Opera - my/maSCENA

Daily News Roundup: 4 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 4 July 2016 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Daily News Roundup, Education, Opera, Scena Jazz

+ Read Wah Keung Chan’s review of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna at the Montreal international Jazz Festival this past weekend. “While there is much to like about Prima Donna, the one-hour concert version presented at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier also had much wanting. First, a lack of surtitles marred the understanding of the text, even though the libretto is in French, the predominant language of the home-town audience.” + Russian-born Canadian piano pedagogue Marina Geringas has passed away at the age of 77. Geringas taught at both the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto. + Jana G. Pruden asks…

Daily News Roundup: 1 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 July 2016 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Opera, Romantic, Scena Jazz, Violin

+ The marriage between text and music in contemporary opera is more important than ever, says William Littler, citing Fellow Travelers (Cincinnati Opera) and Les Feluettes (Opéra de Montréal) as recent examples. “Perhaps today, more than at any other time in the recent past, librettists are coming into their own as something approaching full partners with composers in the creation of successful opera. And tied to this development is the heightened importance in an age of film and television of casting singers who can give visual credibility to their roles. Tenor Aaron Blake and baritone Joseph Lattanzi both looked and…

Andris Nelsons Photo: Marco Borggreve

Daily News Roundup: 30 June 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 30 June 2016 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Opera, Scena Jazz

+ Andris Nelsons has pulled out of a production of Parsifal that opens the Bayreuth Festival. “Owing to a differing approach in various matters, the atmosphere at this year’s Bayreuth Festival did not develop in a mutually comfortable way for all parties,” said a written statement that was issued on behalf of Mr. Nelsons and his management team, Konzertdirektion Schmid. + Long-time proponent of new new music, violinist Anahid Ajemian has passed away at the age of 92. + His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada announced 113 new appointments to the Order of Canada. See…

Daily News Roundup: 29 June 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 29 June 2016 Classical, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Opera, Piano, Romantic, Scena Jazz

+ A CD review of English composer Granville Bantock’s epic late-Romantic oratorio Omar Khayyam, re-released from the 1979 Lyrita version with the BBC orchestra and chorus under Norman Del Mar. + The results of the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, held in Fort Worth TX, are in. + David Lang talks with The Guardian’s Kate Molleson about writing music for memorials. A classic daunting Lang commission: construct exactly the right music for collective remembrance. “Right,” he nods, but he doesn’t look daunted. “How to write something that seems ancient, like a kind of music whose origins we don’t question.…

Mr. Patrick Corrigan appointed as General Director of the Opéra de Montréal

By Newswire on 29 June 2016 Arts Industry, Newswire, Opera

29 June 2016 – Mr. Bernard Stotland, Chairman of the Board of directors of the Opéra de Montréal is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Patrick Corrigan as General Director of the company. Mr. Corrigan, who currently is the CEO of Pacific Opera Victoria (POV), will take over the position next September. He will succeed Mr. Pierre Dufour, who has been with the Opéra de Montréal for 16 years. Originally from Montréal and bilingual, Patrick Corrigan has over 25 years of experience in the musical field, including 16 years as a member of the management team of POV, where…

Daily News Roundup: 28 June 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 28 June 2016 Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Opera, Scena Jazz

+ Alan Fletcher, the CEO of the Aspen music festival in Colorado, asks why great American symphonists are neglected by American orchestras. + From the Archive: Jon Vickers interview from 15 March 1985 in The Guardian. “The foundation on which I stand as an artist is that all art must appeal to the intellect. Then we’re making a contribution to civilisation, to the uplifting of man. But if we chose to indulge ourselves and chase dollars and fame at the expense of artistic integrity, if we smear the line between entertainment and art, we’re in trouble. “And the operatic world…

Juan Diego Flórez Signs to Sony Classical

By Newswire on 20 June 2016 Newswire, Opera

20 June 2016 — Sony Classical is proud to announce a long-term exclusive contract with Juan Diego Flórez, one of today’s most prominent stars of the opera and concert stage. The tenor of choice for the world’s leading theatres in the bel canto repertoire and beyond, Juan Diego Flórez’s fluid, expressive singing and dazzling virtuosity have thrilled audiences and critics alike and earned him global acclaim. The Financial Times recently noted: “For a voice of high class and high Cs by the armful, Flórez is your man.” Born in 1973 into a musical family in Lima, Peru, the young singer…

Daily News Roundup: 18–20 June 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 20 June 2016 Classical Music, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Opera, Popular Music, Scena Jazz

Welcome to today’s Daily News Roundup, where we celebrate great musicians from home and abroad. Plus, check out a rather large portrait of Beethoven. + Joshua Errett asks what type of music should make up a jazz festival in “If Sarah McLachlan plays a jazz festival, is it still a jazz festival?” for CBC News. + This portrait of Beethoven takes up a million square feet. + Tenor Juan Diego Flórez signed to Sony Classical in an exclusive recording contract. + Dutch bass and Baroque specialist Peter Kooij has received the Bach medal from the city of Leipzig (French).…

Video of the Day – Jacques Offenbach

By Michele Duguay on 20 June 2016 Opera, Romantic, Video of the day

Born on June 20 1819, German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach is particularly known for his operettas. Orpheus in the Underworld and The Tales of Hoffman are still part of today’s repertoire. During Offenbach’s lifetime, Paris’s Opera-Comique was not interested in staging his works and the composer had to rent his own venue and the Champs-Élysées. Watch an excerpt of La Périchole where the title character sings after a few evening drinks.

This Week in Montreal (June 13 – 19)

By Michele Duguay on 12 June 2016 Chamber Music, Mainstream Jazz, Musical Theatre, Opera, Scena Jazz, Theatre, This Week in Montreal

Montreal Chamber Music Festival, June 3-19 The pre-festival activities of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival began on February 23, but the festival proper will continue until June 19. Tenor Ben Heppner will be narrating Enoch Arden by Richard Strauss with pianist Stéphane Lemelin (June 18). In the days following see the Goldberg Variations with pianist Simone Dinnerstein (June 15) and the rare opportunity to hear Casals’ cello played by Israeli cellist Amit Peled (June 16). Pollack Hall and Bourgie Hall. www.festivalmontreal.org François Bourassa’s Pianorama In the years following his breakthrough as winner of the Montreal Jazz Festival Competition in…

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