By: Frank Cadenhead Today in the New York Times: “Op-Ed: Gitmo Is Killing Me. No charge. No trial. And I’m being force-fed while bound to a chair.” Last night, at the Opéra National de Lyon, stormy applause at the final performance of an important new opera by Thierry Escaich, Claude, a tale told by Victor [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead This speech, by the European Commission president, cannot be in more sharp contrast to my recent posts regarding declining support for the arts in America. The speech, given April 4, 2013, should be read in its entirety: Speech by European Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso: “Culture: the cement that binds Europe [...]
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Coming two days after my last post and using direct, confrontational language (emphasis in the original) there was this from the Music Think Tank: “Both the musicians and the management of our major orchestras are overpaid. They have failed to adapt to a changing market.”) It drives home the need for arts groups to make [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead In America, a decades-long earthquake in the arts continues. From my perspective in France, I cannot be an authority on this matter but the evidence seems to exist and it looks like something someone in America should acknowledge. The decline in attendance figures for America’s opera houses and symphony orchestras was well [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead The Vienna Philharmonic is at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées tonight, March 12th. A single work, the vast Bruckner Eighth Symphony, will be conducted by Zubin Mehta and I have expensive tickets. Should I go? Should anyone go? Should this orchestra be boycotted? Is their fine performances as the chief emissary of Austrian [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead Musicians have a long, tough road to achieve professional status. A recent study by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences suggests that, even after musicians secure a good job, health issues can remain and even increase. Interviewing some 77 musicians who work in the pit of the Zurich Opera they found that [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead Here are some facts about the 2013 cuts in the culture budget in France, the first in 33 years. The total culture budget was cut 4.3%. A full one percent was absorbed by canceling little-mourned building projects not yet started. The cuts, now just above 3%, are being equally shared among the [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead The 20th annual awards ceremony, Victoires de la Musique Classique, was televised around France on Monday, February 25. This year it was celebrated in the new 1400 seat concert hall in Bordeaux which opened just last month. The hall is modern and warm and, critics say, has impressive, clear acoustics. After two [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead For those of you who were in Madrid last Saturday night for the opening of Michael Haneke’s new production of Cosi Fan Tutti and did not see him at the curtain call, the following letter was inside the program: “Dear attendees to the premiere: I feel an obligation to express my apologies [...]
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By: Frank Cadenhead Thursday night, February 7, was the eagerly-anticipated opening night of Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Théâtre de Champs-Elysées. The press moaned that the last production has been more than twenty years ago. This night, however, there was not a clue as to why this opera, with its laughable plot and dull music, [...]
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