Sarah Caldwell Dead at 82
On March 31, Sarah Caldwell, founder of the Opera Company of Boston, died of heart failure at the age of 82. As Boston’s director for more than 30 years, she staged and conducted operas of every conceivable style, ranging from Baroque to contemporary. She was a master impresario who made opera an exciting experience.
Caldwell broke down a major gender barrier when she became the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In 1999, she joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, the city of her birth. A few years later health problems began to plague her, so she retired and moved back to her beloved New England.
www.brietbart.com/news/2006/03/24/D8G12F85.html
www.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/arts/music/24cnd-caldwell.html (subscription required)
What is the Value of a Good Conductor?
Should an orchestra’s music director be paid millions of dollars when the instrumentalists are being asked to accept cuts in both wages and hours? That is a question musicians and concertgoers are asking more and more often.
Executive pay has long been a bone of contention in the for-profit business world. Now the non-profit music world is discussing it as well, because orchestras are losing both subscribers and donors every time the orchestras raise ticket prices.
www.wsj.com (subscription required)
Music Thriving in British Schools
Britain decimated the music programs in many British schools during the 1980s and ’90s, but restored the programs in 1999. Now music classes are part of the core curriculum and some type of musical instruction is required for all children aged 14 and under.
Classes involve many different types of music and no one style is given preference, but about one-third of all school children are learning to play instruments. As a result, British students are now winning European prizes. More important, however, is the lifelong enjoyment they will derive from the early training, reports the Independent.
www.education.independent.co.uk/schools/article352941.ece
Schoenberg Sounds a Sour Note
On Feb. 1, 1930, Arnold Schoenberg’s one-act opera, Von Heute auf Morgen (From One Day to the Next), received its premiere in Frankfurt. After the performance, the composer addressed the orchestra. He told the players that the difference between what they had played and what he had written in the score was great enough to make another opera!
From Norman Lebrecht’s Book of Musical Anecdotes (The Free Press, 1985).
www.anecdotage.com
Embezzler Goes to Prison
Ana L. Limbaring, a longtime employee of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, admitted to stealing $1.85 million from the center between September of 2000 and September of 2005. Reports say Limbaring falsified bookkeeping entries after diverting bank deposits to her own use.
As a result, the court sentenced Limbaring to 10 years in prison and ordered her to reimburse the non-profit corporation for the full amount taken, plus 10 percent interest, reports the Orange County Register.
www.ocregister.com
‘Plazacasts’ Move North
David Gockley, general director of San Francisco Opera, saw to it that opening night festivities for the company’s summer season included a free telecast of Madama Butterfly on the Civic Center Plaza.
Gockley explained that when he was at Houston Grand Opera, “Plazacasts” were instrumental in enlarging the Texas audience. Although the weather might be more of a problem in California, he is hoping for the same effect there, says the San Francisco Chronicle.
www.sfchronicle.com
www.sfopera.com
Orchestra Goes Home
The Louisiana Philharmonic is playing in New Orleans again. After Hurricane Katrina, the orchestra’s members were dispersed and played with no less than 61 different musical groups—but now the orchestra has reassembled in its native city. The Orpheum and Mahalia Jackson theaters are not yet usable, so the Philharmonic is playing its 12-week spring season at halls in the city’s Convention Center and Loyola University. It is also playing for performances by the New Orleans Opera Company and the New Orleans Ballet Association.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/classicalmusic/3746166.html
Simonetta Puccini Now Owns her Grandfather’s Home
After eight years of legal proceedings in the Italian courts, Giacomo Puccini’s granddaughter Simonetta has gained legal ownership of the composer’s birthplace, in Lucca, according to reports in Italy.
Simonetta already had possession of the Puccini Museum, at Torre del Lago 18 kilometers away, where Puccini composed most of his popular operas. The museum is open to the public and adjoins the site of an annual Puccini festival.
www.giacomopuccini.it/
www.r-ds.com/opera/pucciniana/Pictures/lucca.htm
Baltimore Symphony Draws On its Endowment
The Baltimore Symphony has a debt of $16 million, reports the Baltimore Sun. It also has an accessible endowment of $90 million, so its board of directors has decided to make a one-time withdrawal of $27.5 million. That is enough money to pay off the debt and provide the necessary cash reserve for the coming season, says the report.
The orchestra is placing the rest of the endowment in an independent trust that limits withdrawals to 6 percent per year. The organization hopes the resulting improvement in the orchestra’s financial situation will encourage more donations, says the “Sun.”
www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-te.to.bso30mar30,0,1151996.story?coll=bal-features-headlines
