When the Going Gets Tough,
the Tough Start Singing . . .
“The fact is we need opera. We especially need it now. It is an enormous, passionate, melodramatic affair that helps put the little business of our lives into perspective. The more dire things get these days, the more we look to comfort ourselves with facts, as if we might feel better if we had just a little more information. But CNN is not enough to live on. Opera, more than any other art form, has the sheer muscle and magnitude to pull us into another world, and while that world may be as fraught with heartache as our own, it is infinitely more gorgeous. Through opera we are lifted up, temporarily transformed. Opera reminds us of the enormous beauty we are capable of, and if there’s a good cathartic sob at the end, well, we probably needed that too.”
—Ann Patchett, New York Times
quoted on AGMA’s website
Carmen Goes Shopping?
Okay, so Carmen isn’t looking for a new dress per se, but you might see her at the Bradley Fair Shopping Center in Wichita Kansas if you happen to be there next June. Wichita Grand Opera’s General director, Parvan Bakardiev, is in the midst of negotiations with the city of Wichita to organize a citywide opera festival in which Carmen would be presented at an outdoor stage that would be constructed on an island overlooking the Bradley Fair Lake. The production would cost around $300,000, but Bakardiev wants it to be free to the public. Wichita Grand Opera would raise all the funds for the project and ask only that the city provide the bleachers and that Bradley Fair provide the island and parking, and contribute in marketing efforts.
Top Ten Opera List
Make sure these are on your repertoire list if you want to be hired a lot! Opera America reports: the 10 operas with the greatest number of North American productions since the 1991-’92 season, including composer:
1. La Bohème: Puccini, 207 productions
2. Madama Butterfly: Puccini, 193
3. La Traviata: Verdi, 175
4. Carmen: Bizet, 173
5. The Barber of Seville: Rossini, 154
6. Tosca: Puccini, 151
7. The Marriage of Figaro: Mozart, 144
8. The Magic Flute: Mozart, 143
9. Don Giovanni: Mozart, 133
10. Rigoletto: Verdi, 132
Politics Never in Tune With Music
This business is all about the politics: who you know, etc., but you have probably never been arrested for having different views than someone you are working with! Qian Cheng, the musical director of the China National Symphony Orchestra, was arrested in October by the Communist Party for showing favoritism towards European classical music as opposed to traditional Chinese classical music. Chinese newspapers and music officials have been discouraged from and reprimanded for reporting anything about the arrest or the fate of the orchestra or the conductor.
Feeling Stressed But on a Diet?
We’ve all heard that chocolate excites the same areas of the brain the drugs, sex and wine do, but a new discovery might relieve the need for calories. The Montreal Neurological Institute reports in a new study that listening to music also excites these same areas. Using MRI scanners, Robert Zatorre and his colleagues at McGill University monitored the brains of 10 advanced music students listening to a selection from their favorite piece of music as well as a selection from a different piece of music, a passage of silence and a mixture of ordinary noise. When the students were listening to their favorite piece, blood streamed to the areas of the brain originally charted to process the pleasure elicited from sex, hard drugs, caffeine and chocolate, which are more biologically processed stimulants. For further details, go to www.zlab.mcgill.ca or www.enchantedear.com.
Another One for the Understudies!
How many singers can you think of that got their big break when someone got sick or couldn’t show up? Five minutes before the curtain was supposed to go up for a concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November, Assistant Conductor Yasuo Shinozaki was told to put on his tails because Musical Director Esa-Pekka Salonen was stuck in a traffic jam. Salonen was able to finish the program, but reviewers raved about his temporary fill-in. The moral of the story? Always keep your tails close at hand!
AGMA fights for Singer’s Health
If you have found yourself having difficulties singing in a production that makes use of smoke or fog machines, then applaud AGMA for its recent mandate: “It shall be the policy of the American Guild of Musical Artists that the use of smoke and fog effects by any employer of AGMA’s members should be governed by the following provisions:
“No smoke and fog devices or effects should be permitted to be used in any production unless each AGMA member scheduled to perform in that production shall be given two (2) weeks advance notification of the company’s intention to use same.
No smoke or fog effects should be used in any production except for those generated by dry ice or steam.”
Virtual Orchestras Make Their Way to Broadway
As the musicians’ contracts expire in March, the potential for a strike has prompted many Broadway producers to look into virtual orchestras. The New York Times reports that, “…one digital service, Music Arts Technology, quotes its fees as $35,000 to $50,000 up front plus $890 to $1,000 per week. By comparison, orchestras at the upper end of the minimums—24 to 26 musicians—cost $30,000 to $40,000 a week. The classical world begins to sit a little uneasy at the prospect of such a money-saver also turning towards opera houses.
Angela Gheorghiu Exercises Diva’s Bill of Rights
Only moments before the opening of Angela Gheorghiu’s opening night of La Rondine at Covent Garden, her manager Levon Sayan ended their professional relationship. The well-known manager, whose former clients included Frank Sinatra, Charles Aznavour, Liza Minnelli and Sammy Davis Jr., said, “I can only work with normal people.” Miss Gheorghiu and husband Roberto Alagna are this month’s cover story.
Director Leaves Berkshire Opera
After only a little over a year with Berkshire Opera, Managing Director Linda Jackson is leaving to take a similar position with Connecticut Opera. Although she denies it, some speculate that her decision is related to Berkshire Opera’s $15 million theater redevelopment project.
