Nigel Kennedy on his drunken parents, the poncey classical music fascists, and drugs

 music  No Responses »
Sep 302011
 

On the eve of the release of ’s Four Ele­ments on , he spoke to the Daily Mail:

On the clas­sical music world

What really upset people in the clas­sical world was that I had sold so many albums; to them that meant I must be shit. It was like a crime to do well. They don’t know what good music is. They are fas­cists, try­ing to con­trol what people look like and how they play. I won’t be told. People want to control me.’

On his mother

She used to come and cri­ti­cise everything I did and it wound me up. She would not just insult me, but also my fel­low musi­cians. She would come back­stage and say “Oh, he’s not great and you’re not great” in front of my friends. She would tell me it was shit and I needed to work harder. She and my step­father would get drunk in my dress­ing room and slag every­one off.

… con­tinue reading

Countdown to nudity — how long it takes to get naked

 television  No Responses »
Sep 302011
 

The New York Magazine has been doing some ser­i­ous research: how long does it take a series to flash a bit of skin? It’s not quite as trivial as it sounds. Naked people up the view­ing fig­ures, which in turn ups the amount a sta­tion can charge for advert­ising. Import­ant then to get those scenes in early and grab your soft-porn view­ers before they start chan­nel hopping.

The premium cable chan­nels, , Show­time, and , make their liv­ings by selling con­sumers on the idea that they can’t get the sort of pro­gram­ming these chan­nels offer any­where else. Some of what con­sumers can’t get any­where else, the premium net­works would loudly pro­claim, are world-class dra­mas, more com­plex and risqué than any­thing else on TV. Some­thing else con­sumers can’t get any­where else, the premium net­works pro­claim a smidge less loudly, are naked people.

The list that they have com­piled is based on the first epis­ode, so if it didn’t con­tain nud­ity it wasn’t included.… con­tinue reading

Four artists who influenced Patti LuPone

 musical theatre  1 Response »
Sep 292011
 

The Los Angeles Times asked to name four people who have influ­enced her artistically:

Edith Piaf

I’m an Italian and my emo­tions are just under my skin.… There’s just a pur­ity and raw­ness in her singing that goes straight to my heart and my gut and it always has. There’s such expres­sion in her voice.

I grew up on Long Island … and they used to show old movies on tele­vi­sion at 10 and 1 o’clock. I saw Busby Berke­ley music­als and Bette Davis movies. Davis wasn’t the most beau­ti­ful act­ress but she was the most cour­ageous at the time. I was maybe 8 or 9 years old when I first saw her. I used to cut school and feign ill­ness just to see Davis. My mother never knew this because she was off at work.

We star­ted work­ing together in 1976. I learned more from act­ing for him than four years at Juil­liard.… con­tinue reading

Oxford University professor ‘proves’ fake Leondardo Da Vinci is the real thing

 art  No Responses »
Sep 292011
 

An Oxford Uni­ver­sity pro­fessor says he has found con­clus­ive proof that a por­trait dis­missed as a 19th Cen­tury for­gery is a genu­ine Leonardo. Art his­tory expert Mar­tin Kemp says he has found a 15th Cen­tury book in Poland from which the piece was taken. The work, bought in 1998 for $21,850 (£14,000), could be worth millions. But the National Gal­lery, which will stage a Da Vinci exhib­i­tion in Novem­ber, said there was “no gen­eral agree­ment” the work was by the artist.

Mar­tin Kemp and fel­low author Pas­cal Cotte pub­lished a book last year, La Bella Prin­cipessa: The Story of the New Mas­ter­piece by Leonardo Da Vinci, about the inks and col­oured chalk on vel­lum portrait. It was sold as an early Ger­man 19th-Century work under the name Head of a Young Girl in Pro­file to the Left, at Christie’s New York in 1998.

Kemp and Cotte pre­vi­ously iden­ti­fied the teen­ager as Bianca Sforza, the daugh­ter of Leonardo’s pat­ron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (1452–1508), and his mis­tress Bern­ar­dina de Corradis. They also con­cluded that three stitch holes in the left mar­gin of the work made it likely the por­trait had pre­vi­ously been bound in a book.… con­tinue reading

Angela Gheorghiu: The Rolling Stones have a big sound. You know why? Because they are plugged in!

 opera, television  No Responses »
Sep 292011
 

 is in Lon­don to pro­mote a sea­son of filmed per­form­ances, three star­ring herself. The is striv­ing to build up opera and bal­let audi­ences by pip­ing 10 pro­duc­tions, five of them live, into 700 cinemas world­wide. The sea­son opener was last night’s live broad­cast of Gounod’s “,” with Ghe­orghiu. Her recor­ded per­form­ances of “” and “” will be in Octo­ber and Novem­ber, respectively.

