New Appointments
Peter Russell will be the new President and General Director of Opera Colorado beginning in September. He has been with the Metropolitan Opera since leaving Wolftrap several years ago.
Christina Scheppelman, formerly of San Francisco Opera, will be the new Artistic Director of Washington Opera as of this fall.
Darren Keith Woods has just been appointed General Director of Fort Worth Opera. He served as the General Director of Shreveport Opera since 1999 and is also the General and Artistic Director of the Seagle Music Colony.
Singer Allergy Alert!
Dr. Linda B. Ford, the director of the Asthma & Allergy Center of Papillion, Nebraska, reports that the fall is not going to be pleasant for allergy victims. The main allergen, ragweed, is particularly prevalent following heavy spring rains and a dry summer. Her suggestions: start allergy medications several weeks before allergy season starts. Medication can include antihistamines and a steroid nasal spray or over-the-counter Nasalcrom. One last tip: as the weather cools down, try not to open windows until there is frost on the ground; this prevents pollen and mold spores from entering your house and aggravating your allergies.
New Grants for Singers!
The Mario Lanza Society was created in December 1999 to honor the name of the famed tenor. Keep your eye on this one, singers, as one of the society’s main ambitions is to award yearly grants to aspiring singers. Classical Singer will let you know when and where.
Help for Houston Grand Opera
Tropical Storm Allison, which blew through Houston in early June, has caused devastating losses for both Houston Grand Opera and Houston Symphony. The entire costume department of Houston Grand Opera is unsalvageable; rehearsal rooms, music libraries, offices, computers and files were found submerged under 8 feet of dirty water. The Arts Endowment and the Texas Commission on the Arts have announced emergency funding for Houston arts organizations suffering flood damage from Tropical Storm Allison. Please go to http://www.arts.gov/endownews/ news01/ Floods.html for further info.
Can We Please Have a Donation…Now.
The New York Times reports that Opera Pacific has just jumped on the bandwagon with other opera companies requiring donations above the cost of the ticket for prime seating. Opera Pacific in particular is asking either a $2,500 or $5,000 donation for some orchestra seating and some Tier One seats. Any regular subscribers that gawk at the number of zeros will be graciously reassigned to new seats in less prestigious locations. Apparently, about 30% of the 160 American opera companies including the Met and the Los Angeles Opera observe this practice of requiring donations. Well, that’s one way to raise funds, and so far, it has not had an effect on attendance.
“Mozart” Panned in London
The latest interpretation of Don Giovanni premiered at the London Coliseum, and if he had been in the audience, Mozart might not have been too pleased with some of the alterations. The production was set in modern times and was loudly booed by the audience, which did not approve of Giovanni’s sexual encounters in the back of a car and behind a bar, nor his dramatic death inflicted by multiple stab wounds.
Opera Amazon!
Who would have thought that one of the world’s up and coming theaters would be Teatro Amozonas, a towering theater of marble and beauty in the midst of a jungle at Manaus in Brazil? Believe it or not, the theater had its premiere performance in 1896, but its star-studded career was halted in 1910 when the country’s economy took a plunge. There has not been opera in the building for 90 years! In the past four years, however, the city of Manaus has snagged some of the world’s premier musicians by offering significantly higher wages and now boasts a top orchestra. All instruments require acclimatization to hold up against the weather. Tickets are cheap, and any unused seats are given to local schoolchildren. The orchestra has also opened up a music school taught by the orchestral musicians that offers music lessons to local children that otherwise could not afford them. Prominent opera stars such as Placido Domingo have been invited to sing in the near future.
Bolshoi Singers Seek Greener Pastures
In early June, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the artistic director of the famed Bolshoi Theater, turned in his resignation after holding the position for only a year. His resignation was caused by singers that abandoned productions for better-paying jobs elsewhere. “It’s impossible to condemn these people,” he said of the singers. “They want to eat.” Rozhdestvensky also cited the Moscow press and the lack of support from the administrative offices as additional contributors resulting in his resignation.
Hollywood Turns to Opera
As plots about sinking ships and natural disasters begin to wear thin, Fox will be producing a new film about the life of the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso. Filming begins next year with 28-year-old British tenor Russell Watson starring as Caruso. Mario Lanza starred in a previous Caruso biopic in the early 1950’s.
Memorial Concert for Dickson Titus
To honor the life of Campbell Dickson Titus III, esteemed voice teacher of the San Francisco Conservatory, who passed away on March 8, a group of Titus’ former students arranged a memorial concert that took place on June 12. Some of his former students who performed in the concert are Ruth Ann Swenson, Susan Quittmeyer, Greg Fedderly, James Patterson and Richard Bernstein.
Coming To a Store Near You…
Lyric Opera of Chicago has just released the first complete recording of A View from the Bridge. The successful opera by William Bolcom, based upon the play by Arthur Miller, premiered at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1999.
