WEATHER ALERT
Klaus Mäkelä, just 28, to become Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director in 2027
Read full article: Klaus Mäkelä, just 28, to become Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director in 2027Klaus Mäkelä has been hired to succeed Riccardo Muti as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and will become the youngest head since its start in 1891.
Esa-Pekka Salonen to leave San Francisco Symphony, citing dispute with orchestra's board
Read full article: Esa-Pekka Salonen to leave San Francisco Symphony, citing dispute with orchestra's boardEsa-Pekka Salonen will leave the San Francisco Symphony following the 2024-25 season, just his fifth as music director.
Muti ends 13 seasons with Chicago Symphony Orchestra with praise and honors — and Beethoven
Read full article: Muti ends 13 seasons with Chicago Symphony Orchestra with praise and honors — and BeethovenRiccardo Muti has ended 13 seasons as Chicago Symphony Orchestra's music director with praise and a series of honors.
Italian conductor Muti to visit Syrian refugee camp
Read full article: Italian conductor Muti to visit Syrian refugee campItalian conductor Riccardo Muti plans to visit Syrian musicians living in the vast Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on the sidelines of his annual Roads of Friendship concert series that aims to use music to build bridges and help those touched by war.
Muti's legacy: respect composers, reject revisionists
Read full article: Muti's legacy: respect composers, reject revisionistsIn the twilight of his music directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti candidly outlined his legacy and implored musicians to remember his instruction on Giuseppe Verdi’s operas: use the 19th century scores without altered notes.
Munich, Rotterdam may fire Gergiev, London drops Bolshoi
Read full article: Munich, Rotterdam may fire Gergiev, London drops BolshoiMunich Mayor Dieter Reiter has threatened to remove Valery Gergiev as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic unless Gergiev publicly says by Monday that he does not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bernard Haitink, renowned Dutch conductor, dies at 92
Read full article: Bernard Haitink, renowned Dutch conductor, dies at 92Bernard Haitink, a Dutch conductor of refinement and grace who led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for 27 years and held leadership positions in London, Chicago and Boston, died at his home in London on Thursday.
Muti: Pandemic year silenced culture, leaving world stunned
Read full article: Muti: Pandemic year silenced culture, leaving world stunnedConductor Riccardo Muti has once again reopened the Italian musical season in his adopted hometown of Ravenna after another — and if all goes well perhaps final — round of pandemic closures.
An 'optimistic' Verona Arena announces summer opera lineup
Read full article: An 'optimistic' Verona Arena announces summer opera lineupFILE - In this June 21, 2002 file photo, a huge pyramid dominates the stage of the opening performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in the Verona Arena, northern Italy. (AP Photo/Claudio Martinelli)MILAN – Riccardo Muti and Plácido Domingo will headline the 2021 Verona Arena Opera Festival, essentially last year's season revived as a sign of “great optimism and utmost seriousness," the festival's general director said Thursday. After an abbreviated 2020 season of concerts due to the pandemic, operas will be fully staged with a complete cast and chorus. “We have more experience, and we know better our enemy," general director Cecilia Gasdia told a news conference. 9, an opera gala featuring German tenor Jonas Kaufmann and a ballet gala starring Roberto Bolle.
Beppe Modenese, creator of Milan fashion system, dies at 90
Read full article: Beppe Modenese, creator of Milan fashion system, dies at 90MILAN – Beppe Modenese, the force behind the coalescence of Italian ready-to-wear fashion in the northern city of Milan, has died. Modenese died Saturday in the fashion capital. Dubbed “Italy’s Prime Minister of Fashion” in 1983 by Women’s Wear Daily, Modenese remained a front-row mainstay into recent seasons, maintaining the official title of honorary president of the Italian fashion council, the Italian National Fashion Chamber. “Beppe Modenese contributed like no one else to the birth of the Italian fashion system,’’ fashion council president Carlo Capasa said in a statement. As the head of the fashion council, Modenese discovered many talents, notably Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who made their Milan runway debut in 1985.
Virus cases spike at Milan's La Scala, Naples' San Carlo
Read full article: Virus cases spike at Milan's La Scala, Naples' San CarloMILAN – The number of performers at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen to 21, even as the theater was forced to close due to new government restrictions aimed at curbing the virus’ resurgence. La Scala spokesman Paolo Besana confirmed Tuesday that 18 members of the world-class chorus and three woodwind players in the orchestra have the virus. The new peak in virus cases in Italy has been centered in Milan, Lombardy's capital, throwing into doubt La Scala’s celebrated Dec. 7 gala season opener. La Scala had launched a limited series of concerts and ballets in September with just 700 audience members instead of the usual 2,000, with operatic concerts and ballet galas instead of fully staged performances. Italy, the birthplace of opera, resumed classical music performances this summer after a severe 10-week lockdown, with strict distancing rules between orchestra members and limiting the number of singers on stage.
Muti conducts Syria musicians in memorial concert amid ruins
Read full article: Muti conducts Syria musicians in memorial concert amid ruinsThese concerts give to Ravenna the possibility to be an important ambassador of peace and brotherhood from Italy, Muti told The Associated Press earlier this month in Ravenna. Her brother, Missak Baghboudarian, conducts the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra and had hoped to travel to Italy to conduct a concert in Ravenna and attend the Paestum concert of Beethovens Symphony No. 3, known as the Heroic, but was unable to travel because of travel restrictions imposed by the coronavirus. Instead, the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra streamed Beethovens Heroic from Damascus on July 2. Karoun Baghboudarian said she hoped the concert would renew attention on Syrians suffering.
From Italy, Muti looks to reopen US classical music scene
Read full article: From Italy, Muti looks to reopen US classical music sceneItalian Maestro Riccardo Muti, top center, prepares to direct a concert at the Ravenna Festival, in Ravenna, Northern Italy, Sunday, June 21, 2020. Riccardo Muti has sent a resounding message that live classical music has returned the Italian stage after the coronavirus lockdown with a full summer festival program in his adopted Ravenna. Even during two world wars, Muti noted, theaters stayed open to provide cultural relief except during the worst of the bombings. In the United States, he won accolades leading the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1980s and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2010. The Ravenna Festival program, which runs through July, is another signal of the gradual reawakening of European classical music after strict closures to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Vienna Philharmonic purrs back to life after pandemic pause
Read full article: Vienna Philharmonic purrs back to life after pandemic pauseThe Vienna Philharmonic returned home, and its famous strings purred for the first time since March 10. Michael Bladerer, a contrabass, recalled talking with Daniel Froschauer, a first violinist. Long criticized for its refusal to admit women, the Vienna Philharmonic ended its ban in 1997 and has 18 women among its 145 current members. While many if not most U.S. orchestra members were furloughed by administrators desperate to trim payroll during the coronavirus crisis, the Vienna Philharmonic is a self-governing collective. Its members hold dual roles, selected from the pit orchestra of the Vienna State Opera -- where they are collecting 80% of their salaries under government programs.