I believe in cam­eras and micro­phones, and I believe in everything recor­ded, because this is the only way to leave a testi­mony, for an inter­preter. The most sen­sual, the most power­ful and the most sexy instru­ment in the world is the human voice. People must know that in the opera house we are not using micro­phones. It’s acous­tic sound from the choir, from the sing­ers and from the orches­tra — real, not-playback, not-overdone sound. Imagine in a sta­dium a con­cert with the Rolling Stones.

… con­tinue reading

Roman Polanski returns to Zurich for his lifetime award

 cinema  No Responses »
Sep 282011
 

has received a life­time achieve­ment award at the Film Fest­ival, two years after his arrest in the city on sex charges.

Polanski received a stand­ing ova­tion before telling the audi­ence: “What I can say? Bet­ter late than never.”

He had been on his way to receive the award in 2009 when Swiss police arres­ted him over a 1977 US con­vic­tion for hav­ing sex with a 13-year-old girl. He spent months in prison and house arrest but avoided extradition.

The 78-year-old Polish-French dir­ector, whose work includes Rosemary’s Baby and Tess, is now able to travel unhindered to Switzerland.

“It’s a strange anniversary for me, two years, day for day,” he said after receiv­ing the award. “Certain parts of it I’d rather for­get, but I’m happy to be here. It is a very mov­ing moment for me so do not expect any speeches.”

via BBC News… con­tinue reading

‘Lost’ Beethoven work reconstructed from sketches

 music  No Responses »
Sep 282011
 

A “lost” move­ment is to be per­formed for the first time in more than 200 years, after being pieced together from early drafts.  wrote the slow move­ment for his string quar­tet Opus 18 Num­ber Two in 1799 before dis­card­ing it and com­pos­ing another ver­sion a year later.

The ori­ginal has not sur­vived, but has now been recon­struc­ted by Pro­fessor of . He has reas­sembled the sur­viv­ing sketches, filling in any gaps himself.

Pro­fessor Cooper, one of the world’s lead­ing experts on the com­poser, said pre­lim­in­ary sketches from Beethoven’s note­books had sur­vived for all 74 bars of the movement. But half of the bars were writ­ten for just one instru­ment, mean­ing Prof Cooper has com­pleted the miss­ing instru­ment parts himself.

“You’ve got a pretty good idea of what the music is like,” he told BBC News. “The move­ment will cer­tainly be strik­ingly sim­ilar to what Beeth­oven wrote. Obvi­ously it can’t pos­sibly be exactly the same.”

The ori­ginal move­ment was delivered to Beethoven’s pat­ron Prince Franz Joseph Max­imilian von Lob­kow­itz in 1799 before being replaced with a revised ver­sion.… con­tinue reading

Video of L.A. Opera’s changeover from ‘Cosi’ to ‘Onegin’ in 4 1/2 hours (video only 4 minutes!)

 opera  No Responses »
Sep 272011
 

audi­ences are used to see­ing per­form­ances awash in spec­tacle. But they rarely get to glimpse the magic that occurs between shows — namely, “the changeover,” when one pro­duc­tion is taken down and another takes its place. “It’s like work­ing a huge jig­saw puzzle,” says Rupert Hem­mings, dir­ector of pro­duc­tion at Los Angeles . “It may seem haphaz­ard, but everything’s done in order.”

On this Times video, you can watch the com­pany make the switch between its cur­rent offer­ings — Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte” and Tchaikovsky’s “,” which con­tinue through Oct. 9.  Neither of the impor­ted pro­duc­tions is “overly scenery-heavy,” says Hem­mings, so “it’s a medium-sized change.” Even so, the pro­cess requires 4 1/2 hours and 45 car­penters, elec­tri­cians and sound and prop people.

via latimes.com… con­tinue reading

Glyndebourne appoints new Young Composer in Residence

 music  No Responses »
Sep 272011
 

Glyn­de­bourne has announced the appoint­ment of UK-based com­poser as its new Young Com­poser in Residence.

Styles, aged 28, has been selec­ted from 68 applic­ants and a strong final short­l­ist of seven can­did­ates. He takes up the appoint­ment in Septem­ber 2011 for two years, with an option for a third year.

, the Gen­eral , said,

Luke is one of this country’s most excit­ing young com­posers and his par­tic­u­lar interest in and music theatre, as well as his nat­ural flair in writ­ing for voices, make him ideally suited to this pos­i­tion.  Glyn­de­bourne has a long stand­ing repu­ta­tion for encour­aging and devel­op­ing young artists and this role will allow Luke to develop his skills as an oper­atic com­poser by immers­ing him­self in our work, learn­ing more about the cre­ation of pro­duc­tions, and under­tak­ing a num­ber of small scale com­mis­sions for the company.

… con­tinue reading

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