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Latest News
Ferrier Competition winners announced
29 April 2009 - London, UK
The winner of this year’s Ferrier Competition, held at the Wigmore Hall in London, is soprano Sarah-Jane Brandon (25) from South Africa. Brandon is currently studying with Janis Kelly at the Royal College of Music and is managed by Askonas Holt.
The second prize was awarded to soprano Monica Bancos (26) from Romania who is also studying at the RCM where she is a Pidem Scholar.
German Soprano Angela Bic (28) won this year’s Ferrier Song Prize. She recently made her professional debut in Wagner’s Die Walküre with Freiburg Opera and studies with Lillian Watson at the Royal Academy of Music. Her accompanist Robin Davis (26) was awarded the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund Accompanist’s Prize.
Netherlands Opera appoints new Chief Conductor
16 April 2009 - Amsterdam, Holland
Netherlands Opera (De Nederlandse Opera) has announced the appointment of Marc Albrecht as its new Chief Conductor. The German-born artist, whose interpretation of operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss have been widely acclaimed, will commence his initial four-year term at the beginning of the 2011/12 season. The 45-year-old also becomes Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. Albrecht’s Netherlands appointments effectively reunite the two posts, most recently held by Ingo Metzmacher and Yakov Kreizberg, under one conductor.
Sky to become broadcast partner of Glyndebourne
14 April 2009 - Glyndebourne, UK
Glyndebourne Opera and Sky Arts today announced a new partnership, which will see Sky Arts become the official UK broadcast partner of Glyndebourne for 2009. The collaboration will centre on a live, high-definition broadcast from Glyndebourne of L’elisir d’amore on Sky Arts on Saturday 15 August. This broadcast will be the culmination of a month of Saturday night programming of Glyndebourne operas on Sky Arts 2 and Sky Arts 2 HD. Highlights of the Glyndebourne opera series include the award-winning Giulio Cesare and Hänsel und Gretel.
The partnership will last for the whole of Glyndebourne’s 75th anniversary season this year, with broadcasting and relay initiatives planned for Glyndebourne on Tour, Glyndebourne on Screen and environmental projects.
Operas slashed from the 72nd Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival
14 April 2009 - Florence, Italy
In order to meet further cuts in government funding, the programme of the this year's Maggio Festival in Florence has, practically at the last minute, been totally and drastically revised. The new theme is Suoni, Voci, Gesti, (Sounds, Voices, Gestures), a vague title which conveniently embraces many musical genres and seems to be a cover-up for the elimination of three of four operas from the original programme: Macbeth, Billy Budd, and Handel's Il Tempo del Tempo e del Disinganno. That leaves, on the opera front, Götterdämmerung, the last of the Ring cycle in the new production by the Spanish company La Fura dels Baus, which starts on 29 April. Also remaining is a newly commissioned opera by Matteo D'Amico, Patto di Sangue (22 and 24 May), along with a semi-staged version by Roberto Andò of Schubert's songcycle Winterreise, with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake, on 27 May.
The overall musical programme of this year's Maggio does not suffer too greatly. The festival features three new orchestras (Abbado's Mozart Orchestra, Muti's Cherubini Orchestra and the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana), and two young conductors: Michele Mariotti and Leo McFall. However, opera, with its high costs, is clearly feeling the pinch in Florence this year and opera fans at the Maggio are bound to be disappointed.
Flanders Opera denies accusations of anti-Israeli sentiments
8 April 2009 - Antwerp, Belgium
Flanders Opera, based in the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Ghent, has issued a statement in response to a series of articles published in the Joods Actueel, a Jewish monthly magazine which has accused the opera company of planning scenes that contain anti-Israeli sentiment in its forthcoming new production of Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila, due to open on 28 April. In its most recent issue, Joods Actueel has published two opinion pieces which accuse Flanders Opera of planning a politically-motivated denigration of Israel. In a television report, the magazine suggested that Flanders Opera intends 'to burn the Israeli national flag on stage'.
