Category: News Briefs

In Tuesday’s (6/2) New York Times, Steve Smith reviews the final performance—Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro—of the tiny Manhattan-based Amato Opera Theater, founded in 1948 by Anthony and Sally Amato. “Inside, you sensed that nearly all the operagoers knew one another… Tears were to be expected; an era was ending, and everyone knew it…  At 88 Mr. Amato has earned a comfortable retirement. But he does not intend to disappear, having announced plans to organize a foundation to provide scholarships for young opera conductors, directors and performers. ‘Give us six months, and you’ll be hearing from us,’ he said in a brief statement from the stage between the second and third acts. Greeted with a roar, Mr. Amato thanked the company’s patrons, volunteers, staff ‘and my dear Sally’ ”—a reference to his wife, who died in 2000. … “As in Mozart the Amato story has a happy ending. Some company members, it was announced last week, plan to carry on as Amore Opera. The name is a fitting tribute: what Mr. Amato created and nurtured for six decades was, above all, an act of love.”

Posted June 3, 2009 

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s recently announced cutbacks were the subject of a June 1 post at Philebrity.com, a Philadelphia-based city guide. “One of the current and more salient gripes these days—made by everyone from Bill Maher to progressive and conservative pols alike—is how rare it is for people to make real sacrifices in times of need. Can we get a what-what and plenty up top, then, for the Philadelphia Orchestra? Last week, the members of the Orchestra agreed to give up about $4M collectively over the next two years—an agreement which included pay cuts, overtime, pension restructuring and royalties—not just because the moves could save their jobs, but also because (and this is important) they viewed the preservation of the Orchestra as being something that serves the greater good: ‘The musicians view preserving the quality of the Philadelphia Orchestra as our sacred trust,’ said cellist John Koen, chairman of the orchestra’s Members’ Committee and the lead negotiator for the musicians. … High-mindedness like this is a rare thing indeed. It’s also beautiful and cool. What’s the best way you can thank the Orchestra for their sacrifice and example? Why, it’s the easiest thing in the world: Go see them.”

Posted June 3, 2009 

In a 6/1 posting on chicagoclassicalreview.com, critic Lawrence A. Johnson writes that “it’s nice to be able to report some upbeat economic cultural news for a change.” The Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, which “was forced to down-size two of its [2008-09] events to chamber concerts, the last of which was presented Sunday evening at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston,” is working to turn things around. “Artistic coordinator James Berkenstock said Sunday that this season’s retrenchment has helped to aright the Philharmonic’s financial ship, and that the $60,000 deficit (on an estimated $800,000 annual budget) has been largely erased. The Philharmonic will be back up to full seventy-player strength for three of its four concerts in its 20th anniversary season starting in October.” Johnson praises Sunday’s performance. In Mozart’s D Major Flute Quartet, a “slight astringent edge to the strings provided an apt period feel, and all musicians displayed closely knit ensemble with Berkenstock floating an elegant line in the Adagio … The tricky balancing act in Mozart’s Horn Quintet was deftly negotiated by the Philharmonic members as well.” 

Posted June 3, 2009 

In the Tuesday (6/2) edition of the Omaha World-Herald, John Pitcher follows activities of Omaha Symphony’s recent conductor symposium with Music Director Thomas Wilkins. “The symposium’s sixteen conductors aren’t kids. They’re emerging artists, musicians mostly in their 20s and 30s who are looking for that rarest of musical commodities—podium time with a first-rate professional orchestra.” Jungho Kim is seen working on the opening movement of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. “His arms are gyrating, his body is leaning far over the podium. Wilkins, staring straight into Kim’s face, calls for a timeout. ‘Is this an angry piece?’ Wilkins demands. Kim shrugs. ‘I don’t think it’s happening,’ Kim responds. They start again. This time, Kim shows a little more restraint. Instead of brandishing his baton as a weapon, he uses it to trace smooth phrases. The music sounds more spontaneous, and Kim actually begins to smile. Wilkins nods approvingly. ‘Now that’s the guy I want to play for,’ he said.”

Posted June 3, 2009 

In Sunday’s (5/31) Miami Herald, Daniel Change profiles a prominent figure in local culture: “For decades, the South Florida arts scene was Judy Drucker’s stage. … Drucker was the dealmaker most responsible for bringing the biggest names in classical music and dance to what had been a cultural desert. A homemaker turned impresario, she brokered blockbuster presentations, cultivating friendships with dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, composer Leonard Bernstein and pianist Vladimir Horowitz. But the cultural landscape beneath Drucker’s feet has tilted. Today’s South Florida arts scene is ruled by fiscally minded boards and publicly funded institutions, not swashbuckling producers. Drucker… finds herself, at 80, on the outs. … In the past six months, the Concert Association of Florida, founded by Drucker to present classical music and dance, filed for bankruptcy … She had been voted out as president a year earlier following years of budget deficits. Then the Florida Grand Opera, for which Drucker served as an artistic advisor, canceled her contract… In some ways, though, Drucker’s role has been diminished by the very cultural scene that she helped to establish.” Still, the article reports, Drucker has no plans to quit: “ ‘Who knows what the next act is,’ she says, ‘but I know there will be one. My life is in music.’ ”

