HGO announced a gift of $22 million, the largest in the organization’s 68-year history. The benefactors: Sarah and Ernest Butler, two Austin-based opera fans who have been subscribers for 35 years and attendees for even longer. - Houston Chronicle
There are many technical similarities between classical music, especially music from the baroque period, and metal, which others more versed in music theory are better qualified than I am to discuss. At a fundamental level, both types of music are interested in exploring complexity. - 3 Quarks Daily
"The Italian government has a new plan to buy the home of composer Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. They will be partnering with opera houses throughout Italy to present concerts featuring music by Verdi, with all proceeds going towards purchasing the composer's home." - Ludwig Van
The complaint, which the Florida-based news outlet The Floridian published a copy of online, said that the foundation used “Christmas-themed promotional materials” that did not give advance notice of the “sexually explicit nature” of the show’s contents. The materials said all ages were welcome. - The Hill
Since the Metropolitan Opera announced its plans to change the policy towards the repertory and schedules to remedy a difficult financial situation the institution is facing after the pandemic, the audience simply cannot stop expressing displeasure with General Manager Peter Gelb’s new strategy. - OperaWire
Nézet-Séguin "has led the Philadelphia Orchestra to accolades and worked to broaden its repertory, including by promoting the music of overlooked composers." He'll now be both music and artistic director. - The New York Times
The Met win was for "Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, a work based on the memoir of the same name by the journalist and columnist Charles M. Blow." Philadelphia, Chicago, and the Broadway cast recording of Into the Woods also won. - Limelight
Few viral stars, and ... whew, what, is this 2023? "This year’s best artist category – which replaced the gendered best male/female categories – has been criticised for its all-male nominees." - The Guardian (UK)
Freeze Corleone was big on Spotify, and the label wanted him. "The memo, sent in September 2021 by two executives in the company’s French office, weighed the risks of hate speech against the financial upside of working with him." - The New York Times
And also, make it so that the contestants don't know they're on a reality TV show - "This isn’t a documentary – it’s a competition. They are secretly being judged by two globally renowned maestros: classical virtuoso Lang Lang and pop star Mika." - The Guardian (UK)
First of all, Beyoncé "needs three wins to tie, and four to beat the conductor Georg Solti, who holds the record for most overall wins." - The New York Times
Like his hero Duke Ellington, he had a gift for reconciling musical experiment with the immediacy of pop, finding freedom in the constraints of a verse-chorus-bridge grammar that might otherwise default to clichés. - The Baffler
Tim Jackson co-presented the ’92 season with Jimmy Lyons, who launched the festival with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph J. Gleason in 1958. By 1993, Jackson took over and quickly re-established the reputation of the longest continuously running jazz festival as one of the genre’s pre-eminent events. - San Francisco Chronicle