General Director of Flanders Opera, Aviel Cahn, gave a firm rebuttal of what he termed as 'harsh' allegations: 'It is the duty of art to take a critical view of our times, tendencies and societies. Only in this way will it have social relevance. With this production of Samson et Dalila, directed by the Israeli-Palestinian team of Omri Nitzan and Amir Nizar Zuabi, we are challenged to cast critical eye on a situation where the extremely complex relationship between oppressors and the oppressed will result in a violent explosion.'
The Flanders Opera statement continues as follows: 'The production is unique in bringing together an Israeli and a Palestinian artist who will try to analyse the suffering that has haunted the middle east for more than three millennia. A critical view of today's reality through the lens of history is not automatically an anti-Israeli act. Flanders Opera's production will give the opportunity to deepen our understanding of what is happening in this region of the world, and will be an occasion to bring together important artists from both sides of the argument. The involvement in this project of Israeli personalities such as Meir Shalev, Eran Riklis and Tom Segev, and the patronage of the European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, speaks for itself. Israeli Opera is even considering inviting this production to its theatre in Tel Aviv. For Flanders Opera, this sort of dialogue is important and we want to make sure it continues in a cultured and philosophical manner. We would be happy to see the Joods Actueel present at our performances and discussions, and then hear their judgment.'
Thomas Quasthoff awarded Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal
31 March 2009 – London, UK
German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic
Society Gold Medal, one of classical music's highest honours. Announcing the award, Graham Sheffield, Chairman of the RPS, said. 'Quasthoff is one of classical music's most intelligent and compelling voices. It is more than fitting that he becomes the 93rd recipient of this award, following previous German honorees such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Richard Strauss and, some years before them, Johannes Brahms!'
The RPS Gold Medal was initiated in 1870 to commemorate the centenary of Beethoven's birth and bears the effigy of Beethoven. It is awarded internationally for outstanding musicianship. Fewer than 100 medals have been presented in the intervening years.
Thomas Quasthoff will be presented with his medal at the 20th RPS Music Awards on Tuesday 12 May at London's Dorchester Hotel.
Fragments of a lost opera by Shostakovich discovered in Moscow
22 March 2009 – Moscow, Russia
Substantial fragments of a scarcely known opera by Shostakovich have been discovered in Moscow by archivist Olga Digonskaya. The fragments provide around 45 minutes of music from a piano version of the score for Act I. Dating from 1932, Orango is satirical work that contains a scathing attack on the Stalinist state. The libretto (which exists in full) is by novelist Alexei Tolstoy and journalist Alexander Starchov, and follows the science-fiction adventures of Orango, half-man and half-monkey, as he makes his way through the echalons of the State to become leader of the Communist Party. The work's political edge was dangerous at the time, and Shostakovich apparently abandoned the composition after the Bolshoi Theatre cancelled the commission. The fragments show the makings of an effective, biting score. A performing edition is being prepared by the British musicologist Gerard McBurney, artistic adviser to the Chigaco Symphony.
Royal Opera House welcomes Prince of Wales as patron
18 March 2009 – London, UK
The Prince of Wales has agreed to become patron of the Royal Opera House. He has already been patron of the Royal Opera since 1975, president of the Friends of Covent Garden since 1978 and president of the Royal Ballet since 2004.
Royal Opera House chief executive Tony Hall said: ‘He has been the most tremendous supporter of us all and it is wonderful that he has agreed to deepen his relationship with us even further.’
The announcement comes shortly after a private visit to Covent Garden during which the prince met Bryn Terfel and other members of the cast and crew of the Royal Opera’s new production of Der Fliegende Holländer which opened on 23 February.
The prince also watched and met dancers of the Royal Ballet rehearsing and met children from Years 5 and 6 from six different Southwark Schools currently on ROH Education’s Chance to Dance scheme.
Royal Opera House Manchester proposal 'not yet viable', says Arts Council report
12 March 2009 – London, UK
The Arts Council's report on the feasibility of developing a northern base for the Royal Opera House at the Palace Theatre in Manchester has concluded that proposals as they currently stand are 'not yet viable'.
