Met Ticket Sales Down for 2005
The Metropolitan Opera has suffered a downturn in ticket sales, according to a report by The Associated Press. The Met had expected to sell an average of 80 percent of its seats for the past season, but sold only 76 percent. As a result, the company is expected to cut its expenses by about 5 percent across the board for next season.
Peter Gelb will soon replace Joseph Volpe as general manager, so a number of other changes can also be expected, ideally resulting in a return to the average 90 percent of capacity ticket sales of the ‘90s.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/15/entertainment/e152814S24.DTL&hw=opera&sn=001&sc=860
LA Opera Appoints Ashley to Head its Young Artists Program
Los Angeles Opera reports that it has named Karen Ashley, former Columbia Artists Management vice president, to be the director of its new Domingo-Thornton Young Artists Program. A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Ashley has performed as a singer, dancer and actress.
www.laoopera.com/yap
Houston Symphony Makes a Deal with Lakewood Church
Lakewood Church often attracts as many as 40,000 people a week to its Houston services, which are also seen on television. Having the Houston Symphony and Chorus perform at its Christmas concert offered the church a status it had never before attained, while introducing a huge new audience to the orchestra and chorus.
Since the 2005 Christmas concert was a big success, the organizations are discussing the possibility of more holiday concerts, and of making a CD they can sell when the symphony plays at the church next winter.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/3509942.html
Listeners Sue Public Radio Station for Return of Contributions
Detroit public radio station WDET-FM receives 90 percent of its income from listeners’ contributions. Shortly after a pledge drive, the station changed its daytime format from eclectic music to National Public Radio’s talk programming.
Some contributors apparently feel that they paid for music and got talk, so they are suing for either a return to the original format or a refund of their donations, according to The Chicago Tribune. Lawyer Kevin Ernst explains that the litigants contributed to the station for the continuation of the local programs they were used to hearing, not for national programs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0512280225dec28,1,7018924.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Mahler Could Not Admit His Love for an Operetta
Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma, enjoyed a performance of Franz Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) and played some of the music from the operetta when they returned home. Neither of them could remember all that they wanted to play, so they went to a bookstore for the score.
Since the composer did not want it known that he was that fond of an operetta, he asked a myriad of questions about the sale of his own works while Alma memorized passages from the score.
Source: Alma Mahler-Werfel, “Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters” (1940)
www.anecdotage.com [Search for Merry Ruse]
Asia is a Huge Market for Classical Music
Japan and China now supply some of the world’s largest audiences for classical music, according to the website jamaicaobserver.com. Major orchestras and opera companies are already used to touring to Japan, and now China is looking to bring more western culture to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. Not long ago, Germany’s Staatstheater Nürnberg brought an international cast to perform Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung to well-sold houses in Beijing.
Tokyo and its environs have more large concert halls full of serious music enthusiasts than any other metropolitan area in the world. China is teaching music to its children and is likely to produce a huge generation of music consumers in the near future, said the website.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/html/20051228T190000-0500_95491_OBS_SYMPHONY_IN_RED_CHINA_S_CLASSICAL_REVOLUTION.asp
Some Revealing Statistics from Broadway
The Associated Press reports that Broadway musicals have done well in 2005. Although the best seats for Spamalot, Wicked, and Mamma Mia can cost as much as $110 each, box office receipts and attendance in 2005 were higher than the year before.
In 2004, the receipts from Broadway plays and musicals amounted to $749 million, but this past year’s shows brought in $825 million. Audiences increased from 11.33 million to 11.98 million. Theaters were generally more than 80 percent full during 2005, the highest level since 1997.
http://www.linkselection.be/detframe.asp?doit=2468462&what=Broadways-Numbers-for-2005-Are-Strong
Hyperion Records Loses Copyright Suit
Musicologist Lionel Sawkins edited music that had been written by French Baroque composer Michel-Richard de Lalande for the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Hyperion paid Sawkins a fee and regarded the music itself as being in the public domain.
Sawkins sued, asserting that his work on the music gave him a copyright on it. He won his case in both the British high court and its court of appeals, so Hyperion will have to pay him 950,000 pounds sterling, an amount that could deal a deathblow to the company.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1673320,00.html
Does Your Choice of Music Fit Your Personality?
New research from the University of Texas at Austin shows that an individual’s music preferences are indicative of his or her personality, self-perception and cognitive ability.
They found that people who like country music are cheerful, reliable and conventional. Those who prefer heavy metal tend to be physically active risk takers. Hip-hop and rap lovers are usually outgoing, agreeable folks who do not go along with conservative ideals. Those in the study who wanted to hear more complex music like classical or jazz were found to be intelligent and tolerant.
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/news/college/20036/music.html
