European Opera Discusses its Future
Opera conferences are set to convene in various European capitals during the weekend of Feb. 16-18. Executives, artists, students, and members of the media and public are invited to discuss the role of opera in the future. Various groups will examine the art’s heritage and core values, and discuss how opera should be offered to new audiences.
Contributors at the Paris Opera will include Gérard Mortier of that company, Nicholas Payne of Covent Garden, and Peter Gelb of the Metropolitan Opera. One of the more interesting presentations at the Paris meeting will report the results of a pan-European audience survey at 10 opera houses.
If you can’t attend the conference you can keep up with proceedings on the European Opera Days website.
www.operadays.eu
www.opera-europa.org
Harvard Offers Online Access to Rare Scores
The Loeb Music Library at Harvard University is in the process of putting rare and unique musical scores on the Internet, making them freely available to students, musicians, and researchers. Some scores are available now on the site—including Bach, Mozart, and Verdi—and more are forthcoming.
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/loebmusic/collections/digital.html
Arts Education Aids Literacy
A Guggenheim Museum study funded by the U.S. Department of Education reports that arts education increases literacy skills in elementary school children. The study said third-graders who participated in a pilot arts program raised their skill levels in six categories of literacy and critical thinking. They progressed considerably farther than members of a control group who received no instruction in any art. Arts students also developed more personal discipline and improved their ability to work independently, said the study.
www.guggenheim.org/press_releases/downloads/LTA_study.pdf
University of the Arts More Than Doubles its Endowment
Philadelphia’s University of the Arts has received a donation of $25 million from philanthropist Dorrance H. Hamilton, 78, daughter of the founder of the Campbell Soup Company, according to Lancaster Online. By far the largest gift ever given to the school, it increases the institution’s endowment from $18 to $43 million. The larger endowment allows the university to use other money for scholarships, campus development, and faculty salaries.
www.playbillarts.com/news/article/5619.html
www.uarts.edu
Cell Phones In Use During Symphony Concerts
If you sit in the balcony at the symphony, you may notice that some patrons below are text messaging on their phones while the concert is in progress. Andrew Adler of the Courier-Journal says it is a common phenomenon at Louisville (Kentucky) Orchestra concerts, especially among younger members of the audience.
The situation begs the question of whether theaters should attempt to jam such signals, or try to improve the listening skills of their audiences.
www.courierjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061203/SCENE05/612030310
Sniff the Operatic Aroma
The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in Great Britain presented an electronic chamber opera, Lumen 3, with the stage in total darkness. The production used scents to replace the opera’s visual aspects, introducing bursts of specific aromas into the auditorium using 120 diffusers mounted above the audience. Composer Walter Prati chose to have his music performed in complete darkness so that his audience would be forced to devote more attention to listening.
www.hcmf.andymayer.net/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=12 (Scroll down to Lumen 3, Walter Prati.)
Audience Behavior Worse a Century Ago
Hector Berlioz once wrote that when he attended a performance of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore in Milan, he found the theater full of people who were talking to each other with their backs to the stage while the opera was in progress, says the Hector Belioz Website. The composer noted that the singers were interpreting their parts in full voice, but the audience continued to eat and gamble, paying scant attention to the music. Berlioz left in disgust, says the site.
www.hberlioz.com/Writings/HBM43.htm (in French)
Another Stage for Opera in Vienna
Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, built the Theater an der Wien for popular entertainment. In recent years it has featured Broadway musicals. For the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, however, it became a destination for opera. Since the house is a perfect fit for small-scale productions, it has received a budget of $33 million to be used in the staging of Baroque and contemporary opera, along with the works or Mozart.
www.mozart2006.net/eng/tid_mozart_at_the_theater_an_der_wien_15760/direktlink.html
New Head of Paris Opera
Nicholas Joël, 53, current artistic director of the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, will take the helm at Paris Opera beginning with the 2009-2010 season, reports the Toqueville Connection. Joël is best known for traditional productions, and his appointment signals a major change in direction for an opera company that has recently been a home for modern stagings.
Joël will oversee both the Palais Garnier and the Bastille (where controversial productions have not always been well received).
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&refer=muse&sid=aKTF_kVjkwHM
Berlin Philharmonic Modernizes its Image
Los Angeles-born Pamela Rosenberg, who until recently headed the San Francisco Opera, has been appointed managing director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, according to Playbill. To attract new and younger patrons, Rosenberg is organizing free lunchtime programs and a new concert series that will include Turkish and African music. Most of the orchestra’s performances already sell out, but administrators want to insure the group’s future by reaching out to a wider audience, says Playbill.
www.playbillarts.com/news/article/2514.html
