This Week in Classical Music: February 8, 2021.Berg and Cavalli.Last week we posted, for the first time, a political statement.We’re not going to turn Classical Connect into a Culture Warrior but will comment on the Culture Wars when facts – the outrageous ones – call for it.Today, however, we’d like to point out the gross hypocrisy that the Met Opera perpetrated while hiring a Chief Diversity Officer: the Met is the only major organization currently not paying their orchestra musicians any salary due to Covid; the orchestra is on a verge of complete collapse.In the meantime, we can safely assume that Ms. Marcia Lynn Sells, the new CDO, whose prior position was the Dean of Students at Harvard Law School, is not going to donate her services to the Met but will received a handsome C-level salary.And one other thing: the Met Opera is not the only “Metropolitan” organization that has hired a Chief Diversity Officer: the Met Museum did the same 2 ½ months ago, we guess so that Rembrandt is properly curated with diversity in mind.
Back to the music, though.Alban Berg was born this week, on February 9th of 1885.A student of Arnold Schoenberg, he was, without a doubt, one of the most important composers of the 20th century, especially considering his operas, Wozzeck and Lulu.Two years ago, when we wrote about Berg, we even posted five minutes from Lulu, which clearly is one of the most difficult operas.Nonetheless, the emotional intensity and lyricism of Berg’s music are spellbinding.Here’s another entry about Berg, from 2017.Speaking of modern operas: it’s worth looking up an interesting recently released Russian animation called The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks.It is, very generally, about the great Russian writer Nikolai Gogol working on a short story, Nos (The Nose), Dmitry Shostakovich writing an opera based on the story and the famous director Vsevolod Meyerhold attempting to stage it.Most of the musical score of this full-length animation is from Shostakovich’s opera.
Francesco Cavalli was also born this week, on February 14th of 1602.He stood at the beginning of opera: his first one, Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, was composed in 1639 and was only the third opera to be performed in Teatro San Cassiano, the very first opera house to be built for the public and inaugurated in 1637.In the following 27 years Teatro San Cassiano staged 15 more operas, 14 of which were composed by Cavalli.La Didone was Cavalli’s third opera, composed and staged at San Cassiano in 1641.Here’s the marvelous Frederica von Stade is singing the beautiful L'alma fiacca svanì, Cassandra’s Lamentation, from Act I.The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Raymond Leppard.And a bit more about Teatro San Cassiano: it had a long and glorious history, but in 1805 the theater was closed by the occupying French and in 1812 the building demolished.Almost 200 years later, the British entrepreneur Paul Atkin decided to rebuild the famous theater according to the archival documents as close to the original as possible, and to create there a center for the research and staging of historically informed Baroque opera.Nothing is easy in bureaucratic Italy, especially in Venice; the project has been moving forward, slowly, since 2015 and we wish it the best.The Financial Times has a good article on the project, worth checking out.
Berg, Cavalli 2020
This Week in Classical Music: February 8, 2021. Berg and Cavalli. Last week we posted, for the first time, a political statement. We’re not going to turn Classical Connect into a Culture Warrior but will comment on the Culture Wars when facts – the outrageous ones – call for it. Today, however, we’d like to point out the gross hypocrisy that the Met Opera perpetrated while hiring a Chief Diversity Officer: the Met is the only major organization currently not paying their orchestra musicians any salary due to Covid; the orchestra is on a verge of complete collapse. In the meantime, we can safely assume that Ms. Marcia Lynn Sells, the new CDO, whose prior position was the Dean of Students at Harvard Law School, is not going to donate her services to the Met but will received a handsome C-level salary. And one other thing: the Met Opera is not the only “Metropolitan” organization that has hired a Chief Diversity Officer: the Met Museum
did the same 2 ½ months ago, we guess so that Rembrandt is properly curated with diversity in mind.
Back to the music, though. Alban Berg was born this week, on February 9th of 1885. A student of Arnold Schoenberg, he was, without a doubt, one of the most important composers of the 20th century, especially considering his operas, Wozzeck and Lulu. Two years ago, when we wrote about Berg, we even posted five minutes from Lulu, which clearly is one of the most difficult operas. Nonetheless, the emotional intensity and lyricism of Berg’s music are spellbinding. Here’s another entry about Berg, from 2017. Speaking of modern operas: it’s worth looking up an interesting recently released Russian animation called The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks. It is, very generally, about the great Russian writer Nikolai Gogol working on a short story, Nos (The Nose), Dmitry Shostakovich writing an opera based on the story and the famous director Vsevolod Meyerhold attempting to stage it. Most of the musical score of this full-length animation is from Shostakovich’s opera.
Francesco Cavalli was also born this week, on February 14th of 1602. He stood at the beginning of opera: his first one, Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, was composed in 1639 and was only the third opera to be performed in Teatro San Cassiano, the very first opera house to be built for the public and inaugurated in 1637. In the following 27 years Teatro San Cassiano staged 15 more operas, 14 of which were composed by Cavalli. La Didone was Cavalli’s third opera, composed and staged at San Cassiano in 1641. Here’s the marvelous Frederica von Stade is singing the beautiful L'alma fiacca svanì, Cassandra’s Lamentation, from Act I. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Raymond Leppard. And a bit more about Teatro San Cassiano: it had a long and glorious history, but in 1805 the theater was closed by the occupying French and in 1812 the building demolished. Almost 200 years later, the British entrepreneur Paul Atkin decided to rebuild the famous theater according to the archival documents as close to the original as possible, and to create there a center for the research and staging of historically informed Baroque opera. Nothing is easy in bureaucratic Italy, especially in Venice; the project has been moving forward, slowly, since 2015 and we wish it the best. The Financial Times has a good article on the project, worth checking out.