Night sky at sunset
Laurel District, Oakland
March, 2020
Friday, April 30, 2021
Monday, April 26, 2021
Family Connections
If a couple of names in my previous post seemed familiar, you can consider yourself alert and on top of things: the conductors Ken-David Masur and Joshua Weilerstein, who will be appearing at San Francisco Symphony in the near future, come from musical families. Masur is the son of the late Kurt Masur, who led the NY Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Weilerstein's parents are Donald Weilerstein, distinguished teacher and longtime first violin of the Cleveland Quartet, and Vivian Hornick Weilerstein, pianist. His sister is the cellist Alicia Weilerstein.
Coming from such families gives you a leg up, in exposure to music, in early training, in name recognition, in the people you meet socially and in the business, contacts most of us just haven't got access to. The brilliant Kate (McMansion Hell) Wagner wrote an article in 2019 about what it's like to try to make it even in the lower echelons of classical music if you come from a less-privileged family. Think about it: classical music just isn't a meritocracy, owing to the different access and privilege that different people have.
The Return of San Francisco Symphony
Photo by Lisa Hirsch
I think I might be up for this! The announced programs are certainly tasty.
Here's the schedule as of today; full programming will be announced next month:
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Christa Ludwig
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano, died on Saturday, age 93. She was the best of the best, one of the greatest of postwar singers, with a beautiful voice, temperament, sensitivity, musicality. She had it all and was outstanding in every repertory she sang: Mozart, Strauss, Wagner, Lieder. I have one oddity around that is...not...quite....right: a Rossini aria, in German, made during the years when you heard opera in the vernacular in many European countries. But of all her recordings that I know, that's the only even slightly off item.
There are a couple of Immolations, delivered with such force and imagination that you realize that had she been a soprano, she would have been on the same lofty plateau as Varnay and Nilsson. Of course, you can tell this from her Brangäne, her Fricka, her Ortrud, her Dyer's Wife, and on and on; from her Mahler, especially on Klemperer's Das Lied von der Erde; her Mozart, where I first heard her on Klemperer's Magic Flute, as one of the Queen of the Night's ladies; as the Witch in Hansel und Gretel, which she said was her favorite role.
To my great regret, I never heard her live; she retired from opera around when I got seriously interested, and sang at San Francisco Opera only once anyway, in an early-70s Rosenkavalier. I'm grateful for her enormous recorded legacy, even though it's not the same.
RIP Christa Ludwig; you were one of the giants.
Friday, April 23, 2021
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
(Belated) Museum Mondays
Artificial Leg
Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret Museum, London
November, 2019
Friday, April 16, 2021
Dudamel to Paris Opera
The NY Times reports that Gustavo Dudamel will become the next music director of the Paris Opera. Well....uh....he has comparatively limited opera experience and my general impression is that the Paris job is complicated, with two houses and a huge schedule. The appointment also overlaps with his music directorship at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he has an excellent orchestra, a great hall, and a fantastic, forward-looking administration to work with. The Times article notes that he's not great with languages, and while things have changed a lot in France, I think you'd better speak French if you're working there.
Lastly, does he get to keep the LA Phil job?! As I've noted repeatedly, there's so much musical talent and skill in the world that it's ridiculous that anyone has more than one major appointment. No, YN-S should not have the Met and Philly; Andris Nelsons should not have the Boston Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, etc., etc.
I had thought that there was a good chance of the Paris job going to Susanna Mälkki. She is the principal guest conductor of the LA Phil, so I guess this further cements the possibility of her become their next music director, should two jobs ten hours apart not actually work for Dudamel.
Open positions:
- Royal Opera, when Sir Antonio Pappano leaves for the LSO in September, 2024.
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, when Robert Spano leaves at the end of 2021-22.
- City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, when MGT leaves at the end of 2021-22
- Baltimore Symphony, because Marin Alsop did not renew her contract there
- Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra following the firing of Daniele Gatti
- Opera Theatre of Saint Louis: Stephen Lord resigned following accusations of sexual harassment. OTSL has not named a new music director.
- Michigan Opera Theater: Stephen Lord resigned following accusations of sexual harassment. MOT has not named a new music director.
- Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. the Teatro Regional's has not named a new music director.
- Minnesota Opera: Michael Christie has left. MO has not named a new music director.
- Sarasota Orchestra after Anu Tali leaves at the end of 2018-2019. Jeffrey Kahane is "artistic advisor" but whether that means he is conducting the orchestra....I do not know.
