AIX-EN-PROVENCE (FR)--It features an Israeli prime minister, Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, a hit squad, and a Shin Beth spy chief. But this is not another story on the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict but an opera with, … » Read

Hugh Southern, British-born deputy chair of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1982-89, then NEA acting chair (briefly) then Met Opera general manager (even more briefly), died on July 15 in Leesburg, VA. He was 87; his wife reports the … » Read

Music critic Anne Midgette is weary of the hand wringing over the latest demise of a classical music ensemble. What would happen, she asks, “If one-tenth of the energy people expend on reacting to news such as this was expended on actually … » Read

One of his first big hits, Bellini’s La Straniera is among the composer’s most musically daring and dramatically imaginative works. Nevertheless, well before the end of the 19th century it had fallen firmly out of the repertoire. … » Read

The legal troubles of David Daniels, the internationally acclaimed countertenor and University of Michigan (UM) opera professor, have gotten worse. An accusation that Daniels and his husband, Scott Walters, raped a Rice University student in 2010 … » Read

Two key executives have announced their intended departures: Jim Hirsch [pictured], as CEO of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and Christopher Mattaliano, as general director of the Portland (OR) Opera. In a letter to supporters on Wednesday, Hirsch, a … » Read

Bassoonist and MA Top 30 Pro Lecolion Washington ’s latest gig—recording Hans Zimmer’s score for Disney’s remake of The Lion King on the Sony Studios lot in Los Angeles—was a departure from his usual fare. The … » Read

Michael Tilson Thomas joins Sally Field, the group Earth Wind & Fire, Linda Ronstadt, and Sesame Street as a recipient of the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors.  "The Kennedy Center Honors celebrates icons who, through their artistry, have left … » Read

Responding to pressure from the media and its locked-out musicians, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has released the details of its official audit of fiscal 2018. As the orchestra itself pointed out earlier this week , the future looks … » Read

The Seattle Opera (SO) has taken a step to ensure that issues of race and gender inform its programming by appointing its first Scholar-in-Residence. Naomi André is a trained singer with a PhD in musicology from Harvard and currently a … » Read