Rest in Peace, Eva Likova!
University of Michigan professor emeritus, Eva Likova, died March 15 at her suburban Detroit home. She was 84 years old and had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. The Czech-born soprano was originally trained as a ballet dancer. During her singing career, she was known for her beautiful voice, excellent vocal technique and ability to move gracefully on stage.
For many years she sang leading roles at the New York City Opera. In the 1950s, she performed in televised versions of I Pagliacci, La Traviata, Carmen and La Boheme. After her retirement from singing in 1966, she taught at the Michigan University’s School of Music.
www.breakingnews.ie Search for Likova
www.sendit.com
Website Aids Public Schools
A website founded to raise funds for New York City schools is going national. The site, www.donorschoose.org, puts teachers in touch with prospective donors who want to fund worthy projects in the nation’s public schools. If you are a teacher in a school where most of the children qualify for free lunches, you might want to use this opportunity to ask for instruments, sheet music, or whatever your school can’t afford.
If you have a bit of money to donate, perhaps you will think of this as a channel you can use to give back to your community. It can be a way of helping keep music in our schools.
A Foot Soldier in ‘Aida’
A young chorister in a midwinter performance of Aida was costumed as a barefoot slave. While waiting for his cue, he began to get cold feet, literally, so he put his own boots on, expecting to take them off before going on stage. Unfortunately, when his cue came, he walked on still wearing the boots.
His solution was simple. With youthful aplomb, he stepped out of the boots while on stage, and concentrated on singing.
When the young singer’s group had finished, he forgot his “contraband” footwear, leaving Radames to sing surrounded by the normal props—and an unexplained pair of 21st century, bright green boots.
www.opera-l.org
Editor Who Cut Arts Coverage Leaves Newspaper
When Ronnie Ramos was editor of The Shreveport Times [Louisiana], he felt that reviews of plays, the opera and the symphony were a waste of time and space. He even said he was improving arts coverage by eliminating them. There was a great deal of public protest over the loss of reviews, especially when arts writer Lane Crocker left the paper and was not replaced.
Now, Mr. Ramos has left Shreveport to become sports editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Let’s hope that the Shreveport paper’s incoming editor, Alan English, restores the reviews to their rightful place in that city’s most important print medium.
www.shreveporttimes.com
Opera world mourns loss of Annette Daniels
Annette Daniels, well known mezzo-soprano and voice teacher, passed away March 27 at the M D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She was 43 years old. A beloved colleague, Annette was well known for her gorgeous voice and charismatic interpretations of leading roles with both US and European opera companies. She is survived by her parents and four siblings.
www.nccu.edu/artsci/history/music_001.htm
Atlanta Opera’s Alfred Kennedy steps down
Alfred Kennedy, long time executive director of Atlanta Opera, stepped down from his post in late March. Artistic director William Fred Scott remains in his position, but several other high-level executives have resigned during the past year.
Most of the opera’s problems seem to emanate from the company’s expansion in a less-than-favorable economic climate. Performances were moved from the reasonably sized Fox Theater to the much larger Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, and the company’s deficit has now risen to a million dollars.
www.soundgenerator.com
(search for “Atlanta Opera”)
Performing Arts Convention Set For June
Several prominent performing arts organizations are coming together this summer in a conference involving various aspects of the performing arts. Opera America, The American Symphony Orchestra League, Dance America and Chorus America—as well as organizations of composers, presenters and music critics—will meet June 8-13 in Pittsburgh.
Organizers say arrangements are being made so that members of each organization can participate in the meetings of other groups as well as their own events. They expect some 5,000 people to attend and say that careful planning is already in place to handle that large a crowd.
www.performingartsconvention.org
Atlanta Symphony Buys Telemarketing Company
Unlike many struggling US orchestras, the Atlanta Symphony seems to be doing well financially. On March 3 its parent company, The Woodruff Arts Center, bought SD and A Teleservices, the telemarketing service many other arts organizations use to sell tickets and raise funds.
Allison Vulgamore, the orchestra’s president, said that her organization is making an investment in a profitable company. That may well be so. Since it only raises money for non-profit corporations, SD and A is exempt from the Do Not Call Registry.
www.atlantasymphony.org
‘Fanciulla’ Indians sing in Maidu
Utah Opera decided to present the Puccini’s La fanciulla del West this season because it fits in well with the history and surroundings of the state. One aspect of the opera’s score, however, bothered conductor Anton Coppola. An Indian couple, who spoke Pidgin English in the original David Belasco play, were singing to each other in Italian.
To make this scene more realistic, Coppola found a linguist who could translate their lines into Maidu, the language spoken by Indians of the Sacramento Valley at the time in which the opera is set. Thus, the opera was presented in its original Italian—except for the dialogue between the Wowkle and Billy.
www.utahcityguide.com/entertainment/3179.asp
