Word of operatic baritone Cornell MacNeil’s passing had spread over the weekend, and this morning’s NY Times obit by Jonathan Kandell provides the details — including comments from James Levine and a few details I hadn’t known. MacNeil had a terrific international career — including over 600 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera.
Category Archives: Classical Music News
Inside the New York City Opera Meltdown
Opera Chic has a link-rich update on the rebellion going on among opera’s artistic elite over the New York City Opera’s decision to leav Lincoln center. Yes, it’s ugly.
Giorgio Tozzi, 1923-2011
Tozzi was a much-beloved Metropolitan Opera basso and, from 1991 to 2006, a professor at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. And you might not have known he was born George John Tozzi in Chicago. Margalit Fox fills in more at the NY Times, and Anastasia Tsioulcas reports for NPR.
The Great Fake Prominent International Orchestra Swindle
Daniel Wakin has the juicy details at the NY Times. The truth is that the “Great International Orchestra Swindle” is not a terribly well-kept secret – and arguably one of the biggest scandals – in the American classical music business.
It’s also worth noting that on more than one occasion I’ve seen fine local free-lancers padding out the ranks of a couple of legitimate “name” Russian orchestras performing in New York City. It might be a worthwhile topic for a follow-up article by Wakin, who has become a “must-read” music journalist.
Bernard Greenhouse, 1916-2011
Greenhouse was a giant of chamber music and a prominent cello pedagogue. Margalit Fox’s obituary has just gone live at the NY Times.
Another Look at the Philadelphia Orchestra Mess
“[W]hat we have here is a labor negotiation masquerading as a bankruptcy case” – especially given that the Philadelphia Orchestra’s assets are larger than their liabilities. The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Peter Dobrin has written a fact-filled backgrounder on the circumstances surrounding the orchestra management’s bankruptcy filing.
Portent of Continuing East Coast Symphonic Mess
Phenomenal clarinetist Ricardo Morales is leaving the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of next season to become principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic.
More Sad News — Peter Lieberson, 1946-2011; Max Mathews, 1926-2011
Lieberson, whose colorful music was greatly inspired by his devotion to the Vajrayana school of Buddhism, but is best known for the song cycles he worte for his late wiffe Lorraine. He was remarkably warm and easygoing the handful of times I would run into him in New York City, and had an amazing depth of knowledge about jazz. I never had the chance to meet Mathews, but he was an enormously important figure in postwar music as not only arguably the first computer composer but an innovator in the field of digital music creation and systems.
Deal in Detroit?
Both Michael Hodges at Detroit News and Daniel Wakin at nytimes.com report on a possible deal. The deal may salvage the summer concert schedule.
UPDATE: Both parties have reached a tentative deal, per Wakin @ nytimes.com.
Dino Anagnost, 1943-2011
Anagnost was the music director of the poineering New York City chamber orchestra The Little Orchestra Society, and equally at home before audiences of adults and children. He had an amazing knack for adventurous and innovative programming. Margalit Fox has more details at nytimes.com.