American composer Gloria Coates died yesterday in Munich at the age of 89. She composed symphonic music, chamber music and vocal compositions. Read More →
Die Bilanz der diesjährigen Bregenzer Festspiele ist hervorragend. Bis zum morgigen Sonntag, dem letzten Tag der Festspiele, werden ca. 249.000 Zuschauer das fünfwöchige Festival besucht haben, teilten die Veranstalter mit. Dabei zogen die 26 Aufführungen von Giacomo Puccinis Madama Butterfly 179.000 Besucher an. Die Aufführungen waren angeblich zu 99 Prozent ausgelastet. Read More →
German contralto Gisela Litz died at the age of 100, her pupil Janina Baechle said on Twitter. Born in Hamburg, she began her career in Wiesbaden. In 1952 she joined the Hamburg State Opera. Ms. Litz went on to an international career with major roles. She sang at both the Edinburgh Festival and the Bayreuth Festival.
Baritone Alberto Rinaldi has died in Rome at the age of 84. He was a singer with an international career. Born in Rome on June 6, 1939, he made his debut in Spoleto in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. From there on he sang in the greatest Italian theaters, from La Fenice in Venice, to the Rome Opera, the Regio in Turin, until he landed on the stage of La Scala in Milan as Ottone in Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea in 1966. Read More →
A performance by Anna Netrebko in the Czech capital Prague has been canceled. The announcement came after the Prague government said on Monday that all its coalition parties opposed the concert at a time Russia wages war on Ukraine. Read More →
Front of the Liszt Academy's concert centre
Photo: Remy Franck
The criticism of the appointment procedure for the post of rector of the Franz Liszt Academy in Hungary, is also being echoed internationally. The responsible minister received numerous letters of support for the Academy in recent weeks, according to Hungarian media reports. Read More →
Conductor Taijiro Iimori died from acute heart failure on Tuesday. He was 82. The late conductor studied at Toho Gakuen College and then honed his skills in the United States. He went on to win prizes at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition for Conductors (1966), and at the First Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition (1969). Read More →
Zubin Mehta
(c) Stephan Polzer
87-year-old ace conductor Zubin Mehta has arrived in his hometown Mumbai to conduct two concerts at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on August 19 and 21 with the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), with whom he is performing for the first time. Read More →
Andras Schiff
(c) Nadia F Romanini
Als einen „wesentlichen Künstler, der Festspielgeschichte mitgeschrieben hat, als einen der bedeutendsten Pianisten unserer Zeit und einen wirklichen Freund der Salzburger Festspiele“, würdigen die Salzburger Festspiele den Pianisten Andras Schiff. Am Tag nach dessen Solistenkonzert im Großen Saal der Stiftung Mozarteum wurde dem Pianisten die Festspielnadel mit Rubinen überreicht.
Conductor Arnold Östman died in Stockholm yesterday at the age of 83. Born in Malmö, he studied art history and musicology at Lund, Paris and Stockholm. He focused on the subject of early opera, bringing to light a number of theretofore unknown or little-known baroque operas. Read More →