- Melbourne Symphony: Sir Andrew Davis leaves at the end of 2019. No new music director has been named.
- Virginia Symphony: JoAnn Falletta is now laureate, but no successor has been named.
- Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
- Minnesota Orchestra, when Osmo Vänskä leaves in 2022.
Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting):
- Miguel Harth-Bedoya
- Lionel Bringuier
- Juanjo Mena
- Ludovic Morlot
- Sian Edwards
- Jun Markl
- Ingo Metzmacher
- Jac van Steen
- Mark Wigglesworth
- David Robertson
- Peter Oundjian
- Philippe Auguin
- Kwame Ryan
- Ilan Volkov
- Aleksandr Markovic
- Lothar Koenigs
- Henrik Nanasi
- Carlos Kalmar
And closed:
- Paris Opera signs Gustavo Dudamel to succeed Philippe Jordan.
- London Symphony Orchestra: Sir Antonio Pappano becomes Chief Conductor Designate in September, 2023, Chief Conductor the following year.
- Fort Worth Symphony: Robert Spano to succeed Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
- Oregon Symphony: David Danzmayr succeeds Carlos Kalmar at the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
- Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Maxim Emelyanychev has succeeded Robin Ticciati
- Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä to succeed Daniel Harding
- Montreal Symphony Orchestra: Raphael Payare has succeeded Kent Nagano.
- Richmond Symphony: Valentina Peleggi succeeds Steven Smith.
- Singapore Symphony: Han Graf succeeded Lan Shui.
- BBC National Orchestra of Wales: Ryan Bancroft succeeded Thomas Søndergård
- BRSO hires Sir Simon Rattle to succeed the late Mariss Jansons, effective 2023.
- Jader Bignamini is now Music Director of the Detroit SO, succeeding Leonard Slatkin.
- Opera North: Garry Walker is music director designate
- Sydney Symphony Orchestra names Simone Young their chief conductor; she takes over in two years, succeeding David Roberts.
- San Francisco Opera appoints Eun Sun Kim its music director, starting August 1, 2021. She succeeds Nicola Luisotti.
- Philharmonia Orchestra names Santtu-Matias Rouvali as its next Principal Conductor, starting in 2021-22.
Friday Photo
Davies Symphony Hall
February 29, 2020
The Program
I do realize that I should have run this a few weeks ago.
Monday, April 12, 2021
Museum Mondays
Facade of Sir Paul Pindar's House
Victoria & Albert Museum
London, November, 2019
This facade is all that's left of Sir Paul Pindar's house, one of the great Elizabethan private houses in London's Spitalfields neighborhood. The structure, or part of it, survived well into the 19th century before being demolished, with this bit saved.
Friday, April 09, 2021
Monday, April 05, 2021
Museum Mondays
Virgin and Child
Relief in limestone ("Verona marble")
Italian, c. 1160-80
Victoria & Albert Museum
London, November, 2019
Friday, April 02, 2021
Thursday, April 01, 2021
Spring at OTSL
Opera Theatre of St. Louis has a very nice spring season on offer, all performed outdoors:
- Gianni Schicchi, Puccini
- Highway 1, U.S.A., William Grant Still
- La Voix Humaine, Poulenc
- New Works, Bold Voices (three new short works)
- I Dream a World, a Celebration of Juneteenth
Patricia Racette is singing Elle and directing the Poulenc; the wonderful baritone Will Liverman is in Highway 1, as is soprano Nicole Cabell. The new short works look great, as well; they're by Damien Sneed, Laura Karpman, and Steven Mackey. Leonard Slatkin conducts the Puccini and Still works.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Musical Chairs Update
Well, didn't take long for Sir Antonio Pappano to be appointed to the post Sir Simon Rattle is vacating. Pappano becomes Chief Conductor Designate of the LSO in September, 2023, leaving his job at the Royal Opera vacant the following year.
Open positions:
- Royal Opera, when Sir Antonio Pappano leaves for the LSO in September, 2024.
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, when Robert Spano leaves at the end of 2021-22.
- City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, when MGT leaves at the end of 2021-22
- Baltimore Symphony, because Marin Alsop did not renew her contract there
- Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra following the firing of Daniele Gatti
- Opera Theatre of Saint Louis: Stephen Lord resigned following accusations of sexual harassment. OTSL has not named a new music director.
- Michigan Opera Theater: Stephen Lord resigned following accusations of sexual harassment. MOT has not named a new music director.
- Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. the Teatro Regional's has not named a new music director.
- Minnesota Opera: Michael Christie has left. MO has not named a new music director.
- Sarasota Orchestra after Anu Tali leaves at the end of 2018-2019. Jeffrey Kahane is "artistic advisor" but whether that means he is conducting the orchestra....I do not know.
- Melbourne Symphony: Sir Andrew Davis leaves at the end of 2019. No new music director has been named.
- Opera de Paris, when Philippe Jordan leaves in 2020. No successor has been named.
- Virginia Symphony: JoAnn Falletta is now laureate, but no successor has been named.
- Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
- Minnesota Orchestra, when Osmo Vänskä leaves in 2022.
Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting):
- Miguel Harth-Bedoya
- Lionel Bringuier
- Juanjo Mena
- Ludovic Morlot
- Sian Edwards
- Jun Markl
- Ingo Metzmacher
- Jac van Steen
- Mark Wigglesworth
- David Robertson
- Peter Oundjian
- Philippe Auguin
- Kwame Ryan
- Ilan Volkov
- Aleksandr Markovic
- Lothar Koenigs
- Henrik Nanasi
- Carlos Kalmar
And closed:
- London Symphony Orchestra: Sir Antonio Pappano becomes Chief Conductor Designate in September, 2023, Chief Conductor the following year.
- Fort Worth Symphony: Robert Spano to succeed Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
- Oregon Symphony: David Danzmayr succeeds Carlos Kalmar at the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
- Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Maxim Emelyanychev has succeeded Robin Ticciati
- Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä to succeed Daniel Harding
- Montreal Symphony Orchestra: Raphael Payare has succeeded Kent Nagano.
- Richmond Symphony: Valentina Peleggi succeeds Steven Smith.
- Singapore Symphony: Han Graf succeeded Lan Shui.
- BBC National Orchestra of Wales: Ryan Bancroft succeeded Thomas Søndergård
- BRSO hires Sir Simon Rattle to succeed the late Mariss Jansons, effective 2023.
- Jader Bignamini is now Music Director of the Detroit SO, succeeding Leonard Slatkin.
- Opera North: Garry Walker is music director designate
- Sydney Symphony Orchestra names Simone Young their chief conductor; she takes over in two years, succeeding David Roberts.
- San Francisco Opera appoints Eun Sun Kim its music director, starting August 1, 2021. She succeeds Nicola Luisotti.
- Philharmonia Orchestra names Santtu-Matias Rouvali as its next Principal Conductor, starting in 2021-22.
Read more at Musical Chairs of the Past.
News from London
Something not-quite-old, something very new.
The news came out a few weeks ago that no, London will not be getting a new concert hall after all. This plan, to build a new Centre for Music at the current site of the Museum of London, dates from 2019.
What changed? Brexit and the announcement that Sir Simon Rattle was returning to Germany after a sadly short tenure at the London Symphony Orchestra.
Closely related is today's news: Sir Antonio Pappano will take the helm of the LSO following Rattle's departure. He becomes Chief Conductor Designate in September, 2023, and steps down from Covent Garden at the end of the 2023-24 season. This opens up the top job at the ROH, of course.
Monday, March 29, 2021
Friday, March 26, 2021
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Levine Coverage
Lincoln Center Fountain
Photo by Lisa Hirsch
The coverage of James Levine's demise is....interesting. There are a few people trying to be "fair", meaning they are trying to be "balanced" despite Levine's alleged crimes (and everything noncriminal involved with brushing his health problems under the nearest rug).
I realize that an obituary written by a journalist as news, running in a newspaper, is supposed to assess the whole of its subject's life, but there is such a thing as soft-pedaling and there is definitely quite a bit of that around. There is lots of room for arts-related opinion pieces that really dissect Levine's career and that work to understand how he managed to stay in one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. classical music world for decades despite the rumors that swirled around him. (And why the BSO hired him to be their music director despite the rumors and his health problems.) That's the kind of thing I'd like to see more of.
I want to note a couple of factual items that came out after the announcement of his death:
1. Levine died of natural causes. The exact cause hasn't been released, but in addition to wondering whether he'd died as the result of injuries suffered in a fall, I also wondered whether suicide was the cause.
2. In December, 2019, he married his friend? companion? life partner? Suzanne Thompson, the oboist, with whom he lived for many years. The question marks should be read in the context of his alleged fondness for underage males.
Here's a round-of of coverage of Levine's death. Note that I have not yet read all of this, so there isn't commentary on every link yet. There will be, but not until this weekend.
