Classical Music USA

Fabio Luisi cancels Covent Garden appearances to stand in for Levine at the Met

James Levine has pulled out of further performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and his surprise replacement for one of the productions – Das Rheingold – is Fabio Luisi. It is a surprise for two reasons: firstly, Luisi is not known as a Wagner specialist, and secondly he is already booked for the nights of the two performances to conduct Aida at the Royal Opera in London.

The improbable arrangement is likely to fuel speculation about moves to find a successor for Levine as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera. He recently stood down as Music Director of the Boston Symphony on health grounds, and he has also cancelled the majority of his planned appearances with the Met for this season. Levine's other cancellation at the Met, La Traviata, will now be covered by Marco Armiliato. Meanwhile, Aida at Covent Garden will be conducted by Daniele Rustioni.

Alex Ross in Australia to curate ACO season

The influential music critic and author Alex Ross is in Australia to curate a season of concerts based on his two best-sellers The Rest is Noise and Listen to This.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra perform two programmes, each linked to the musical themes explored in the volumes. In The Rest is Noise, the range of orchestral works from the 20^th century is explored, taking in composers from Richard Strauss to Xenakis. Listen to This sets its chronological boundaries wider, with music from Dowland to John Adams.

The orchestra are touring the two concerts to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Wollongong until the 19^th of March. Alex Ross is giving a talk an hour before each performance.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.aco.com.au/Default.aspx?url=/listentothis

Busy conducting schedule means Salonen misses composition deadline

The première of a new work by Esa-Pekka Salonen, scheduled for next Wednesday, has had to be postponed because the work is not yet complete.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman was to have premièred Humoresque at the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles and then given a second performance at Carnegie Hall on 18 March. The recitals will now go ahead without the new work.

Salonen's conducting commitments for March explain the delay. He is currently in the middle of a two-week residency with the Chicago Symphony, and before the month is out he will also have conducted a concert series with the New York Philharmonic, as well as a memorial concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in tribute to the orchestra's former manager Ernest Fleischmann.

Composer Aldo Clementi dies aged 86

The Italian composer or Sicilian birth Aldo Clementi has died at the age of 86.

Clementi was the last surviving member of the generation of influential avant-garde Italian composers that included Berio, Nono and Maderna. He studied with Alfredo Sangiorgi and Goffredo Petrassi, and later attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses, where he was to meet Bruno Maderna, who was to prove a decisive influence.

Clementi's work encompasses serial and post-serial techniques, often employing densely constructed counterpoint. He received commissions from festivals and ensembles around Europe, including from La Scala, for whom he wrote his opera Carillon.

He was also active as a teacher, and from 1971 to 1992 taught music theory at the University of Bolognia.

Clementi died 3 March. His funeral took place on Saturday at the Church of Santa Maria di Montesanto in Rome.

Levine quits Boston Symphony

James Levine is to step down as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2004. The conductor has suffered a series of medical problems in recent years, particularly with his back, that have caused him to cancel a number of engagements.

Levine has said that he does not plan to sever all links with the orchestra, and intends to return in a less demanding capacity when his health improves.

Despite his continuing medical problems, Levine will continue in his other position as Music Director at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, even conducting upcoming instalments of their Ring cycle in the coming months.

Jim Jarmusch at work on first opera project

The maverick independent film maker Jim Jarmusch has announced that he is working on his first opera, a work about the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla and modeled on the conventions of Baroque music theatre.

The evening-length show is being devised in collaboration with composer-writer Phil Kline. According to Jarmusch, the work will combine true stories, fantasies and myths about the inventor, focusing on his time in New York.

Nikola Tesla was an ethnic Serb raised in Croatia. After moving to America in 1884, he worked with Edison on a variety of electrical engineering projects, and is considered by some to be the real inventor of the wireless. His story will be told in a series of tableaus, starting at Tesla’s home in the Lika Mountains of Croatia and then moving to New York. The ensemble will be made up of string quartet, four electric guitars, keyboard and a small children's chorus.

The work is scheduled for completion in 2013, when it will tour the States.

Opera singer thrown out of Vienna taxi for being black

An Afro-American opera singer has reported that she was thrown out of a Vienna taxi two weeks ago in a racially motivated incident.