The report, prepared by arts consultant and former ACE director of arts and policy, Graham Marchant, describes the development of Royal Opera House Manchester (ROHM) as an 'enticing' prospect. It broadly welcomes the initiative, applauding its imagination and its 'altruistic' ambition to contribute to the future development of the North West and the emergence of Manchester as the UK's second city. However, the report also warns that major uncertainties over the cost and the possibly detrimental impact on existing arts provision have yet to be resolved, and that the proposal could not be 'done on the cheap'.
The Royal Opera House and Manchester City Council entered into discussions about establishing a ROH base at the Palace Theatre last October. Plans to re-develop the city-centre opera house (currently a receiving house for touring events) as a 1,800-seat production base have been estimated at around £100m. In addition, an annual subsidy of £12m to £15m would needed to be set against running costs. If approved, the proposal would come to fruition in 2013/14.
Meanwhile, the Lowry Centre in nearby Salford says that it stands to lose around £1.5m of business if the ROHM plans go ahead. The £116m centre, which opened in 2000 as a flagship for arts provision in the North West, currently hosts performances by touring opera and dance companies, including regular visits by Opera North.
Marchant's report warns that impact on the Lowry and other local arts organisations could be severe and that an additional £5m would need to be directed at organisations 'damaged by the change in the regional arts ecology' . Marchant concedes: 'If this funding is not available then the negative effect of the project on other arts organisations means that it should not go ahead. Great though the benefits of the scheme could be, they are not so great that collateral damage can be allowed willy-nilly.'
In spite of such provisos, the report recommends that plans for a Royal Opera House presence in Manchester should be taken forward with the help of some initial funding from central government. It stresses that there are clear benefits for education, skills building and economic development in the region, and states that if anything, there could involve be an even more ambitious plan for the Palace Theatre to become the home for opera and ballet in the North West, 'led by ROH in partnership with a number of other producers of these art-forms'.
The proposal in its essence, says Marchant, is 'spellbinding... Only those wearing cultural blinkers will imagine that this vision will fail to capture the public imagination'.
The full report is available on www.artscouncil.co.uk/rohm
Change of direction for Finta Giardiniera
18 February 2009 – Frankfurt, Germany
Oper Frankfurt have issued the following statement concerning their upcoming production of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera: ‘Irreconcilable differences of opinion about the director Tilman Knabe’s concept, which would not have been able to guarantee satisfactory acoustic for the public in the Bockenheimer Depot, have forced Oper Frankfurt to part with the planned production team for Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, the last new production of the 2008/09 season, which opens 21 June 2009. Oper Frankfurt regrets having to take this action but is convinced that it was absolutely necessary.
Katharina Thoma, who now works as a freelance director after being an assistant at Oper Frankfurt, will now direct Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, based on the stage design of Christof Loy and Herbert Murauer’s successful 2005/06 production of Mozart’s La finta semplice in the Bockenheimer Depot. Forthcoming engagements of Katharina Thoma include a production of Barber’s Vanessa in Malmö.
The dates of the premiere of La finta giardiniera and subsequent performances remain unchanged.’
New singing competition launched
17 February 2009 – Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest National Opera has launched a new singing competition. The first International Lyric Contest ‘Masters of Lyric Art’ will take place in Bucharest from 24–29 March 2009, and is dedicated to the famous Romanian soprano Magda Ianculescu. Each edition of the Contest will be dedicated to a famous Romanian singer.
The aim of the competition is to discover further the careers of gifted young singers. The competition is open to all voice types, chorus members, students and singers who have studied or are studying either in Romania or abroad. Candidates must be between 20 and 32 years old (born before the 31 of March) and the competition will include two eliminatory stages (with piano accompaniment), which will take place in the Yellow Foyer of Bucharest National Opera. The third stage (with orchestra) will take place in the Main Hall. The award ceremony and gala will take place on 29 March in the Hall of Bucharest National Opera. Deadline for entries is 15 March. The first prize is €3,000 and two main roles in two performances at the National Opera House in Bucharest; second prize is €2,000 and a main role in a performance at the National Opera House; and third prize is €1,000 and a part in a performance during the ballet and opera season at the Ludovic Spiess Opera Experimental Studio. For competition conditions and repoertoire, please visit: www.operanb.ro
Virtual opera house launched on web
29 January 2009 - Luleå, Sweden
Swedish composer Fredrik Högberg has been given a grant of €200.000 (£184,000) to develop a virtual opera house on the internet. ‘iOPERA’ is billed as ‘a serious attempt to claim ground for classical music and be a part of the future progress of the internet.’
