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December 9, 2008
It is nothing if not ingratiating. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Robert Spano, brought its concert version of Osvaldo Golijov’s and David Henry Hwang’s opera Ainadamar to Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon, and all the composer’s usual charms were in evidence: the vital pan-Hispanic rhythms, the grateful singing lines, the clean textures. Flamenco vocalism is intrinsically histrionic, and Golijov, quoting it in full here, spurs Dawn Upshaw to a performance of such scenery-chewing extremism that she makes Aprile Millo seem like Vanessa Redgrave in The Year of Magical Thinking. read more »
December 7, 2008From the Times:
“The Birgit Nilsson Foundation said it would begin awarding a $1 million prize, which it is calling the largest such prize in classical music. The foundation, established by Ms. Nilsson, the Swedish soprano who died in 2005, will award the prize every two to three years to reward the outstanding achievement of a concert or opera singer, a classical or opera conductor, or a specific production by an opera company.”
I’m assuming this money comes from investments of the fees Birgit Nilsson earned by singing music in the world’s great opera companies over her forty-year career. I’m trying to remember how such music came to be! I’m sure it’ll come to me.
December 4, 2008A splash of Champagne, please, to J and to radiant Hila, both of whom were nominated for Grammy Awards this morning for Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan. Thanks, too, to JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic, who performed the piece with such sweep and soul.