Baritone Peter Braithwaite: "These folk traditions are really strong; they’re about resistance and they’re about remembrance of former freedoms, but they’re also about laying something down that can be passed on to future generations." - The Guardian (UK)
"It was not well received, and I was devastated by the reaction. ... It was way too long in San Francisco and Amsterdam. The stories are still great, but it's considerably shorter now. I've made significant changes that I think focus on the fates of these characters." - San Francisco Classical Voice
With the Academy's nod for his score for Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans, the 90-year-old composer has tallied 53 nominations (and counting), trailing only Walt Disney (with 59) for the most individual Oscar nominations in history. - The Hollywood Reporter
"It seems ironic that music, one of the fields hardest hit by the global pandemic, may prove to be an effective treatment specifically for COVID-related inflammation, according to a study." - Ludwig Van
Their reasoning: "Patronising claptrap. So, young people will only accept opera if it’s put on in a car park. The lower orders can make do with an aria in a pub. And the rich and middle-aged have their country-house operas. It is deeply depressing." - The Independent (UK)
"In a forthcoming book, Why Beethoven, Norman Lebrecht presents evidence that the Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor has been known as Für Elise (For Elise) purely due to a misreading of the dedication on the now-lost 1810 manuscript." - The Observer (UK)
‘Nothing,’ Beethoven once said, ‘is more intolerable than having to admit to yourself your own errors.’ In the Pastoral he lets us into that furtive admission. - The Spectator
Mahler's Fifth is "a wide-open work, ripe for individual interpretation and impeccably suiting a film that doesn’t provide easy answers." - The Guardian (UK)
Performers have to meet all kinds of requirements for visas, ranging from the precise addresses where they're staying to financial statements to tickets home - on the same airline. Even then, they're regularly denied access to European venues and tours. - The Observer (UK)
The arts presenter removed the Philly Pops as a resident company, "shutting the group out of Verizon Hall and removing customers’ ability to buy Pops tickets from its website." - Philadelphia Inquirer
Noisenights are run via a crowdfunding model—events are announced, artists and venues secured, and when audience members buy tickets, they are helping to create a fully-funded event. Each of the 17 noisenights so far has sold out. - Van
"(The venue) has told the Philly Pops that unless it immediately comes up with rent from its just-finished holiday run, as well as advance payments for upcoming concerts in February, the Pops will have to vacate the Kimmel and will no longer be allowed to perform there." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
While most US opera companies have returned to performing live and pulled back from the streaming video they offered at the height of COVID, a few — notably Experiments in Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Opera Philadelphia — have continued, even trying operatic series with showrunners and writers' rooms. - San Francisco Classical Voice
The hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee will take place Jan. 24, the panel announced late Tuesday, and address concerns that Ticketmaster’s market control over the ticketing industry has done a great disservice to consumers. - Huffington Post
In addition to speaking out regularly in the media, the 38-year-old native of Kyiv devotes time to raising money for relief efforts and gathering generators, stoves, and the like to ship to her compatriots, who regularly lose electricity, and sometimes their homes and possessions, to Russian missiles. - The New York Times
