Chicago Lyric Opera tenor found murdered
Richard Markley, 45, a tenor with Chicago Lyric Opera, apparently was stabbed to death in his North Side apartment, according to the March 1 Chicago Tribune. Colleagues, who became worried Feb. 26 when Markley did not appear at the theater to sing in the Tosca chorus, found his body. The area in which Markley lived has seen 11 other unsolved murders, but police spokesman David Bayless said he didn’t think the tenor’s death is related, noting that the case involved no signs of forced entry.
Markley, who was a member of the Core Supplementary Chorus for the current season, made his debut with Lyric Opera in 1991 as Goro in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and subsequently portrayed roles in Bolcom’s McTeague and Floyd’s Susannah.
www.chicagotribune.com
It pays to read the entire contract!
Deborah Voigt was booked to sing a concert version of Tosca with the Minnesota Orchestra, and to give a recital as part of the Schubert Club’s series, both during the 2005-2006 season, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Unfortunately, her contract with the orchestra specifically said she was not allowed to sing twice in the same market during that season. Such clauses are sometimes ignored, but this time the symphony decided to enforce it, resulting in an embarrassing situation for everyone involved.
www.startribune.com
Actors Equity director to leave post in 2006
Alan Eisenberg has announced that he will not stay on at Actors Equity when his current contract expires. Eisenberg has been with the union for some 25 years and under his leadership, membership has climbed from 28,000 to 46,000. During the same period, actors’ earnings have increased from just under $119 million to more than $250 million.
www.actorsequity.org
Utah Symphony and Opera Company aims for financial recovery
Anne Ewers, CEO of the Utah Symphony and Opera Company, recently announced a recovery program that will involve cutting the pay of office workers, lowering expenses, and requiring a $10,000 donation from each of the company’s 40 board members, according to Utah’s Deseret Morning News.
The company ran up a deficit of $1.7 million in 2003, lost $3.3 million in 2004, and expects to have a shortfall of $3.2 million this year. Since the symphony and opera companies merged in 2002, the company’s budget has increased every year while both ticket sales and donations have fallen off.
The Utah City Guide reports that Christopher McBeth, the opera’s current artistic administrator, will be replacing Ewers as artistic director of Utah Opera. Ewers will retain her position as CEO of US&O.
www.deseretnews.com
www.utahsymphonyopera.org
www.utahcityguide.com
Verdi ‘nails it’ in early rehearsal of Nabucco
A group of carpenters gave Giuseppe Verdi the first assurance that his new opera, Nabucco, would be a success. At a rehearsal for the premiere, the artists were singing poorly, and the orchestra seemed intent mainly on drowning out the noise made by workmen who were repairing the building.
Despite all this confusion, when the chorus began to sing “Va, pensiero” the entire theater immediately quieted down. After just half a dozen measures, the workmen stopped hammering and sat down to listen. To the composer’s greatest surprise, at the end of the piece they broke into the noisiest applause he had heretofore heard!
www.bassocantante.com
Natalie Dessay undergoes surgery
Coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay had microsurgery for the removal of a polyp on her right vocal cord this past fall, says the French newspaper L’Express. The operation marked the second time Dessay has had to stop singing because of vocal problems. In 2002, surgeons removed a nodule from her left vocal cord.
The latest procedure went well, but it is not known how long it will be before the soprano can resume her career. Dessay began to practice in January and hopes to start performing again later this spring, said L’Express.
www.kbaq.org
Changes coming at Curtis Institute?
Founded in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok, Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music has always had enough funds from its endowment to offer an excellent, tuition-free musical education to all of its students. This advantage has allowed the school to select its students according to their talent alone, with no regard to their ability to pay.
To continue this policy, however, Curtis will have to increase its endowment by $40 to $60 million over the next decade. Gary Graffman, the institute’s director, will be stepping down from his post shortly, so it will be up to his replacement to raise the necessary funds.
www.curtis.edu
www.philly.com
Tod Machover invents computer game to teach music
Tod Machover, composer of the opera Resurrection, has been working with toy maker Fisher-Price on a musical toy, the “Symphony Painter.” It allows a child aged 4 or over to select one of 24 musical patterns to be played by one of 24 instruments pictured on a screen. The resulting 10-second piece of music can then be heard on a hand-held device.
Machover hopes programs like this will interest children in making music and possibly encourage them to put in the necessary practice time to learn to play an instrument. He also believes that it will show youngsters they can create their own music, even if at first it comes only in very short segments.
www.bloomberg.com
Musical organizations hiring the cheapest orchestras available
In both the United States and Europe, a great deal of work is going to orchestras that play for the smallest fees. For example, Florida’s Sun Sentinel says the Greater Miami Center Performing Arts Center will be using the Cleveland Orchestra as its resident musical ensemble. This will provide needed extra income for the Ohio group—but it might mean that southern Florida will not form its own ensemble.
In Europe, Ireland’s Wexford Festival is importing a Polish orchestra, reports The Times of London. Actually, the festival has been featuring the Prague Chamber Choir—instead of hiring local singers—since 1995, and has been using various Eastern European orchestras since 2001. This year, the festival talked with Ireland’s National Symphony Orchestra, but Wexford’s chief executive said that using local talent would cost an extra 150,000 euros. www.sunsentinel.com
www.timesonline.co.uk