Soprano Angel Joy Blue, who is in the city to sing the role of Female Chorus in Britten’s "The Rape of Lucretia" at the Theater an der Wien, says that after she got in the cab "The driver said: ‘I don't drive black women - get out!’ I did so – and started to cry. All I wanted in that moment was to get away from here."

 The incident occurred at the taxi stand outside the Staatsoper at about 9.30 on 10 February. The singer says that a Caribbean taxi driver then intervened, leading to a heated argument between the two men.

 Blue has called for the cab driver to be punished, a demand that has been echoed by a number of Austrian politicians, including Sandra Frauenberger of the Social Democratic Party. However, Andreas Curda of the Association of Taxi Drivers in Vienna, said that without his license number he will be all but impossible to trace. 

Details emerge of Paul McCartney’s ballet project

Paul McCartney is working with the New York City Ballet on his first ever dance score. The work, entitled ‘Ocean’s Kingdom’ is already in the advanced stages of composition, and the first act is to be played through for the dancers today.

McCartney explains in an interview with the New York Times that it is basically a “romantic story”, set at the intersection of two worlds, the ocean kingdom, which represents purity, and the earth kingdom, who are “the sort of baddies”.

As with his previous classical projects, McCartney has enlisted the help of an orchestrator to assist with the final score, in this case David H. Koch. However, Peter Martins, who will be choreographing the production, insists that the conception of the work, including its plot and scenarios, are all McCartney’s work.

“This is Paul’s baby,” Mr. Martins said, adding “He even has choreographic suggestions. He did a nice little jump for me. I said, ‘To me, Paul, that needs work.’ ”

“Ocean’s Kingdom” will première in New York on 22 September.

Tight security surrounds Israel Philharmonic tour of US amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations

The annual tour of the United States by the Israel Philharmonic is taking place under unusually high security after pro-Palestinian groups threatened to disrupt the concerts.

The tour began on Sunday in Miami, and yesterday reached New York, where the the pro-Palestinian group Adalah New York staged a protest outside Carnegie Hall.

A spokesperson for the orchestra said "Despite the alerts, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will not give up a single concert. The US tour has turned into a tradition, and we don't have any intentions of folding in the face of threats. All the concerts have been sold out for five months, and we will not disappoint the audience."

An announcement by Abalah NY read "By serving as cultural ambassadors for Israel, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is supporting the Israeli government's “Brand Israel” initiative, a campaign by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to divert public attention from Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people."

The group has also begun exposing the business dealings and political views of the orchestra's major donors. One of its patrons, the British-based billionaire businessman Lev Leviev, is accused by the group of heavy investment in controversial Israeli settlements. Leviev's fortune derives from his investment in the diamond industry, and accusations have also been made of human rights abuses by a security company hired by Leviev to guard diamond mines in Angola.

Critics hail Royal Opera's Anna Nicole a hit, though not a masterpiece

Press coverage for Anna Nicole, the new work by Mark Anthony Turnage and Richard Jones that premièred at the Royal Opera House last night, has been exceptional. The copious reviews and articles that have appeared in this morning's papers have been broadly positive of the work, and uniformly so of the production.

David Gillard of the Daily Mail describes the opera as "a glittering modern morality tale that condemns a soulless society that worships at the shrine of silicone implants and Jimmy Choo shoes." Rupert Christiansen compares the work favourably with Turnage's previous operas in his Telegraph review, which concludes "I’ll eat my six-gallon hat if it’s not a stonking great hit." Meanwhile Jessica Duchen, writing in the Independent, laid to rest any concerns that the music might not keep pace with the drama, calling the score "varied, acidic, lyrical and occasionally heartbreaking."

The most prominent critical voice has been that of Andrew Clements in the Guardian. He was unconvinced by the music and the dramaturgy. He writes of the work's conclusion "The ending is undeniably tragic, but perversely unmoving, since most of the music Turnage provides for her never suggests or seems to look for sympathy."

Further afield, the celebrity gossip site TMZ ran a story this morning that the family of Anna Nicole Smith are considering legal action over the work. Larry Birkhead, Smith's former partner and the father of her daughter, compared the show to a "a sleazy tabloid", before adding a veiled legal threat "If [the producers] are not careful, they'll get more than diet pills in the mail."