Wagner described his ideal opera as a “total work of art”, meaning an artwork that brings together all the arts into a single masterwork": music, dance, drama, literature, and visual art. An artwork that uses all the arts, especially in lush Romantic operas like Puccini’s, can be like a circus of sensation. - Current Affairs
"Ghetto Classics provides lessons to about 1,000 students, who feed three orchestras, a choir and a dance group. … (The organization) works in schools and community centers in Nairobi and Mombasa, but its headquarters is in the St. John compound in Korogocho." - The Washington Post (MSN)
Step into a music class today and you might find laptops, turntables and MIDI controllers joining the expected clarinets, recorders and violins. From elementary through post-secondary schooling, some teachers are expanding music education and encouraging more students to try more contemporary forms of music-making. - CBC
Swift’s music still forms the basis of their interest in her. Fans study it like scripture, offering various interpretations of the lyrics. Uniting these interpretations is a desire to understand more about the figure of Swift and who she “really” is. - The Conversation
"A wax cylinder containing the oldest recorded country song was discovered in Pennsylvania. The track, 'Thompson's Old Gray Mule,' was recorded in 1891 and sung by Louis Vasnier, a Black man from New Orleans." - BBC
For old time’s sake, we sing “Auld Lang Syne.” We embrace the waltz to remember and ward off depression. Everywhere in the world there are New Year’s concerts featuring Strauss waltzes. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
In recent years, a study quantified the audible differences between her recordings of Tosca and Nabucco, a decade apart. They found that she had become increasingly sharp, irregular and unstable. What prompted the demise of this iconic voice has been a subject of hot debate in the operatic world. - The Conversation
"I would say that the era for old uprights is coming to a close. The inevitability is that one day, those pianos will be gone… The ones that have musical value — yeah, I'm sad about those." - CBC
Carmen Souza, a Cape Verdean musician, realized that certain words she knew from her childhood derived from British sailors and merchants who "came for the cheap labour, goats, donkeys, salt, turtles, amber and archil,” and “built roads and bridges and developed the natural ports.” - BBC
“His music speaks to something timeless: the longing for connection, and the pain at not finding it. He gives voice, and then consolation, to that part of us that feels alone in the world even when surrounded by people who care for us.” - The New York Times
Early on, many in the Protestant movement saw organ music as just another Popish frippery; even Luther disapproved of it at first. He changed his mind, of course, and the presence of the organ in church became a major point of conflict, and even identity, between Lutherans and Calvinists. - History Today
The company, which canceled all performances and laid off staff last last year, filed earlier this month for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the legal step toward liquidating its assets and closing itself down. - BroadwayWorld
Believing that you possess a perfect understanding of what the people want is a poor way to run an opera company—or any organization, up to and including a nation. What we call the “audience” is an ever-shifting assemblage of tastes, expectations, experiences, levels of knowledge, degrees of passion. - The New Yorker
