By: Frank Cadenhead Published April 25, 2018 The Hamburg State Opera is suffering a public-relations disaster and it is clearly self-inflicted. When they decided that the popular French soprano Julie Fuchs could not perform the role of Pamina in their production because she was four months pregnant, somebody must have know that this decision would […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead There is good news from the Paris Opéra which might somewhat offset the dismal recent news on this site of sexual harassment and alleged poor management of the Opéra’s world-renowned ballet company. That bad news might go someway to explain the early departure of Benjamin Millepied as ballet director in February of […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead On October 30, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, made an appearance at the Opéra de Strasbourg. No, it was not a gala or a special occasion. It was just to witness a rehearsal of the opera Carmen in its “participatory version.” The Strasbourg opera forces, along with their chorus, Maîtrise de l’Opéra […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead June 15, 2017. An article in Tuesday’s Le Figaro newspaper gives some positive news about the future of the two radio orchestras in France, the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. As we reported in 2015 in Musical America, there was panic when proposals were floated to […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead Today, Sunday May 14, 2017, Emmanuel Macron, the newly-elected President of France is officially installed with much ceremony including a parade down the Champs-Elysées. In an interview on a French classical music website in April, he was asked about his favorite composer. This is his reply: “I have a great admiration for […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead There was considerable concern about the future of the Philharmonie complex when it opened its doors in January of 2015. It was two years later than originally scheduled and almost three times the original cost estimate. It was still not totally finished and was in a poor area of town next to […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead Indefagatable. That might be the word. René Martin already has plenty on his plate but still wants more. His latest creation is a festival which debuts from September 21 to 24 which will unfold in and around iconic Mont-Saint-Michel. The abbey of this tiny island town, whose famed image is only slightly less […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead Two concerts, Thursday and Friday, January 12 and 13, 2017, give a view to the future of the Paris music scene. The Thursday concert, with the first appearance of the new music director of the Orchestre National de France in his new role, gives a positive impression. Emmanuel Krivine, 69, is not […]
Read the rest of this article »Best Laid Plans Department: for the Opéra-Comique, closed for two years, the post-restoration opening remains a story to be continued. Nine performances of Offenbach’s Fantasio in February, with a starry cast, was originally the celebratory opening event of the newly refurbished hall, the iconic Salle Favart. Delays in the promised completion date pushed the Offenbach […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead Odd behavior marked the scheduled appearance of Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the helm of the Russian National Orchestra in Paris on Monday, November 28. The orchestra was at the Philharmonie for a short, two stop, tour. Two days before, at a concert in Baden-Baden, he conducted a program of Prokoviev’s Classical Symphony, the […]
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