Aspen Festival Faces Music
The highly respected Aspen Music Festival and School is in crisis. Music Director David Zinman left in April after holding the post for 13 years, according to the New York Times. Currently, the board of directors and the faculty are divided. CEO Alan Fletcher, who took over in 2006, was fired last fall and then reinstated. He now wants to reduce the number of faculty members and students at a time when applications for enrollment are increasing. Zinman said he could not continue to work in an atmosphere of tension, uncertainty, and disrespect.
blogs.denverpost.com/artmosphere/2010/04/29/ just-in-aspen-music-festival-president-gets-vote-of-noconfidence/
artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/aspenfestival-music-director-quits/
Giulietta Simionato Dies Shortly Before 100th Birthday
Mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato passed away in Rome on May 5, 2010, according to the Reuters News Agency and the Washington Post. She would have celebrated her 100th birthday the following week. She was one of the last links with composers whose operas are most often played today. She sang in Cavalleria rusticana under the baton of its composer, Pietro Mascagni, in 1945.
A singer of diminutive stature with a large voice, she sang at the world’s leading opera houses for some 30 years, from the 1930s to the ’60s. She knew more than 50 roles and was as comfortable in Mozart as in verismo works. In 1954, she made her American debut as Adalgisa to Maria Callas’ Norma in Chicago and she sang 28 performances at the Met beginning with Il trovatore in 1959.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ article/2010/05/05/AR2010050505001.html www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/07/giulietta¬simionato-obituary
Operalia Announces Winners
Operalia 2010 took place at La Scala Opera in Milan, Italy. First Prize winners were 28-year-old Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva and 23-year-old Romanian tenor Stefan Pop. Each of them received $30,000. Second Prize winners were soprano Rosa Feola and tenor Giordano Lucà of Italy along with bass Ievgen Orlov of Ukraine. Third Prize was awarded to Russian soprano Dinara Alieva and South Korean bass Chae Jun Lim. American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny received the Birgit Nilsson Prize. The Zarzuela Prize was given to U.S. tenor Nathaniel Peake and Feola. She and Stefan Pop won the Prize of the Audience, while Yoncheva was also awarded the Prize CulturArte. There is no fee to enter Operalia. Some 1,000 young singers send recordings to the competition office in Paris every year, and each CD is heard by a judge. Forty auditioners are then invited to perform live. Transportation and hotel accommodations are paid for them, and each is given a per diem allowance to cover other expenses.
www.operalia.org