- Composer, teacher, and performer Elaine Fine discusses the evolution of her thinking about musicians, in a compassionate and thoughtful way.
- Conductor and cellist Kenneth Woods has a scorching blog post that tells you a lot about what kind of a person that Levine was. Unusually, I suggest reading the comments, which are informative and include an extensive comment by a long-time Met orchestra member. I have elsewhere read a report to the effect that Levine would talk to singers through an intermediary, which is weird for someone whose job it is to work with singers.
- Joshua Kosman (SF Chron) tells you about what the reactions to Levine's death tell you about the people making the pronouncements.
- AZ Madonna (Boston Globe) calls for the end of genius-worship. Here is Madonna's earlier call for Peter Gelb's resignation.
- Jeremy Eichler, Globe, obituary
- Anthony Tommasini, NY Times: obituary
- Anthony Tommasini, NY Times: appraisal
- NY Times: timeline of Levine's career
- Boston Symphony, notice of Levine's passing. It is very short, and finishes with two sentences that tell the heart of the story: "The last period of his tenure as BSO music director was plagued by ill health, which resulted in his resignation in 2011. Subsequently, there emerged allegations of sexual improprieties which virtually ended his career as many musical institutions severed ties with him, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra."
- William R. Braun, Opera News, obituary
- Justin Davidson, vulture.com, obituary
- Tim Page, Washington Post, obituary
- Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, appraisal
- Guardian, obituary
- Tom Jacobs, SFCV, appraisal, worse than soft-pedaling. He seems to be trying to excuse Levine somehow. Note the outraged comment from composer and violist Kurt Rohde.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
San Francisco Opera Streams
War Memorial Opera House
Photo by Lisa Hirsch
It's the next batch of streaming performances from San Francisco Opera:
- Donizetti’s Don Pasquale April 3–4
- Getty and Debussy Double Bill of The Fall of the House of Usher April 10–11
- Verdi’s Don Carlo April 17–18
My view of these works? Don Pasquale is very very thin and meets the definition of lightweight and dumb. The cast was good. Regarding the Poe double bill, oy vey. The Debussy is an interesting completion of a fragment. The Getty....uh...well, I'm going to let Joshua Kosman's review of the double bill do the heavy lifting here.
Don Carlo, though: this is a masterwork, one of Verdi's greatest accomplishments. The production is terrible (and on its way to the junkyard if it's not there yet), and the direction was terrible, but the cast was (mostly) tremendous and the conducting just fine. Watch this one; for one thing, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien has retired from opera owing to back problems, so we will sadly not be seeing him here again.
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
You Don't Say.
Received from the Google Search Console; formerly Webmaster Tools:
Here is how some of your top queries performed in the week of Mar 15, 2021 to Mar 21, 2021:
- Query: james levine metropolitan opera
- #1 query on your site
- 2,611 impressions
- 34.39% of total site impressions, more than the 0% it got in the previous weeks.
- Query: james levine
- #2 query on your site
- 668 impressions
- 8.8% of total site impressions, more than the 0% it got in the previous weeks.
Not only is this unsurprising for a classical music blog in the week that James Levine's death was announced, Blogger helpfully includes a panel that's basically Google Analytics Lite, with inflated statistics because it doesn't even try to screen out likely spam, as Analytics does. I happened to check that panel last week.
Monday, March 22, 2021
It's Not Over Yet.
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated quarantine, that is. San Francisco Performances has just canceled or postponed the following performances, some of which I would have loved to see
CANCELLATIONS
April
Natasha Paremski, piano | Sat, April 10, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Sean Jones, “Dizzy Spellz,” trumpet | Fri, April 16, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain | Sat, April 17, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Aaron Diehl, piano | Wed, April 21, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Dreamers’ Circus | Fri, April 23, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor, Attaca Quartet and Timo Andres, piano | Thurs, April 29, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
May
Chiaroscuro Quartet | Sat, May 1, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Golda Schultz, soprano and Jonathan Ware, piano | Tues, May 4, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Thibault Cauvin, guitar | Sat, May 8, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Presented in association with OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts
Danish String Quartet | Thurs, May 13, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
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POSTPONEMENTS
April
The Romeros with Isabel Leonard, soprano | Thurs, April 8, 2021, 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
Alexander String Quartet/Robert Greenberg | Sat, April 10, 2021, 10:00am
Herbst Theatre
May
Alexander String Quartet/Robert Greenberg | Sat, May 1, 2021, 10:00am
Herbst Theatre
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Levine's Reputation
Lincoln Center Fountain
Photo by Lisa Hirsch
The over-inflation of James Levine's reputation comes from various sources. Back when he stepped down as Music Director, Anthony Tommasini praised his interest in modern music and expansion of the repertory, citing Pelleas et Melisande (1902) and Berg's operas (1922; 1937) as evidence. Come ON.
