Kennedy Center Debuts 5,000-Pipe Organ
The Kennedy Center has a new organ built by Casavant Frères, according to the Washington Post. The Center presented it at a popular free concert in early December. People stood outside as long as an hour and a half to get seats for the event. When fully installed, the instrument will be called the Rubenstein Family Organ in honor of its donor, the Center’s Chairman David M. Rubenstein.
At the opening concert, William Neil, organist of the National Symphony Orchestra, played Bach’s well known D-minor Toccata and Fugue. The new organ has a distinctively light and crisp sound that has considerable power in the lower registers. Its range and beauty of timbre were most impressive at this single hearing.
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/kennedy-center-debuts-5000-pipe-organ/2012/11/28/3fcf8a30-3996-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html
Met Opera Will Update Stage Technology
The Metropolitan Opera will be undergoing a significant renovation of its core technology for the first time since 1966, when it moved into the theater in Lincoln Center, according to the New York Times. Over the next five to seven years the company will spend $60 million on upgrading its flies, lighting, stage lift, air circulation, and internal communication systems, because at this point its technology has fallen behind that of many European opera houses. When productions come from Europe, their directors are used to having the latest computerized controls that produce precise results for their increasingly spectacular shows.
As audiences see in the intermissions of the HD transmissions, Met stagehands often have to turn dials, plug in cables, consult diagrams, and use a great deal of muscle. “It has to be modernized,” said General Manager Peter Gelb recently. “It’s safe without limitations in our use of it, but at some point it could fall apart. We’re not waiting for that day to happen.”
www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-embarks-on-60-million-renovation.html?_r=0
San Francisco Opera to Premiere Picker and Tutino Operas
San Francisco Opera will present the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s fifth opera, Dolores Claiborne, on September 18, 2013, reports the Washington Post. Librettist J.D. McClatchy based the opera’s text on Stephen King’s 1992 novel about a character who denies killing her employer, but admits to having murdered her husband almost three decades earlier after learning that he had sexually molested their 14-year-old daughter. Mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick will sing the title role. James Robinson will direct the production and George Manahan will conduct. Dolores Claiborne is a coproduction with the Opera Company of St. Louis.
San Francisco Opera has also commissioned Italian composer Marco Tutino to compose an opera based on Alberto Moravia’s 1958 novel, La Ciociara. Vittorio de Sica made Moravia’s book into a 1960 film called Two Women which starred Sophia Loren. The new opera will be premiered in June 2015.
articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-03/entertainment/35624231_1_san-francisco-opera-nicola-luisotti-sf-opera
‘Musical America’ Honors DiDonato and Dudamel
In December, Musical America gave its 2013 awards to mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, instrumentalist Wu Man (Chinese pipa player who has made a place for her instrument in Western music), composer David Lang (co-founder of Bang on a Can and occupant of Carnegie Hall’s Composer’s Chair), educator Jose Antonio Abreu (architect of the extraordinary music education program El Sistema), and conductor Gustavo Dudamel (music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic).
“I am struck by how powerful we are in this room to change the world,” said DiDonato in receiving her award. “This is our golden age. Events like this give us the foundation to connect with one another, to go forth and make a difference.”
Dudamel, upon receiving the Musician of the Year Award, said that El Sistema gave him the opportunity to experience the power of music. He referred to himself as a representative of all of the children coming to life through El Sistema. When he quipped that the Los Angeles Philharmonic was crazy to hire him, Philharmonic Chief Executive Deborah Borda responded from the audience, “No! We weren’t!”
www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?archived=0&storyid=28652&categoryid=3
New and Rare Operas Will Be Featured at Spoleto USA
The 2013 Spoleto Festival USA offerings are concerned with women and thwarted love. Toshio Hosokawa’s Matsukaze will be directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and conducted by Resident Conductor and Director of Orchestral Activities John Kennedy. Two unusual one-act operas, Giacomo Puccini’s Le villi and Umberto Giordano’s Mese Mariano, will be presented together much as Cavalleria rusticana and I pagliacci often are.
In 2013, the festival will be without one of its major venues. The Gaillard Municipal Auditorium is undergoing major renovations and will not be ready until 2014. For this year, the festival will transform facilities at the College of Charleston into a suitable performance space for music and dance.
www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/article/Classics-and-modern-works-on-tap-for-Spoleto-2013-4103124.php