The project will develop a virtual opera from user contributions with many interactive features. Users will be able to control opera-avatars and interact via webcam, choose performers, create scenery, mix the orchestra and more.
The Woman of Cain, claimed to be the first opera designed solely for the internet, will combine film, video, graphic design, photo, animation, game design, virtual worlds and interactivity.
Another element of the project, iOPERA Manager, aims to provide easy and inexpensive means for musicians, dancers and artists to promote themselves and their work on the internet. It will help to create websites where pictures, video and music can be added. It comes with a search engine designed for headhunting musicians, dancers and artists.
The virtual opera house project is being developed at the University of Luleå, Sweden in collaboration with iOPERA Ltd.
Della Couling reports on the reopening of San Carlo theatre, Naples
25 January 2009 - Naples
Europe’s oldest opera house, the San Carlo, dates from 1737. Heavily damaged by fire in 1816, it was rebuilt in under a year – a fact that speaks volumes for its position at the time as Europe’s premier opera house – and is now undergoing much-needed thorough renovation and restoration, in three stages: (1) front of house, (2) backstage area, (3) exterior of building. To accomplish this, the house is being closed for three six-month periods each year. On 25 January this year the house celebrated the successful completion of the first stage at a grand reopening with Paul Curran’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, conducted by the musical director of the San Carlo, Jeffrey Tate. It was a courageous choice, triumphantly vindicated by the end of the evening, when the audience of San Carlo faithful left their enthusiasm for the performance and their loyalty towards their theatre in little doubt.
New Orleans Opera celebrates World Class Homecoming
17 January 2009 - New Orleans, USA
Karyl Charna Lynn, Opera Now's US correspondent, was present at a historic occasion in the cultural life of New Orleans
"The restoration of New Orleans's Mahalia Jackson Theatre is a symbol of new life for the city following the devastation caused by (hurricane) Katrina, but in these difficult economic times, it is also a symbol of hope and faith in the future of the company," declared Placido Domingo at the theatre's reopening celebration. "Three and a half years ago we looked out over a broken-hearted city and wondered if a night like this could ever come true," proclaimed Robert Lyall, New Orleans Opera general director, "well it has and thank you."
With those words, the gala concert began, conducted by Lyall, with the procession and chorale from Meistersinger, and showered the audience with such a range of operatic arias and depth of talent-including Domingo singing 'O souverain' (El Cid) and 'Winterstürme'; Mark Rucker 'Urna fatale del mio destino'; Sondra Radvanovsky 'Song to the Moon' (Rusalka); and Kristine Jepson and New Orleans soprano Sarah Jan McMahon the Hoffmann Barcarolle; a taste of zarzuela, the Polovtsian dances (Prince Igor) and concluded with the Champagne Chorus (Fledermaus), that it was difficult to believe that the New Orleans Opera was $3.3 million budget company.
On 29 August 2005, Katrina brought the largest natural and man-made disaster that New Orleans had ever experienced when the storm surge from the hurricane broke the levies and flood waters inundated the city. There was 14 feet of water in the opera house for 10 days, destroying all the electrical and mechanical equipment, and leaving mold and mildew in its wake.
The Mahlia Jackson Theater was first inaugurated on January 9, 1973. Designed by William Bergman and constructed in aggregate stone and glass, the rectangular-shaped $8 million structure offered an oval-shaped, single-tiered, 2,316 seat auditorium with red-felt covering the walls and plush seats. The soaring, red- and-tan colored lobby was illuminated by an enormous, sparkling Murano glass chandelier, visible outside through the building's glass facade. During the theater's $23 million rebirth, the lobby's bright reds gave way to soothing blue tweed framed by dark wood, the chandelier acquired multi-colored LED lighting, and the auditorium's seats were recovered in brown tweed, and the walls painted white with tan stripes outlined in dark brown accents.
