Broadcasts Offer Free, Live Opera in Vienna
Casinos Austria is funding the broadcast of every performance at the Vienna State Opera on a 27-foot video wall outside the theater on Herbert von Karajan Platz. The company’s 2007-2008 season begins Sept. 4 with a revival of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. The broadcast plans to feature 300 performances of 60 works free to the public.
www.bundestheater.at/node2/home/news/content/16526.php
Is Opera Hard To Stomach?
A study by Catholic University in Rome shows that singers of opera and other classical music are unusually prone to gastric reflux, according to Science Daily and The Journal of Gastroenterology. Of 350 opera choristers surveyed, 35 percent complained of frequent partial regurgitation of stomach contents, a problem said to affect approximately 17 percent of the general population. The study also found that heartburn is twice as common among opera singers.
www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=Entertainment&article=UPI-1-20070414-19123100-bc-italy-operaburps.xml
Can Scientists Make Any Fiddle Sound Like a Stradivarius?
Scientists at Manchester and Cambridge universities in England have found a way to make much cheaper violins sound as good as those master luthier Stradivarius built 300 years ago in Cremona, according to the UK’s The Guardian. To get that extraordinarily beautiful tone, scientists record the complex vibrations of the strings and the wood of a real Stradivarius violin on a computer, and then program the computer to reproduce the same sound when another, lesser violin is played.
www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2065670,00.html
Delta Airlines Allows Musical Instruments in Cabin
Delta Airlines has recently decided to allow “small” musical instruments to be carried on board all flights, says the Post Chronicle. The Transportation Security Administration has said passengers can carry them on instead of the usual one piece of luggage in addition to a personal item—but airlines have always been, and still are free to make more restrictive rules.
Until recently, the America Federation of Musicians has been suggesting that members avoid flying Delta because the airline did not allow valuable instruments to be carried into the cabin with their owners.
www.postchronicle.com/news/entertainment/article_21277264.shtml
Chicago Radio Station to Broadcast Operas
Chicago radio station WFMT’s network will broadcast previously recorded live opera over the months that the Metropolitan Opera is silent, according to Playbill Arts. From July 7 through Aug. 11, WFMT will broadcast Los Angeles Opera performances of Massenet’s Manon, Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Verdi’s La traviata. After that the station will feature Houston Grand Opera’s productions of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Aida. Just before the Met resumes broadcasting, the network will present San Francisco Opera’s performances of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.
www.wfmt.com (Look for: 2007 Radio Network Opera Broadcast Schedule)
Italian University Offers Master’s Degree to English Speakers
Beginning in September, Bocconi University of Milan, Italy will offer a two-year program taught completely in English that leads to a master’s in “Economics and Management in Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment,” says a CNN report. The school has been awarding bachelor’s degrees in arts management for some years. Now it wants to attract professionals working in various aspects of the arts such as cultural heritage, cultural tourism, music, design, fashion, and media to Milan for courses and internships that will result in a creative exchange of ideas.
www.ir.uni-bocconi.it/
www.artsmanagement.net/index.php?module=Education&func=display&ed_id=141
Lincoln Center Hall to Be Renovated
On the last day of April the Juilliard Orchestra played the final notes to be heard in the original Alice Tully Hall, reports United Press International. Renovations, which will not only completely revamp the hall itself but also add a three-story glassed-in lobby, are expected to cost $700 million. Almost $500 million has already been pledged for the work and the new hall is expected to open some time in late 2008, says the report.
http://imednews.ge/en/news_read/36621/
Turkish Public Schools to Teach Opera
No Turkish school will go without classes in music and the arts, says the Ankara newspaper Today’s Zaman. A joint project sponsored by the ministries of Culture, Tourism, and Education will bring performances of opera and ballet to every part of the country. The pilot project underway at Ankara’s Yenimhalle District, where children are being treated to performances of an opera based on the tale of Snow White. Books, posters, CDs and DVDs have already been distributed to schools across the country so that teachers may ready their classes for performances and visits by artists who will talk to the students about their work in opera and ballet, said the report.
www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=108998&bolum=114
They Must Be Doing Something Right
Dale Loomis, executive director of the Winnipeg Symphony, announced that the orchestra’s subscription sales are currently at a five-year high. Loomis, who took over the post in July of 2006, and the music director, Alexander Mickelthwaite, are at the beginning of their tenures. Both men have been listening very carefully to the desires of their audience, which may have made what seems to be a huge difference in advance ticket sales.
www.wso.mb.ca/milestones.asp
