Finocchio

Marin Alsop To Lead Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Despite the overwhelming support of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's board of directors, Marin Alsop's appointment as music director was met with disapproving silence from the orchestra's musicians, who apparently felt that their "artistic expertise was being disregarded."  Ms Alsop becomes the first woman to lead a major American orchestra.  Writing in The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini acknowledges the musicians' unease, but finds Alsop a compelling choice for the position.

"Ms. Alsop is such an exciting conductor of American and contemporary music that she has unfortunately been pegged as a specialist. Actually, she has always conducted a wide range of repertory.

You need only listen to her recent recording of Brahms's Symphony No. 1 on the Naxos label, the first in a promised survey of the Brahms symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra. This is a bracing, incisive and unsentimental account of a staple. As someone steeped in contemporary music, Ms. Alsop conducts the Brahms with a keen awareness of its path-breaking elements.

In the end, the orchestra players are the only experts on what it's like to work with a conductor. Still, they are not the experts on what a performance is like for the audience. That's why boards and managers sometimes choose to stick with conductors whom the players grumble about. Clearly, the board of the Baltimore Symphony senses that Ms. Alsop could be an energizing force for the orchestra as well as a charismatic cultural leader in the city."

Philadelphia Freedoms

It has been a wonderful and uplifting weekend here in Philadelphia.  Whatever the real-world limitations to Live 8, it's aspirations are laudable.  It also led off a festive atmosphere in the city, which continued through Monday evening, with a AIDS benefit concert by Elton John, Patti LaBelle, Rufus Wainwright and Bryan Adams, concluding with fireworks.  The crowds stretched down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to roughly 14th Street.

Without so much a time to take a breath, the city will now launch into the 11th Annual Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, headed by Ray Murray, founder of TLA Entertainment Group.

OK, So The Spelling Bee Was Fun

Even more than Al Sharpton's appearance onstage in the "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," Bill Irwin's on-camera reaction was a nice touch.  (Many of us also knew that that the Internet is for both theater and porn).

Re Riccardo

The ever-delightful Marion Lignana Rosenberg has a typically tasteful and helpful post on Maestro Riccardo Muti.

La Scala, The (Political?) Fallout

Only weeks after tumult among La Scala's orchestra and staff resulted in the the very public resignation of Maestro Riccardo Muti, one of La Scala's major backers, Fedele Confalonieri, has resigned in disgust.  The New York Times reports that:

"Mr. Confalonieri repeated a theme he had raised in interviews with Italian newspapers, saying the musicians were acting like empty-headed revolutionaries. 'It was a lot of '68 without the ideals,' he said.

The accusation is touchy in a nation with a proud leftist tradition, but many people involved say there is a political component to the dispute. Labor unions in Italy are generally allied with political parties, and a leading union at La Scala is affiliated with the left.

Mr. Confalonieri said that union was using the dispute to attack its enemies of the center-right who control Milan's local government and have a say in the theater's administration. The center-right also controls the national government under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is Mr. Confalonieri's boss with the controlling interest in Mediaset."

Farewell To La Scala

Tensions between Maestro Riccardo Muti and the orchestra and staff at La Scala  have been heightened in recent weeks (see here and, for an audience protest in Muti's support, here).  Today, only days before rehearsals were to begin for an April 7th performance, Muti has announced his resignation.

"'We'd been hoping to arrive at a compromise before the Mozart bicentenary and no one is better at conducting Mozart than Muti,' said [Stefano Zecchi, Milan's culture commissioner], referring to next year's season, which will include three operas by the 18th-century composer. 'But a conductor is not the head of a company. If he doesn't have the trust of the orchestra, it is impossible for him to express himself.'"

BBC News online reports Maestro Muti's own account of the discord and his resignation:

"'Despite the great esteem the board of directors has for me, the theatrical show of hostility from people I have worked with for nearly 20 years has made it utterly impossible to continue our relationship, which has to be based on harmony and trust,' he said in a statement on Saturday.

"'Making music together is not just a team effort. It requires us to respect each other, to share our passion and to understand each other - feelings I thought underpinned these 20 years of work at La Scala,' Mr Muti added."