A full report from the opening ceremony of the Mahilia Jackson Theatre to come . . .
Earliest opera in English saved
16 January 2009 - Oxford, UK
Oxford University’s world-renowned Bodleian Library has acquired Erismena, the earliest surviving score of an opera in the English language. Written by Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), the leading Italian opera composer of the mid-17th century, Erismena dates from the 1670s, 30 years before any other Italian operas were known to have been performed in Britain. The score has been part of a private collection and has been studied by only a small number of scholars in the past 50 years. It is one of the most significant British 17th-century music manuscripts to have appeared in recent decades.
In August 2008, the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Cultural Goods placed an export bar on Erismena’s sale to an institutional buyer abroad because of the manuscript’s ‘outstanding significance for the study of the history of music in the UK’. A public appeal to raise £85,000 needed to acquire this unique manuscript was launched last November. This appeal was adopted as a key component of Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford, launched in May to raise a minimum of £1.25bn. The Bodleian is seeking new funding to build its historic collections, and make them more accessible to students, researchers and scholars globally.
The New Chamber Opera will stage Erismena in Oxford as one of their summer productions, bringing the manuscript to life, for the enjoyment of the wider public.
Founded in 1602, the Bodleian Library is home to over 9 million volumes and a large number of manuscripts and rare printed books. It is the largest university library in Britain and the second largest library in the UK. More information about the Bodleian Library and its activities can be found at www.bodley.ox.ac.uk
Sky Arts makes broadcasting history
14 January 2009 - London
Sky Arts is to broadcast a world first in opera simulcasting with English National Opera’s new production of La bohème on 2 Feb at 7pm on Sky Arts 1 and 2. In a world first for broadcasting, Sky Arts 2 and Sky Arts HD will screen Jonathan Miller’s new production of Puccini’s La bohème for ENO, while Sky Arts 1 will simultaneously screen all the backstage action live, as it happens. The simulcast represents a climax to a six-year partnership, with Sky Arts as Season sponsors of ENO. Viewers will have unprecedented access to all areas of this new production on Sky Arts 1, watching the action unfold backstage and experiencing first-hand how a major opera is staged. For updated information on the simulcast, please visit www.skyarts.co.uk/opera.
Canadian Opera Company appoints new music director
7 January 2009 - Toronto Canada
The rising young German conductor Johannes Debus has been named Music Director of the Canadian Opera Company, succeeding the late Richard Bradshaw who died in August 2007. The 35 year old, who made his debut with COC in October 2008 in a new production of Prokofiev's War and Peace, takes up his post in the 2009/2010 season.
Making the announcement Alexander Neef, General Director of COC said:
'Watching Johannes throughout War and Peace, I realised that we not only had a remarkable talent here, but one who has truly exceptional chemistry with the performers. I decided to act quickly instead of putting the company through a long wait without a musical leader. We have caught him on the verge of a great career and we are lucky that he was able to make himself available as soon as next season.'
Debus recently relinquished his position as Kapellmeister of Frankfurt Opera will return to Frankfurt in the 2008/09 season for a new production of a double bill of Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve and Ravel's L'heure Espagnole and in 2009/10 for Thomas Adès' The Tempest. He will also return to the Bavarian State Opera for performances of Salome and Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
As part of his first season with COC, will conduct the company's Diamond Anniversary Celebration concert starring Canadian tenor Ben Heppner on November 7, 2009. He also conducts the COC's signature production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in April/May 2010.
Anger mounts as plans for Maltese opera house are scuppered
8 January 2009 - Valetta, Malta
Sixty-seven years after Malta's Royal Opera House was raised to the ground by German bombers, the island's government has announced that the opera house will not be replaced with a new theatre, as promised by successive governments, but instead the site will be used to accommodate a new parliament building.
According to Malta's Prime Minister, Dr. Lawrence Gonzi, the "iconic" area is where the opera house once stood is too small to accommodate a modern performing arts venue and would best be used to build a flagship home for the Maltese government.
