originally intended to step down at the end of 2010-11, but stayed on until the company was secure financially, as it is now. |
| "Year of the Rabbit": Justin Peck Makes Ballet Run |  From The Torn Tutu by Rachel Straus Justin Peck's "Year of the Rabbit" begins with a whirligig virtuoso solo by Ashley Bouder. The principal New York City Ballet dancer performs her multiple turns into off-kilter leaps with playful abandon. The total effect is that of a "Road Runner" cartoon: Here comes Bouder. Beep Beep! The company that George Balanchine developed is known for moving speedily. But Justin Peck, a 25-year-old corps dancer who has now made three works for NYCB (this is his second), gets his dancers to move even faster than the company's founding choreographer. About half way through Peck's 2012 piece-to Michael P. Atkinson's orchestration of Sufjan Stevens' electronica album "Enjoy Your Rabbit" (2001)-one had to wonder what all the hurry was about. |
Broadening Your Repertoire Horizons | | 
From Ask Edna by Edna Landau Dear Edna: I have read a number of your blog posts in which you encourage young musicians to incorporate into their programs commissioned works by their contemporaries and unusual repertoire that is deserving of more frequent exposure. With everything I have to do to meet the requirements of my Master's degree in piano, it is hard to set aside time for researching this. I actually don't even know where to start. Can you help? --Robin S. Read the full story |
| A Gentle Tchaikovsky Gold Medalist |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark Daniil Trifonov is a diplomat at the keyboard, not a pounder. We're so used to powerhouse Russian pianists that the slight young man who bounded onstage Tuesday evening for his Carnegie Hall recital debut and proceeded to caress the keys took at least one listener by surprise. Winner of the prestigious Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions, he has the all-powerful Valery Gergiev in his corner and encomiums from several distinguished fellow pianists. He has recorded a Chopin CD for Decca and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with Gergiev for the Mariinsky label. A recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon was announced today, beginning with the release of this concert (2/6). |
| Latest Roster Changes | |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2013 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 Önder, Ferhan & Ferzan, piano duo, added, Mark Stephan Buhl Artists Management (General) Orlovskaya, Olga, soprano, added, MIA Artists Management Pellizzaroli, Luca, stage director, added, MIA Artists Management Read the full story |
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