Jaap van Zweden
(c) Hans Vanderwoerd/IMG
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra has appointed Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden, 61, as Music Director. The orchestra announced today that the Dutch conductor will begin his five-year tenure in January 2024. He will succeed Osmo Vänskä who decided not to renew his contract, which ends at the end of the year. Vänskä was appointed in January 2020. Read More →
65-year-old Amercement mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer has announced that she is retiring from the opera stage. She posted the message in her social media when returning from Nozze di Figaro performances at the Seiji Ozawa Festival in Matsumoto, Japan. Read More →
33,7 – a project by the Luxembourg based contemporary music ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin – is based on the idea of a gigantic musical cartography portraying the population mix characteristic of the south of Luxembourg and its French neighboring region. A mix or diversity that will be transcribed in 2022 minutes (33,7 hours!) of music commissioned or borrowed from composers whose nationalities, gender, generations will represent in a proportional way the population of the region concerned by Esch2022 European Capital of Culture. Read More →
Über 50.000 Zuschauer besuchten die Wagner-Festspiele in Bayreuth, teilte der Veranstalter nach 29 Aufführungen mit. Damit wurden die Ergebnisse von vor Beginn der Corona-Pandemie nicht erreicht: 2019 und 2018 waren die jeweils 32 Vorstellungen zu 100 Prozent ausgelastet.
Russian Director Alexander Molochnikov will not take part in the production of the one-act operas Francesca da Rimini by Sergei Rachmaninov and The FTragedy by Alexander Zemlinsky, which is scheduled at the Bolshoi Theater in July 2023. Read More →
Bayreuth, Festspielhaus
Die deutsche Kulturstaatsministerin Claudia Roth sieht bei den Wagner-Festspielen in Bayreuth « wirklich sehr viel Reformbedarf ». Das sagte die Grünen-Politikerin der Deutschen Presse-Agentur in Berlin. Und sie macht auch Vorschläge: Es müsse junges Publikum gewonnen werden, die Strukturen müssten vereinfacht werden. Und sie mahnt sogar: « Generell geht es darum, die Rahmenbedingungen für künstlerisch attraktive Inszenierungen zu schaffen. » Soll Bayreuth also populistisch werden? Read More →
Die Semperoper in Dresden gebraucht Künstliche Intelligenz in einer Musiktheater-Auffüihrung. Das Musiktheater Chasing Waterfalls ist laut Sächsischer Staatsoper weltweit die erste Oper, in der eine KI phasenweise Komposition, Libretto und Interpretation autark und live kreiert. In einer von sieben Szenen hat die KI allein das Sagen, in den anderen wird sie mit realen Darstellern als ‘Digital Twins‘ interagieren. Read More →
Italian pianist Giovanni Bertolazzi, 24, has been awarded the Tabor Foundation Prize which he shares with 19-year-old Misi Boros from Hugary. This award is part of the Verbier Festival Academy. Read More →
While Anna Netrebko was applauded in the Cologne Philharmonie by an audience eager for her voice, numerous demonstrators protested outside the building. The singer’s concert was not without controversy. Read More →
Placido Domingo
This year’s program of the Arena di Verona announced a Verdi show with Placido Domingo as singer and a Turandot with the same artist as conductor. Both evenings have been called a flop by the Corriere della Sera. It is said that the singer repeatedly forgot his text and had several voice drops. At the end of the opera, the orchestra refused to stand when invited by Domingo. The musicians remained seated after what they considered a bad performance due to bad conducting by Domingo. Read More →