Gonzi's announcement has caused considerable anger on the island, and a Facebook site set up in protest has attracted nearly 3,000 members. Group organiser, Adrian Buckle, himself a Maltese artistic director and producer, says he fears both political sides in Malta are uniting against a vision for theatre: 'I am equally dismayed by the Labour opposition that hasn't voiced itself and that it is probably agreeing with the prime minister.'
Maltese theatre director, playwright and actor, Narcy Calamatta said he was 'Outraged' on hearing of the government's redevelopment plans. 'This breaks the promise of every government since 1947,' he said. 'The site is at the main entrance to the city and should be the cultural flagship and signature building that celebrates our cultural diversity.'
Speaking to reporters in the Maltese capital Valletta, Prime Minister Gonzi said Malta's government has chosen not to rebuild the Opera House as a theatre because it did not want to 'saturate' the area, which already has three theatres. The prime minister declared that in the government's view, the footprint of the ruins was not big enough for today's theatrical requirements.
The internationally renowned tenor Joseph Calleja, who is himself Maltese, has added his voice to the protest by pointing out, 'Our prime minister has obviously been ill-advised. There is no theatre in Valletta that can be called an opera house.'
Calleja added that he was 'Utterly shocked' at the decision to scrap theatre in favour of a building for politicians. 'The site is full of history, and waiting more than 60 years to have it rebuilt as a parliament is truly disgraceful. I have nothing against relocating parliament to a more suitable location but this is definitely not the right place. Investment in the arts in Malta is probably the lowest in Europe. General culture and love of the arts need nurturing if they are expected to flourish. This is hardly the way to promote them.'
For further details visit www.maltaoperahouse.com
Singers released from 100-year-old time capsule
18 December 2008 - Paris
Great voices from a century ago may soon live again following the excavation of a musical time capsule buried at the Opéra Garnier in Paris more than 100 years ago. Two urns containing recordings made in 1907 were removed from the Paris Opera's vaults to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 1989 for safekeeping. They have now been put on display at the library.
Each urn contains 12 discs featuring singers such as Enrico Caruso, Dame Nellie Melba, Adelina Patti and Emma Calvé. The recordings were donated to the Paris Opera by the French subsidiary of The Gramophone Company (which later became EMI Records), and interred in the Garnier's vaults on Christmas Eve 1907 by company's chairman, Alfred Clark, who stipulated that they should be opened after 100 years.
The Bibliothèque Nationale is now organizing a similar time capsule containing a selection of recordings of today's great singers to be preserved for posterity. Meanwhile, EMI is hoping to extract the recordings from the urns (they were packed with asbestos and require special handling in a special hazardous materials facility) and will assess the possibility of making a selection of material available commercially later in 2009.
British bass Richard Van Allan dies
4 December 2008 - UK
The much-loved British bass Richard Van Allan has died, aged 73, of lung cancer. The singer was a familiar face at opera houses around the world, but particularly at London's Royal Opera House and English National Opera. Born in Clipstone, Nottinghamshire, in 1935, Van Allan joined the Glyndebourne Festival Opera chorus in 1964, followed by acceptance into the Sadler's Wells chorus. His solo debut came at Glyndebourne in 1966 in The Magic Flute, and then Cavalli's L'Ormindo.
Following success with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Van Allan began a long association with Welsh National Opera and was heard in the leading bass roles of Rigoletto, Macbeth, Nabucco, The Barber of Seville, Aïda and Ernani. In 1971 Van Allan debuted at Covent Garden as the Mandarin in Turandot, after which he became a regular there, and still returned for character parts very late in his career.
Van Allan's artistry was also appreciated at the Opéra de Paris, other main French houses, La Monnaie in Brussels and the Wexford Festival. Among his late-career successes were performances in Madrid and in Florence. He also found favour in America, including the Metropolitan Opera, Boston, Seattle, Miami and San Diego (where he sang his first Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier in 1976). From 1986 to 2001 he gave much of his time to training young artists as director of the National Opera Studio. He was appointed CBE in 2001.
