EVENTS AND FESTIVALSTanglewood Contemporary Festival: Return to an Abandoned Style?July 24, 2008 Two unusual items in the “Carter’s Century” exhibition at Tanglewood got me thinking about a side of Elliott Carter’s work that we don’t hear much about, even at a lavish festival like the one taking place here. NBR Opera to Perform at the 11th NBR Arts Award July 24, 2008 Performances by the Royal NZ Ballet, NBR Opera emerging artists, the APO and Tim Beveridge will be among the highlights at this year’s black tie gala for the 11th Annual National Business Review Awards for Sponsorship of the Arts. Royal Opera House tries to attract popular audience July 24, 2008 London's Royal Opera House is throwing open its doors to readers of the tabloid newspaper The Sun, in a bid to attract new audiences. The respected venue will open its autumn season with a performance of Don Giovanni on Sept. 8, but only for readers of the paper, famous for its Page Three topless models. Bringing the baroque and British music to the BBC July 22, 2008 In The Birth of British Music for BBC TWO, acclaimed conductor Charles Hazlewood tells the story of how Britishness was built in sound in the two centuries from 1650 to 1850 and how classical music became a key component of our national identity. Classical music website in mobile Proms campaign July 22, 2008 Classical music download website Classical.com is using Bluetooth marketing at the Royal Albert Hall during The Proms season. Ravinia Festival Notes: Rotator cuff surgery sidelines Itzhak Perlman July 22, 2008 Itzhak Perlman has canceled his playing and conducting dates at Ravinia Aug. 5 and 6. Doctors have advised him to fully rest while recuperating from rotator cuff surgery. Miriam Fried will replace him as soloist in the Beethoven Violin Concerto on Aug. 5, with James Conlon conducting. Conlon will take over the concert Perlman was to have directed on Aug. 6. The program will remain as announced, except for Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 replacing the composer's Fifth Symphony. After 57 years, Wolfgang Wagner bows out in Bayreuth July 21, 2008 The Richard Wagner bicentenary is still five years off and the Bayreuth Festival's 100th edition even further along in 2011, but this year's events on the fabled Green Hill in Germany will make history for another reason. The 97th Bayreuth Festival starting Friday will be the last under the direction of the composer's grandson, Wolfgang, who is retiring after an astonishing 57 years on the throne. Baalbek Festival returns from a two-year hiatus July 18, 2008 After a two-year hiatus due to political unrest, aerial bombardment and the like, the Baalbek International Festival returns this year with a program of six weekly, one-off performances from July 27 to August 23. As usual, the event will offer a variety of genres, from pop and "World Music" to opera and jazz to oriental and Western classical music. Festival Mozaic's classical lineup begins Friday July 18, 2008 Festival Mozaic’s classical lineup begins Friday, with 10 days of music from Bach and Beethoven to modern composers. Zubin Mehta fans, get set for some Mumbai magic July 18, 2008 Zubin Mehta, the internationally acclaimed Los Angeles-based music conductor of Indian origin, will enthral his fans at a series of charity concerts here in October. National Endowment for the Arts Launches Fifth Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism July 16, 2008 The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University today announced the fifth NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera. The institute, which will take place November 8-18 at Columbia University, is part of a series of NEA-funded programs across the country that focus on improving arts criticism in classical music, opera, theater, and dance. Lesbian Dame honoured at Manchester Pride's classical music events July 16, 2008 Suffragette activist and "establishment lesbian" Dame Ethel Smyth is to be honoured as part of Manchester Pride's first classical music series. A series of chamber music concerts will be held at BBC Manchester to celebrate the spirit of equality. To mark the 150th anniversary of her birth, thet will feature works by Dame Ethel. medici.tv Summer Webcast Series Returns to the Verbier Festival July 18 July 15, 2008 Having kicked off its summer season last month from Aspen, the free online service by French music producer Medici Arts (under the direction of Hervé Boissière) moves on to Switzerland where the upcoming coverage will feature a veritable “who’s who” of the world’s leading classical music artists. The 2008 BBC Proms season July 15, 2008 The 2008 BBC Proms seasonbegins on Friday 18 July. 76 concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and 8 weekly chamber music recitals at Cadogan Hall. Trombones ... and then some July 13, 2008 Philadelphia Orchestra principal trombonist Nitzan Haroz will perform some of that little-known repertoire in an upcoming installment of Ocean Grove's Summer Stars Concert Series. The program features a transcribed Sonata by Benedetto Marcello, a Fantasy by Sigismond Stojowski, a Romance by Axel Jorgensen — ring a bell? No? Me neither. PRO slates annual Opera Camp for kids July 13, 2008 Pacific Repertory Opera will hold this summer’s Opera Camp from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 28 to Aug. 8 at Grace Church, 1350 Osos St., San Luis Obispo. Students ages 8 to 15 are invited to experience the excitement of live performance in the production of five short opera fables and to create a student opera. Giant Last Choir Standing sing-song is announced for Hull July 10, 2008 People in Hull are being invited to join a free giant city centre sing-song in conjunction with Last Choir Standing, BBC One's new Saturday night search to find the nation's favourite choir. Proms in the Park in SalfordProms in the Park in Salford July 10, 2008
Salford is hosting an amazing outdoor concert at Buile Hill Park on Saturday 13 September featuring the award-winning BBC Philharmonic as well as a guest performance from the fabulous Russell Watson.
Classical and Opera: Flying the flag for excellence in music July 09, 2008 IN A COUPLE of weeks’ time, the world’s biggest orchestral showcase gets underway. The BBC Proms, now in its 114th year and sporting more concerts than ever before, puts just about every other international festival in the shade. Some £9 million of licence-payers’ money goes into making its 84 concerts happen. An Inconvenient Truth: The Opera? July 09, 2008
The director of 1973’s horror cult classic The Exorcist, William Friedkin, has been hired to direct the operatic version of a real life horror tale – Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
The opera will premiere at Milan’s renowned La Scala Opera House in 2011. It will be written by poet J.D. MCClatchy and composed by Giorgio Battistelli. |