Posted June 3, 2009

In Saturday’s (5/30) Toronto Star, William Littler writes about the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Manfred Honeck. “One constant during the pendulum swing of [Pittsburgh’s] prosperity has been the excellence of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra … Like other Rust Belt cities such as Cleveland and Detroit, Pittsburgh has long seen its orchestra as a point of civic pride, and even in the recent years of economic decline all three cities have continued to support their orchestras at financial levels unheard of in Canada … Curious to learn what all the fuss was about, I traveled to Pittsburgh recently to meet the maestro and hear a program of Mozart, Beethoven and Richard Strauss, and came away from the experience with a three letter response: Wow!” Littler calls Heinz Hall, the PSO’s venue, “one of the handsomest venues in North America,” and observes that “Honeck in person projects a decidedly unassuming persona, despite appearing decisive and animated on stage, where he presided over a couple of the most dramatically engaged readings of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration that I have heard in years.”

Posted June 2, 2009 

“The embattled New York City Opera lost $11.3 million in the year ending June 30, 2008,” writes Philip Boroff at Bloomberg.com yesterday (6/1). “According to City Opera’s tax return, provided to Bloomberg upon request, revenue, including ticket sales and income from donations and investments, fell 23 percent to $32.9 million. Expenses jumped 11 percent to $44.2 million… The 66-year-old company’s $11.3 million deficit was its largest since at least 1999. It ran a surplus in the year ending in June 2007 of $2.8 million… Music Director George Manahan is listed as the highest-paid staff member.” Also listed are salaries for trombonist David Titcomb, who served as orchestra manager; former producing artistic director Robin Thompson; and executive director Jane Gullong, who left in fall 2008. The article explains, “The period covered by the document predates the 2008-09 season, when the company did not perform at its Lincoln Center home, citing renovations at the David H. Koch Theater.” The tax return did not disclose a salary for Gerard Mortier, who withdrew before he was to arrive as the company’s general manager and artistic director. The company’s current general manager and artistic director, George Steel, did not join NYCO until January 2009.

Posted June 2, 2009 

On Thursday’s (5/28) Morning Edition on National Public Radio, Susan Stamberg reports on the orchestrators of Broadway shows. “In the world of Broadway musicals, nobody leaves the theater humming the orchestrations. But without the orchestrations, the songs would just be lonely little tunes. The Library of Congress recently convened a symposium on some of Broadway’s greatest orchestrators, many of whom remain little-known. Ever hear of Sid Ramin, Jonathan Tunick, Don Walker, [Robert] Russell Bennett or Ralph Burns? Exactly. But those are the men who orchestrated West Side Story, Gypsy, A Chorus Line, Sweeney Todd, Hello, Dolly! and South Pacific. The men who decided which song should start with trumpets, and which one needs some violas. And they wrote the overtures, weaving together the various tunes the shows present. ‘People think the composer did it,’ says Steven Suskin, author of The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations. ‘But usually, the composers are so busy with other things that they just don’t.’ … So masses of notes must be written quickly. Different orchestrators might work on different songs—even parts of songs—for a single show.”

Posted June 2, 2009 

In the Sunday (5/31) Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Barry Schlachter writes about the phenomenon known as the concert cough. “It might pop up at one end of Bass Hall during the quietest, most contemplative passage—a piercing, unruffled cough. Then, inexplicably, across the hall, a throat utterance rings out, seemingly in response. … Not only do the coughs ruin the concentration and disrupt the enjoyment of audience members, they mar recordings of performances.” Schlachter discusses cough levels in various countries. “Karoly Schranz, the Hungarian-born second violinist of the Takacs Quartet, says some cities in Europe are indeed relatively coughless, but some halls are better than others. At London’s Queen Elizabeth, ‘they manage to hold it back.’ New York can be both good and bad, again, depending on the venue, he said. …But Asian cities are so remarkably silent, Schranz said, that is ‘almost scary.’” Theories behind the problem include Fort Worth surgeon Douglas Lorimer’s opinion that audience coughing in concert settings is “nervous behavior.” Lorimer and Alann Sampson, chairman of the Cliburn Competition, suspect that admonishing audiences to refrain from making noise might actually prompt coughing. “The more we talk about it, the more it happens,” Sampson says.

Posted June 2, 2009 

In the Sunday (5/31) edition of the Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein previews the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s three-week Dvorák Festival, which begins on Wednesday. “Audiences will be able to experience the full spectrum of Dvorák’s art, from symphonies and concertos to choral and operatic music to chamber music played by the Emerson String Quartet. The festival will span 13 concerts, lectures, a conversation with festival director Mark Elder, a documentary, and various pre- and post-concert events… ‘I thought a three-week festival would allow us to take some risks, to do something that would never normally be done,’ says Elder, the British conductor who planned the event along with Martha Gilmer, the CSO’s vice president of artistic administration.” Von Rhein traces Dvorák’s Chicago connection: “The Chicago Orchestra (as the CSO was then named) first played Dvorák’s ‘New World’ Symphony in November 1894, little more than a year after the distinguished Czech composer took Chicago by storm. Dvorák’s one and only appearance here was in August 1893… Dvorák conducted some of his own music, inspiring thunderous ovations and worshipful reviews from the press.”

Posted June 2, 2009