The Met continues this on their home page, where they state the following:
Celebrated for shaping the Met Orchestra and Chorus into the finest in the world, he was also responsible for considerably expanding the Met repertoire. Levine conducted the first-ever Met performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani, I Lombardi and Stiffelio, Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Moses und Aron, Berg’s Lulu, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, as well as the world premieres of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby.
There's plenty of bullshit in that quotation. The Met Orchestra is a terrific group, for sure, the equal of the best American and European orchestras. Saying it's the "first in the world" seems to me to be stretching things, owing to the many, many superb ensembles performing today.
The Chorus is an excellent group, though maybe not as great as, say, the amazing Bayreuth Festival chorus, not to mention this key point: the Met's chorus masters train the chorus, not the music director. The current chorus master is Donald Palumbo; his immediate predecessor was Raymond Hughes; before that was the legendary David Stivender. My recollection is that Stivender should get a lot of credit for the group's excellence and I know that Palumbo is considered to be a terrific musician and chorus master.
If those are all the Met premieres that Levine conducted, I would call that pathetic for his 45-year tenure. I count fifteen (15) operas. They weren't the only Met / world premieres between 1972 and 2017 by any means, and presumably Levine gets some credit for changes to the rep. With a schedule of 20-25 operas annually, though, a conductor who was truly dedicated to expanding the repertory would have found more works new to the Met to lead.
It's also important to remember that Levine stated publicly and has been widely quoted as saying that there just weren't enough new operas that were good enough for the Met. This is also total bullshit, to which the only proper response was "maybe you should get out a little more, Jimmy." Under Levine, the Met managed to perform its second opera composed by a woman, more than a century since the first, and managed to not perform any operas composed by Black people, although the company did manage to commission and perform Tan Dun's The First Emperor.
But the Met was late to an awful lot: the company commissioned Philip Glass's The Voyage, then waited until 2008 for Satyagraha (premiered in 1979) and 2019 for Akhnaten (premiered in 1984). They were decades behind other groups, both production originated at the ENO, and both have been extremely popular. John Adams's Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghofer had long waits, though Doctor Atomic made it to the Met stage only three years after its first performances in San Francisco.
Their Janacek record is also terrible! Except for the two 1925 performances of Jenufa, San Francisco was ahead of the Met in performing The Makropulos Case, Kat'a Kabanova, and modern performances of Jenufa. We've had The Cunning Little Vixen, but (alas) not From the House of the Dead, where the Met did perform it in 2009.
We need also to take a look at Levine's record as music director of the Boston Symphony. I did, the other day, and while his record of performing new music there was better than I thought, it was also narrowly focused. He performed works by Bolcolm, Carter, Ligeti, Wuorinen, Sessions, Harbison, Lutoslawski, Messiaen, Babbitt, Perle, Schuller, Foss, Lieberson, Dawe, Duttileux, Barber, Poulenc, Milhaud among post-war and living composers, plus a fair bit of Berg and Schoenberg.
I would have gone to most of the concerts featuring those composers, but he missed an awful lot of good composers. (You can check this yourself at the BSO's performance archive.)
Lastly, here's Peter Gelb:
“No artist in the 137-year history of the Met had as profound an impact as James Levine,” Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said in a statement. “He raised the Met’s musical standards to new and greater heights during a tenure that spanned five decades.”
It's difficult to compare the impact and influence of artists working in very different periods, and clearly Gelb means "on the Met", but I must note that the Met's chief conductors included Arturo Toscanini, who had a profound impact on orchestral quality and was a champion of new music in the 19th and early 20th centuries, however seemingly conservative he became as he aged. And you can currently find plenty of criticism of Levine's actual conducting, from interpretive blandness to technical deterioration starting in the 1990s, to the point that for at least part of this century, the orchestra was following the concertmaster rather than Levine. Why would a big institution like the Met keep a music director who was losing the ability to conduct? (Toscanini retired from the NBC Symphony after one memory lapse that we know of.) Well, that's an interesting question, now, isn't it.
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