Summer is Coming In (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
- I blogged about Christian Thielemann's abrupt contract termination in the summer. Despite several prominent musicians (among whom Daniel Barenboim and Plácido Domingo ) signing a petition for the City of Munich to reopen negotiations with Mr Thielemann, the Dresden Semperoper undertook action fast as expected, and has signed Christian Thielemann to a contract starting 2012. -In sad news, Alicia...
Intermezzo (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
24 October marks a special debut for Plácido Domingo - his first professional performance as a baritone. Daniel Barenboim conducts as Plácido takes the title role in Simon Boccanegra at Berlin's Staatsoper unter den Linden. Crazy ticket prices (up to...
Intermezzo (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
Part of French TV channel ARTE's '24 hours in Berlin' programme broadcast on Saturday. Daniel Barenboim is chauffeured to the Lindenoper where he smokes a cigar, tells a joke, rehearses Achim Freyer's perplexing Eugene Onegin with Rolando Villazon, speaks four...
My Right Word (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
Here's Roger Cohen's take on the appointement of an antisemitic, albeit a contrite antisemitic, after being caught out, Farouk Hosny, as UN Cultural czar: ...there are shadows over Hosny. Questioned in Parliament last year about the presence of Israeli books in the Alexandria Library, the minister replied: “Let’s burn these books. If there are any, I will burn them myself before you.”...
Slipped disc (Free subscription) | 09/03/2009
The discussion of whether one religion is respected more than another in Daniel Barenboim's Diwan orchestra is degenerating into a tedious slew of smug atheism. Why bother about religion at all, some respondents seem to feel, if God is dead...
Slipped disc (Free subscription) | 09/02/2009
Most musical responses, public and private, to my discussion of religious anomalies in Daniel Barenboim's Diwan orchestra have taken a markedly hostile tone. Several professional musicians argued that religious faith should have nothing to do with the process of making music. 'A majority of Israeli musicians just like most...
Slipped disc (Free subscription) | 08/30/2009
Criticising Daniel Barenboim's East West Diwan orchestra of young Arab and Israeli players is not something many reviewers are prepared to do. The Diwan brings together musicians from either side of the Middle East divide and the playing is, when I have...
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 08/24/2009
It would be unfair of me to restrict mention of the BBC Proms this summer to a mere offhanded gibe, particularly since it's an institution well worth supporting (as one is reminded in Britain whenever one turns on the television during prime time in summer and finds a full-blown orchestra concert rather than old CSI reruns). But it took an editorial in today's Guardian to draw my attention to one of...
Intermezzo (Free subscription) | 08/24/2009
Prom 48 and 49: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra / Barenboim - Royal Albert Hall, 21 August 2009 The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra exists to prove that music can and should be blind to extraneous politics - a message underlined by Daniel Barenboim's...
ArtsJournal (Free subscription) | 07/17/2009
With Daniel Barenboim as conductor, the Milan company is honoring Tel Aviv's 100th anniversary with a staged Aida at the city's Performing Arts Center and a free performance of Verdi's Requiem for thousands at Yarkon Park....
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