His last performance was as Folz in Die Meistersinger at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival.
Van Allan is survived by his wife, Rosemary, and a daughter and a son. Another son predeceased him.
Richard Van Allan. 1935-2008
Opera companies join up on new choral theatre work
8 December 2008
Eight British opera companies have joined forces to commission a substantial new choral theatre work for young singers. On the Rim of the World is being composed by Orlando Gough with lyrics by Jehane Markham. The first performances will take place in March.
Taking part are English National Opera, English Pocket Opera Company, English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera.
In a statement, they said that the joint commission, supported by the Paul Hamlyn Education Fund, 'reflects a commitment by all the companies involved to promote the enjoyment of singing, to invest in repertoire suitable for young voices, and to support the strategic aims of the Music Manifesto developed by DCSF and DCMS in collaboration with music organisations, arts and education practitioners and the music industry.'
The work will last between 30 and 40 minutes. Orlando Gough said: 'It's a completely extraordinary and amazing situation - to write a piece of music theatre which will be seen in eight different productions. It's a composer's dream. It will be extremely interesting to see what the different companies make of the piece. I'm intrigued and excited.'
Biggest prize in classical music history awarded by the late Birgit Nilsson
5 December 2008 – Stockholm
The Birgit Nilsson Foundation announced the establishment of the Birgit Nilsson Prize today. It was the wish of the legendary Swedish dramatic soprano to award outstanding achievements in the international field of opera with a of $1m. The first prize-winner will be announced in 2009.
In the early 1980s, towards the end of her career, the Swedish dramatic soprano Birgit Nilsson decided to establish a foundation for a prize to be awarded every second or third year for outstanding achievements by a singer in the field of opera and/or concert and/or oratorio; a conductor in the classical field of opera and/or concert; and a specific production by an opera company, as long as this production is outstandingly cast and conducted and, most importantly, staged in the spirit of the composer.
The council of the Birgit Nilsson Foundation, its Council will appoint a jury consisting of prominent figures in the classical music field for a three-year term. The jury will give its recommendation to the Foundation Council, which will make the final decision. In keeping with Nilsson's wishes, the Prize may be given to two designees, in which case the Prize is split in half. Also, the Prize may never be awarded to the same person twice.
Link: www.birgitnilssonprize.org.
Gerard Mortier speaks about his new role as artistic director at the Teatro Real
4 December 2008 - Madrid
David Mason, our correspondent in Spain, reports from Gerard Mortier's first press conference at the Teatro Real
'Le Chant is essential in the “deformed” world of today … and the singing and the musical values are at the heart of my concept of Opera.' So declared the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Teatro Real in Madrid, Gérard Mortier. He is yet to announce his musical director, or rather, musical directors, as Mortier intends to have four conductors. He assured those at yesterday's press conference in Madrid that this worked amazingly well in Paris, and will help ensure the quality of the orchestra, along with more home-grown productions that will reinforce the Real's profile throughout Europe as well forging international links, in particularly with Latin America. As one who does not care for Puccini, Mortier intends to dedicate up to 35 per cent of each season to works of the 20th century. With a certain discontent among the public at his predecessor's emphasis on Baroque repertoire, it will be interesting to see how this goes down with Madrid's rather conservative opera-going public.
Gluck manuscript goes under the hammer
4 December 2008
Sotheby's London: One of the most important manuscripts by Gluck ever to
appear for sale was auctioned in London yesterday for £61,250 (against an
estimate of £50,000 to £70,000).
The autograph manuscript, dating from 1774, is part of the celebrated aria 'J'ai Perdu mon Euridice' from Orphée et Euridice.
The aria became famous as a vehicle for mezzo sopranos and contraltos from Pauline Viardot to the present day, and became especially beloved as ‘What is life to me without thee’, sung by Kathleen Ferrier.
Such manuscripts by Gluck are very rare; no complete autograph manuscript of Gluck’s Orphee et Euridice exists and none survives from his original Italian version (1762).
