It seems that this opera has a phantom that simply can’t be shaken. The Melbourne production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle scheduled for late 2013 is seeking a conductor at short notice after the designated conductor Richard Mills resigned.
Productions of Wagner’s Ring are said to be jinxed – a phenomenon discussed in Stephen Fry’s excellent 2010 BBC documentary Wagner and Me. The jinx goes back to 1876, when The Ring was first produced in Bayreuth.
This week’s programme from New York’s Metropolitan Opera: Tuesday, June 16 Rossini’s Semiramide Wednesday, June 17 Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride Thursday, June 18, and Friday, June 19 Verdi’s La Forza del Destino Saturday, June 20 Philip Glass’s Akhnaten Sunday, June 21 Philip Glass’s Satyagraha Monday, June 22 Verdi’s La Traviata Each stream becomes available at…
Two recent cinema releases focus on the dynamics amongst classical musicians. Click here to read the New York Times feature on Quartet, directed by Dustin Hoffmann and starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins; and A Late Quartet, directed by Yaron Silberman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir and Catherine Keener.
Preview Matthias Goerne’s tour of Australia: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/sublime-fusion-of-song-and-voice-20110925-1krky.html
Melbourne born soprano Danielle de Niese is to perform in Sydney next year with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. De Niese is one of the few child “stars”who has been able to make the transition to respected adult performer with apparent ease.. She made her Glyndebourne bebut in 2005 as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. More at: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/shes-got-the-looks-voice-and-a-homecoming-tour-20110828-1jg9x.html http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/sopranos-hometown-debut-20110828-1jgha.html
Sydney based chamber group Omega Ensemble has the opportunity to record its debut album with ABC Classics and is looking for support to make this a reality. The album will be a collaboration between Omega Ensemble and clarinetist Dimitri Ashkenazy and will include a work by George Palmer – It Takes Two, a concerto for…
It was in July that pianist Yuja Wang dazzled Australian audiences with her performances, described as “dazzling…tender…(and) stylish” (Sydney Morning Herald). She is now poised to release a new recording in Australia, entitled Ravel (available October 23, 2015) on the Deutsche Grammophon label, on which she performs with the celebrated Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under young conductor Lionel…