AGMA Sues NYCO
The American Guild of Musical Artists filed a lawsuit against the New York City Opera on Dec. 18 because the NYCO failed to pay $160,058 in health benefit premiums for guild members. About 80 NYCO employees, including chorus members, will not have health coverage for the year.
New York Times’s Top Ten List
The audio critic for the New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, has picked his top 10 Classical CDs from 2001. Seven out of the ten choices are vocal recordings such as Cecilia Bartoli’s Italian Arias, versus three instrumental recordings.
Emile Renan Dies
Bass-Baritone Emile Renan died on Dec. 8 at the age of 88. He performed in the New York City Opera’s inaugural production in 1944. He sang with the NYCO for 15 years and with many other opera houses throughout the country before settling in New York, where he taught and coached voice at the Juilliard School of Music.
NEA Under Surveillance
Michael Hammond has been appointed the new chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts. The appointment came after some heated debates in Congress about whether the NEA was really necessary, an unresolved controversy since 1990. Ultimately, Congress has once again decided to let the NEA remain but has reformatted the NEA’s mission statement to keep it a little less controversial. In the past the NEA has looked favorably upon artistic performances such as Karen Finley’s performance piece in 1990, in which she smeared chocolate all over her body. Now it is looking to fund artistic endeavors that are not controversial and are appealing to a majority of the population.
Television Premiere Pulled at Last Minute
The BBC’s expensive film of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors was scheduled to air on Christmas Eve, but had to be replaced with a different program at the last minute because someone forgot to secure the rights for the film. It was later discovered that an American company owns the rights and plans to make its own film of the movie. Because of that, it will not condone another version. The finished film, directed by Francesca Zambello, might have to sit on the shelf, which is an expensive misfortune. The film had a six-figure budget. All of the singers, such as Patricia Racette, and crewmembers have been paid; the cost will be borne by the BBC.
Napster to Relaunch
Within a manner of weeks, Napster will relaunch using a subscription-based service of about $5 to $10 for 50 downloads a month. The copyrighted MP3s will be protected so that they will only play on the computer to which they were installed. Napster will find itself in competition with the other two subscription-download services: MusicNet (backed by BMG, EMI and Warner) and Pressplay (backed by Sony, Universal and EMI). These companies have not yet commented on the success of their subscription services, but they are still in competition with the other online software, which provides users with free downloads.
Lincoln Center Trauma
On Feb. 1, interim executive director Janice Price will leave the Lincoln Center to become president of Philadelphia’s new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, Beverly Sills will be retiring as chairman of the Lincoln Center Board of Directors as soon as a new president is named—the fourth departure of a key player in the Lincoln Center’s renovations. Some of the financial backing seems to be pulling out as well. The new mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, informed the center that he was unsure about the city’s ability to provide it with the pledged $240 million over the next 10 years, as former Mayor Rudy Guiliani had proposed. Lead donor Robert W. Wilson has said that if the New York City Opera decides not to build its own theater but stays with a renovated New York State Theater, he will not give a penny of his pledged $50 million toward that proposed $80 million renovation.
Music Sales Falling
Since the introduction 10 years ago of Soundscan, a computerized system for tracking music, U.S. record sales have again fallen this year, marking the second consecutive year of a loss in profits. In 2000, 785 million units were sold, compared to 763 million units sold in 2001. This 3% loss of sales has had its effect on the stock of major recording companies such as Time Warner, Sony and EMI, most of which are down by between 20% and 30%.
Classical Station Sings its Swan Song
A Florida radio station that had been broadcasting classical music for 30 years recently switched its format to techno-dance music. The station’s annual revenue of $6 million apparently was not profitable enough for its owner, Cox Communications. The station was the only one to broadcast classical music in Southern Florida.
Upcoming Callas Movie
Faye Dunaway, who recently portrayed Maria Callas in the Broadway production of “Master Class,” is planning to produce and star in a movie about Maria Callas’s life. She hopes to engage Al Pacino to play Aristotle Onassis.
Slowing Economy Forces Companies to Rethink Season Schedules
The Los Angeles Opera will have to postpone its planned “Ring” production until 2006 due to lack of funds. The LA Opera does not want to scale down its extravagant plans, however: the production is planned to be a spectacular Hollywood production involving a collaboration with several Hollywood special effects teams and a budget in the neighborhood of $60 million. The Dallas Opera has also postponed a planned U.S. premiere of Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie from the 2003 season to the 2004-05 season because of the weakened economy and the new opera’s sensitive subject matter about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
To submit items to the bulletin board, contact lindsey@classicalsinger.com