The Lady Vanishes

We return, with affection, to Deborah Voigt.  When last we mentioned her, the Diva had triumphed over her Covent Garden detractors, shedding, well, an small understudy's-worth of soprano while losing nothing of her vocal power.

Ms Voigt is now preparing to sing the role of Amelia in Verdi's "Ballo in Maschera" at the Metropolitan Opera, beginning April 4th.  One warms to Ms Voigt's humor and ambition in an article in The New York Times:

"'I'm doing many more Toscas than I ever thought I would,' she said of Puccini's glamorous Roman prima donna. (Some of those 'Tosca' performances will be at the Met next season.) And down the road, Ms. Voigt, a renowned Strauss singer, hopes to achieve what she called a 'personal triumph' by singing the title role in a production of Strauss's 'Salome.' She has sung the role only in concert.

The opera's climax is Salome's seductive 'Dance of the Seven Veils.' Ms. Voigt used to joke that her Salome would have to do the 'Dance of the 77 Veils.' But now she can't wait to take it on."

In June 2004, Ms Voigt underwent gastric bypass surgery, which enabled her to lose at least 100 pounds.  The risks of such surgery for anyone are obvious.  For a singer, the fears are compounded.  Even without surgery, significant weight loss can have unfortunate consequences on the voice.  The most intriguing observation Ms Voigt makes on her voice post-surgery is this:

"Ms. Voigt explained, since her surgery she has had to make adjustments in her singing. 'There is no question that I have to think about my technique more than I did,' she said. 'The sort of automatic engagement of the abdominal muscles from the excess weight doesn't happen anymore.'"

We adore Ms Voigt, and we applaud her courage.  Whatever shall we do now with those spare 70 veils?

The Audience Takes The Stage

In the wake of a mutiny by performers and staff of La Scala's orchestra against Maestro Riccardo Muti in which the orchestra called for the Maestro to resign, La Scala's audience has produced its own new turn.  Writing in The Financial Times, Andrew Clark reports that:

"Leaflets distributed this week outside La Scala opera house in Milan announced the world premiere of 'an opera of a few minutes (because that's enough)', composed by the theatre's audience. The music consisted of loud heckling whenever members of La Scala's orchestra appeared. The libretto was curt: 'Don't touch the maestro. Riccardo Muti belongs to art. He belongs to us!'"

Riccardo, Muted

Members of the orchestra and staff at La Scala have handed an overwhelming vote of "no confidence" to Maestro Riccardo Muti, calling for Muti to resign.  Muti has been with La Scala for two decades.

Sounding Board

Yes, we love Anthony De Mare. (click on thumbnail for larger image)

"De Mare’s program at Zankel will embrace New York’s artistic traditions with emphasis on the stylistic crosscurrents among classical, Broadway and jazz compositions that go a long way toward breaking down genre boundaries.

The program’s title, 'Gotham Glory,' is taken from Del Tredici’s work of the same name. De Mare has performed and recorded a number of pieces by Del Tredici, including five mostly romantic works on his new, beautifully played Koch CD, 'Out of My Hands.' 'Gotham Glory' consists of four pictures of New York: 'West Village Morning,' 'Museum Piece,' the 9/11 requiem 'Missing Towers' and 'Wollman Rink.'

'The last movement is extremely gay,' de Mare said. 'It winks at the audience. As it goes on, it becomes more dramatic and much more deeply felt. It includes moments that David really meant to be campy and charming, and others that are very dramatic and meaningful. There are so many facets of being gay and how we see it for ourselves. One is the acknowledgment of the masculine and feminine within. David really captures the feminine and masculine energies within this piece. If anyone can tap into the animated qualities of being gay, it’s Del Tredici.'

De Mare will also debut Paul Moravec’s driving and exciting 'Isle of the Manhattoes,' Fred Hersch’s 'Saloon Songs' and Jason Robert Brown’s impressionistic 'Mr. Broadway.' He said he feels especially honored to play the oldest piece on the program, Meredith Monk’s 'Gotham Lullaby,' an acknowledgment of her 40th anniversary as a performer, composer and choreographer. And, of course, there is the monumental 'De Profundis.'"

For more on De Mare, see here and here.