As part of the EU co-funded Creative Europe Project Butterfly a call is launched to engage composers who want to be a part of a movement to better understand and highlight the need for greater sustainability in Opera. « We are inviting composers resident in countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme to submit their applications to compose for an original, captivating and ecologically aware opera and participate more widely in an innovative and green project », the organizer says. Read More →

Bayreuth, Festspielhaus

Der Freistaat Bayern will künftig mehr für Geld für die Bayreuther Festspiele geben und zugleich weitere Anteile der Festspiel-GmbH übernehmen. Wie Kunstminister Markus Blume (CSU) mitteilte, soll der Freistaat von 2025 an 37 statt bis dato 29 Prozent der Gesellschafteranteile übernehmen.

Jonathan King

Opera Memphis has announced Jonathan King as Music Director. His contract is starting from August this year. Read More →

The Festival of Aix-en-Provence has ended its 75th edition counting 75,000 spectators, an increase of 5% over 2022 for a total of 57 performances in 10 venues, including 6 new opera productions with 2 world premieres, 3 operas in concert version and 15 concerts. The Festivals overall occupancy rate was over 90%.

Leonard Slatkin

The CMO Consortium is launching a new series of online conducting masterclasses. Three masterclasses are already announced: Leonard Slatkin will give two masterclasses on Copland and Gershwin masterworks in September 2023. Frédéric Chaslin will present a Puccini masterclass in November and John Axelrod will present Bernstein symphonies in December. More conductors are lined up for 2024.  Read More →

The thriller about the new appointment of the rector of the Liszt Academy in Budapest has a new episode (first report, see below). There is now a new job advertisement, according to which a « distinction by the Hungarian state » is a prerequisite as a new criterion. According to Hungarian media, not even the candidate of the university boards, the former deputy director Kutnyánszky, fulfills this. So the new call for applications means a significant narrowing of the field. Read More →

Placido Domingo

Swiss newspaper Le Temps already warned readers from a concert Placido Domingo was scheduled to conduct at the Verbier Festival. Their contributor had comments from orchestra musicians:  » ‘The conductor doesn’t know the works, he’s completely lost,’ mutters an instrumentalist. ‘It’s the assistant conductor who conducts behind the principal conductor to give the starts to the different desks,’ says yet another. Read More →

Perry So

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors has announced that Perry So has been appointed as its next Music Director. So will assume the title of Music Director beginning with the 2024-2025 season, succeeding Alasdair Neale, who will end his five-year tenure with the orchestra in May 2024. Read More →

According to the Musicians’ Union members of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in London have voted overwhelmingly in favor of potential strike action in a ballot that closed on 17 July. Read More →

Enrico Calesso

Der Würzburger Generalmusikdirektor Enrico Calesso wird das städtische Angebot auf Verlängerung seines Vertrages am Mainfranken Theater nicht annehmen. Dies hat er der Verwaltungsspitze und der Werkleitung mitgeteilt. Der 48-jährige Italiener ist seit der Spielzeit 2011/2012 Generalmusikdirektor am Würzburger Mainfranken Theater. Read More →