One month to go to save earliest English opera score
4 December 2008
Oxford University, England: The Bodleian Library has entered the final stages of its appeal to the public to help raise £85,000 by 6 January 2009, so it can conserve the manuscript of Erismena – the earliest surviving score of an opera in the English language.
Written by Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), the leading Italian opera composer of the mid 17th century, Erismena dates from the 1670s – 30 years before any other Italian operas were performed in Britain.
The manuscript has been part of a private collection, and has been studied by only a small number of scholars in the past 50 years. It is one of the most significant British 17th-century music manuscripts to have appeared in recent decades.
In August 2008, the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Cultural Goods placed an export bar on Erismena’s sale to an institutional buyer abroad. This was because of the manuscript’s ‘outstanding significance for the study of the history of music in the UK’. This may be the only opportunity for a British institution to acquire this vital part of musical and British history.
During recent research, Dr Harry Johnstone, retired Music Faculty lecturer at the University of Oxford discovered that Erismena was sold in 1797 at the auction of the library of William and Philip Hayes, who had been successive Professors of Music at the University of Oxford.
If the Bodleian can raise the funds to buy it now, the acquisition would mean the music manuscript returning home to Oxford. If acquired, this precious manuscript would sit alongside the earliest and finest manuscript of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, along with an unparalleled range of English 17th- and 18th-century opera and theatre music.
This appeal has been adopted as a key component of Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford, launched in May to raise a minimum of £1.25bn. The Bodleian, the world-renowned research library of the University, is seeking new funding to build its historic collections, and make them more accessible to students, researchers and scholars globally.
To contribute to the appeal, visit: http://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/libraries/erismena_appeal/erismena.html
Jørn Utzon dies
29 November 2008
The Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon, has died aged 90, having suffered a heart attack in his sleep early today in Denmark. ‘He had not been doing well these past few days, since Thursday. He had been undergoing a series of operations recently,’ his son, Kim Utzon, told the Associated Press.Utzon drew up the design for the Australian opera house in 1957, but left the project in 1966, seven years before it was finished, after scandals about cost overruns and design arguments. Government-appointed architects took over and the interior was not completed to Utzon’s original plan, although some of his original ideas were incorporated in a refurbishment of the building which he oversaw from 1999 and which was completed in 2006.
Utzon, who in recent years had been suffering from a degenerative eye condition that made him virtually blind, declined several invitations to return to Australia, citing high blood pressure. Still, he said he wasn't bitter about the dispute over the Sydney landmark. Utzon received the prestigious Pritzker architecture prize in 2003 for his design. The jury singled it out as among the most iconic buildings of the 20th century, saying it ‘proves that the marvellous and seemingly impossible in architecture can be achieved’. Utzon won several awards for his work, including the Order of Australia in 1985 and the Sonning prize for contributing to European culture in 1988. He is survived by his wife and their three children, Kim, Jan and Lin, and several grandchildren.
Gerard Mortier appointed artistic director of Teatro Real, Madrid
Gerard Mortier has been appointed artistic director of the Teatro Real in Madrid, one of Spain's leading opera houses. Mortier (65) will begin his association with the company in January 2010.
The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Mortier has relinquished the post of general and artistic director of the New York City Opera, which he was due to take up in 2009. The US job had seemed a bad fit for Mortier from the outset, as he is known for his penchant for radical productions, along with a propensity for spending money with no reference to box-office viability. His plans for an all-20th-century opera season at NYC caused some concern among the company's conservative board members in a financially difficult climate.
Belgian-born Mortier, who is currently general director of the Paris National Opera, has been one of the most influential - and controversial - figures in international opera. As artistic director of the then highly traditional Salzburg Festival during the 1990s, he blazed an iconoclastic trail which included a notorious production of Die Fledermaus laced with sex, drugs and Fascist violence.
He recently threw down the gauntlet to Bayreuth (along with Richard Wagner's estranged great granddaughter Eva Wagner-Pasquier), mounting an unsuccessful bid to wrench control of the festival out of family hands.
The Teatro Real in Madrid, whose artistic stock has waned in recent years, is clearly hoping to put itself back on the cultural map with such a high-profile appointment of one of opera's great mavericks.
