Alex Ross's Blog, page 112

The end of Gotham

Ir's very sad to hear of the sudden demise of Gotham Chamber Opera, which over the past fifteen years has greatly enriched New York opera life with fresh productions of offbeat repertory: Britten's Albert Herring, Haydn's L'isolata disabitata and Il mondo della luna, a Martinů double bill, the Baden-Baden 1927 program, Cavalli's Eliogabalo. The circumstances are somewhat mysterious, and more is sure to be revealed.

Lulu in the subway

The Met's advertising campaign this season is wisely emphasizing the fact that seats aren't as expensive as many people think they are: "Tickets from $25."

Glass at the Bösendorfer

At the opening tonight of National Sawdust, I was given a seat very close to the piano.

The Schorske century

A Cultural Comment on the late Carl Schorske.

Another Stevens moment

Gods and all angels sing the world to sleep,
Now that the moon is rising in the heat
And crickets are loud again in the grass. The moon
Burns in the mind on lost remembrances.
He lies down and the night wind blows upon him here.
The bells grow longer. This is not sleep. This is desire.

            from "The Men That Are Falling"

The performing arts in America

"Happy Birthday" is free

At long last, the nonsensical "Happy Birthday" copyright has been struck down, the Los Angeles Times reports. Judge George H. King's opinion can be read here. Stravinsky testifies in Memories and Commentaries that he was unaware of the tune's copyrighted status when he used it in his tribute to Pierre Monteux: "I must have assumed this melody to be in the category of folk music ... or, at least, to be very old and dim in origin." Evidently, he was not pursued for royalties, perhaps because he used only the melody and not the words.

Nightafternight playlist for the onset of autumn

New and recent releases of interest.

— Lutosławski, Piano Concerto, Symphony No. 2; Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, with Krystian Zimerman (DG)

— Paula Matthusen, Pieces for People; Terri Hron, James Moore, Manta Percussion, Jamie Jordan, Kathleen Supove, Yvonne Troxler, Molly Shaiken, Tiit Helimets, Abi Basch, Wil Smith, orkest de ereprijs, Wim Boerman, Todd Reynolds (Innova)

— Similar Motion: works of Glass, Kampela, Debussy; Momenta Quartet (Albany) [see also the Momenta Festival in NYC, Sept. 30 - Oct. 4]

— Montanari, Violin Concertos; Johannes Pramsohler, Ensemble Diderot (Audax)

— Scott Worthington, Prism (Populist)

— Stefan Wolpe, Music for Violin and Piano (1924-1966); Movses Pogossian, Varty Manouelian, violins, Susan Grace, piano (Bridge)

Noted

"Unanfechtbare Wahrheiten gibt es überhaupt nicht, und wenn es welche gibt, so sind sie langweilig." ("There are absolutely no incontrovertible truths, and if there are any, they're boring.")

                   — Dubslav von Stechlin, in Fontane's Der Stechlin

Compare an ironic aphorism by the late Stanley Hoffmann: "There are universal values, and they happen to be mine."

Miscellany

On the weekend of Oct. 2-4, Laurie Anderson occupies the Park Avenue Armory with Habeas Corpus, a "meditation on time, identity, surveillance, and freedom."... At the Kitchen, Claire Chase carries on her Density 2036 project Sept. 29 to Oct. 2.... O Columbia, a new chamber opera by Gregory Spears, composer of Paul's Case, will have its première at the Houston Grand Opera next week. It's a rhapsody on the theme of exploration, drawing on interviews with astronauts and Houston-based NASA engineers.... On the Corymbus blog, Edward Qualtrough gives dispiriting statistics on gender inequality in the opera world. He writes, "I dread to think how many of those operas pass film and theatre’s Bechdel Test, where two named women are featured talking to each other about something other than a man."... "I love Italian opera but this is ridiculous," Micaela Baranello says of the new Met season.... This Friday at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, the Argento Chamber Ensemble gives the American première of Georg Friedrich Haas's Introduktion und Transsonation. Works of Murail and Scelsi fill out the program.... Tickets for The Industry's Hopscotch opera, an experiment in automotive music theatre (Oct. 31 - Nov. 15), go on sale today.... WasteLAnd opens its fall season with a program entitled The Future of Terror: works of Kurt Isaacson, Jason Eckardt, and Elise Roy.... Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, speaks grippingly on sexism, misogyny, and abuse in the pop-music world.