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IN Music News THIS WEEK: November 27, 2001
Adams Without Sellars Down Under?
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By Janos Gereben
Adams Without Sellars Down Under?
Now that the Adelaide Festival gave Peter Sellars his walking papers as festival director, the question remains how or even if to present John Adams' El Niño in the spring. Ticket sales, already at 80% of capacity, were suspended because of the uncertainty if the Sellars production could be presented without him — unlikely to hang around the festival.
Sellars' replacement, artistic director Sue Nattrass, is quoted in Melbourne's The Age that "I don't believe El Niño could go on without Peter. All options are open and negotiations are continuing, which is positive." Meanwhile, the large local cast is waiting for the outcome: the State Opera of South Australia chorus, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and three principals, including Kirsti Harms, who is also scheduled to sing the role of Sister Helen Préjean in the 2003 Australian production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, as well as the conductor, Alasdair Neale.
The Adelaide problems are serious enough for Australia (Arts) Council CEO Jennifer Bott to say she hopes the festival would be able to rise above it all. "The achievements and reputation of the Adelaide Festival over 40 years are not destroyed by 18 months of controversy," she said, grimly. Sellars is widely blamed for the premature demise of the Los Angeles Festival he has headed. The possible cancellation of El Niño in Adalaide would follow Adams' loss of the The Death of Klinghoffer Boston Symphony run, the work being considered too close to today's headlines in wake of September 11.
MTT Found Soul-Deficient Hilary Finch, writing in the London Times, raved about the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes after his performance with the London Symphony Orchestra last week, but was less than enchanted by the conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas. Finch would have preferred more from the piano literature, to keep Andsnes on stage, instead of MTT's interpretation of the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony. Why? While she allowed that the conductor "gloried in the drama and daring of Shostakovich's genius," she found that MTT was "less able, or willing, to maintain the bleak, grey intensity of those long horizons of thought where Shostakovich's innermost soul is to be discovered." Hmmmm. Soul to be discovered in thought? Either the conductor or the reviewer must have been looking in the wrong place.
Robert Helps Dies Composer and pianist Robert Helps, 73 — a former professor of music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Stanford, UC-Davis and UC-Berkeley — died in his Tampa, Florida, home on Saturday. Born in New Jersey and a graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Helps has been teaching in recent years at the University of South Florida while maintaining an active career as a composer. The Florida Orchestra premiered his Second Symphony only last year. Mr. Helps' career as a pianist was associated with Milton Babbitt, whose Partitions was dedicated to him when he premiered the work in 1957.
`Revenue Rocked' A new survey of art organizations by the Center for an Urban Future found that "all revenue has been rocked" after September 11, detailing these findings: * Fully 100% of the more than 150 arts organizations surveyed have already seen or expect to experience substantial economic losses over the next three months. * More than 90% of all fundraisers held since the attacks raised significantly less money than originally anticipated. * An estimated 2,000 scheduled school trips to arts organizations have been cancelled since September 11. * The Center estimates that the average arts organization will see losses in revenue of 15% this year; 50% of organizations surveyed reported that major gifts and donations are being cancelled or postponed; government cutbacks are coming in a number of forms, including a 15% cut at New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs, a 10% cut in New York State's cultural budget, and the elimination of state line-item grants.
The Stuttgart Express Logically enough, new SF Opera boss Pamela Rosenberg will bring to the War Memorial some of the singers she has found, employed and cultivated during her long association with the Stuttgart Opera. Among the first of these visitors, I found out last week at a Covent Garden Cosi fan tutte, is mezzo Helene Schneiderman. A wonderful Dorabella in London, the New Jersey-born Stuttgart star since 1984 will sing Rosina in the upcoming San Francisco Barber of Seville. With a great voice, impeccable technique, vast experience and compelling stage presence, Schneiderman should be perfect for any number of lead roles, but one wonders about her choices. Both Dorabella and Rosina are (or should be) among the youngest of opera heroines, with hints of steel just emerging from inexperience and naiveté. There have been, of course, veterans singing these and similar roles successfully, but why not assign them to emerging singers?
The Dresden Agreement After Berlin critics mostly savaged Semyon Bychkov's direction of the new Dresden Walkure, I was delighted to find agreement with my great liking for this simple, clean, well-communicating interpretation (SF Classical Voice, 11/20). Rodney Milnes writes in the London Times: "Freshness… was the watchword… It is hard to describe the Staatskapelle's special qualities. `Contained' might be the word: there is absolutely no fuzz to their sound, no added fat, and the brightness and clarity of their playing is aided by the theater's notoriously clean acoustics. It goes without saying that the playing in all departments is of virtuoso standard… "Bychkov added to the overall clarity with emphasis on balance with the stage, and it sounded as if as much time had been spent rehearsing words as notes… Every sung line was given its full weight, and if this led to some slowish tempos in the third act, so be it." Exactly.
Half-Price Campaign Roles On The Theatre Bay Area promotion of 60+ Bay Area performing-arts organizations selling tickets at half price when a ticket stub is presented from another performance is going on strong, although the major holdouts (SF Opera and Cal Performances) are still not participating. TBA marketing director Belinda Taylor expects the program to peak during the holiday season before it ends on New Year's Eve — unless there is an extension. (Janos Gereben is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group and technology editor for www.the451.com. You can contact him at janos451@earthlink.net.) ©2001 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |