If ever you need to know what's wrong with the Metropolitan Opera and its press puppet, the New York Times, look no further than the opening paragraph of last weekend's puff piece for tonight's production of Janacek's From the House of the Dead. Here goes: Just as a diva regards her Metropolitan Opera debut as proof that she has arrived, a Met premiere confers on a work a lasting seal of approval. On Thursday, that honor will fall to Leos Janacek's From the House of the Dead... Read that … [Read more...]
The Record Doctor is back
Surgery opens next Monday, Nov 9, at 1400 on WNYC Soundcheck, but the website will open for patient registration before the end of this week. Do check the site for details. A description of the practice can be found here. All musical ailments sensitively treated. If you have any life crises that might be helped by a piece of music, do send us a mail. And please ask friends to take their aches and pains to The Record Doctor. On Sunday night Nov 8 the Record … [Read more...]
Other side of the Dude
Amid the hoopla and hullabaloo of Gustavo Dudamel's arrival in Los Angeles, few seem to have noticed that he has quietly renewed as music director in Gothenburg, Swden, for the next three years. The Swedes can never be faulted for discretion. Over the last four years they have enabled the Venezuelan wonderstick to learn his repertoire out of the world's limelight, working with a band that expects a conductor to push out the envelope every time he steps on the rostrum. Gothenburg, I … [Read more...]

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