The Arena Opera Festival in Verona / Italy has confirmed that it’s 2021 Festival will take place like planned. In compliance with the Covid-19 safety measures, Fondazione Arena di Verona will present five new productions with artists like Riccardo Muti (it’s only his second appearance in the theatre), Roberto Alagna, Marcelo Alvarez, Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko, Saimir Pirgu, Marina Rebeka, Katia Ricciarelli…

In France, several opera houses (Lyon, Rennes, Bordeaux, Nantes…) have been occupied by artists in order to protest against the ongoing closure of cultural institutions. In Munich, the association Aufstehen für die Kunst (Standing Up for Arts) announced that this week it will sue the government in a collective lawsuit at the Bavarian Constitutional Court. Here is a link to the website: https://www.aufstehenfuerdiekunst.de/

Dinis Sousa

Portuguese conductor Dinis Sousa (*1988) has been appointed as Principal Conductor of Royal Northern Sinfonia in Sage Gateshead. Sousa is Founder and Artistic Director of Orquestra XXI, an award-winning orchestra that brings together Portuguese musicians living around the world. He also works closely with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his ensembles, having been appointed the first-ever Assistant Conductor of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras in 2018.

Riccardo Chailly
Photo: ICMA

Riccardo Chailly will remain music director of La Scala until 2025, superintendent Dominique Meyer announced. Chailly’s contract was set to expire at the beginning of 2022. It is therefore a confirmation for three years with the possibility of a further extension of two more for the Italian conductor who took over the musical direction of La Scala in 2015, first as principal conductor and then from 2017 as music director.

Salzburg

Erstmals in der Geschichte der von Herbert von Karajan gegründeten Salzburger Osterfestspieles wird das Festival nicht an seinem üblichen Termin, sondern im Herbst stattfinden. Read More →

Yaroslav Shemet
© Wojciech Mateusiak

25-year-old Ukrainian-Polish conductor Yaroslav Shemet has been appointed as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice/Poland. Read More →

Marc Soustrot
(c) Christoffer Lomfors

The Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville has appointed French conductor Marc Soustrot, 71, as Music Director. He is the successor of John Axelrod.Soustrot is currently Chief Conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. In 2019 he completed a tenure as Chief Conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. Read More →

Joëlle Kerivin, general manager of the renowned French festival La Folle Journée de Nantes, who is also the president of the Espace Simone de Beauvoir in Nantes, has resigned over a financial affair. French media speak of an « audit which has revealed very important cash flow movements linked to advances of salaries and representation expenses, within the two structures and largely superior to the expenses really noticed and justified « , according to the Mayor’s office in Nantes. Joëlle Kerivin occupied the post of general director of La Folle journée de Nantes since 2016.

The latest Karajanist Community Letter is dedicated to some of Herbert von Karajan’s activities in Japan, notably the Karajan Conductors’ Concours, Japan.  Here is the link to this week’s Karajanist Community Letter. Read More →

The Venice Lions for Music have been announced. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement goes to Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. The Silver Lion goes to the vocal ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten. Saariaho is the Golden Lion “for the remarkable technical and expressive level she has achieved in her choral scores and for her original use of the voice”. Read More →