The Manhattan School of Music this morning quietly placed Liang Wang on leave, updating its website. Wang has been suspended as principal oboe of the New York Philharmonic while an investigation is conducted into historic allegations of involvement in rape. He remains on the faculties of New York University, Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His lawyer has told the New York Times that the ‘only person accused of misconduct in connection with that matter’ is Wang’s friend, the associate principal trumpet Matthew Muckey. Muckey’s lawyer said: ‘our cl ..read more

The Theater an der Wien, back home after a two-year exile, has unfurled a season of 13 new productions. They include a role debut for Asmik Grigorian as Norma, a piece called Voice Killer by the Czech composer Miroslav Srnka and a rare sighting of Prokofiev’s Betrothal in the Monastery. Vienna, with a population below 2 million, has three fully functioning opera house. London, pop. 9 million, has just Covent Garden, open ten months of the year. The post Vienna’s third opera house has more than London’s one appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

The Chopin Competition winner resumes his career this Sunday in Vienna after prolonged sanctions by the Chinese authorities. Yundi has a 3-CD  Mozart sonata deal with Warner but is still a long way from getting back to the highway. Sunday, April 21 at 7:30 pm in the Musikverein (Great Hall) in Vienna. The post Yundi Li starts comeback in Vienna appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Based on Oscar Wilde’s play, Strauss’s landmark opera was greeted with shock, horror, excitement, awe, respect, censorship, scandal, condemnation – just the kind of responses that fill theatres and cinemas to this day, brought to Slippedisc subscribers courtesy of OperaVision. The music, sweet, sour, erotic, often dizzily thrilling, has not been blunted by time. This is no overture. A rising arpeggio on the clarinet launches Narraboth into his rapturous vision of Salome and, from there to the end, there is let-up in the intensity and tension of the score. Composed in 1905, Salome is still one ..read more

Ionesco – Rhinoceros​  Click here to watch Eugene Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright who was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco instigated a revolution in ideas and techniques of drama, beginning with his ‘anti play’, The Bald Soprano, which contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd. This includes a number of plays that, following the ideas of the philosopher Albert Camus, explore concepts of absurdism and surrealism. He died 30 years ago this week. Rhinocéros (first produced in 1959) is perhap ..read more

A 40 percent funding cut by London wokies has placed the Elgar Festival of middle England in dire jeopardy. Their patron Julian Lloyd Webber is leading the fundraising. You can help by donating here. The post Arts Cancel England put squeeze on Elgar appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

The orchestra’s president Gary Ginstling has engaged Katya Jestin, of law firm Jenner & Block, to undertake an investigation into the culture of the New York Philharmonic. She has been asked ‘to look at everything and leave no stone unturned, including any new allegations as they are reported.’ The following message went out today to members of the organisation: Dear New York Philharmonic Community, The details revealed in the New York magazine article are horrifying to me personally, and, while not yet a year into my tenure as President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, I am deeply co ..read more

by Susan Hall, New York:   Address Unknown, a short 1938 novel by Katherine Kressmann Taylor, has been made into a play by Marianna Arzumanova.  Mounted at Town Hall in New York by the Cherry Orchard Festival, it stars world-renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin as Max and world-renowned opera baritone, Thomas Hampson as Martin. Can these gentlemen act? We’ve seen Hampson as the Don, Germont pere, Dr. Faustus and Roald Amundsen racing to the South Pole. Now he makes his mark as Martin.  Kissen has mixed poetry with piano performance.  Set in 1932-33 Germany, the work consists larg ..read more

They’ve announced the 2024 program today. Here’s one report: This summer’s programming, just announced, will lead off with “the debut duet of two superstar queens from the blockbuster reality competition ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’” followed by “Argentinian queercore,” comedians of “Indian heritage” and “silent disco.” Shanta Thake, the center’s chief artistic officer, pledged to “really confront our past head-on as we move into the future” by “opening this up and really saying that this is music that belongs to everyone” — implying, of course, that Mozart does not belong to everyone. Read on here ..read more

The UK conductor Jonathan Bloxham has been chosen as chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. He succeeds Jonathon Heyward, who is now in Baltimore. Bloxham, in his mid-thirties is also Music Director at the Lucerne Theater and Resident Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Mozart Player. The post Two Brits called Jon hand over German baton appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more