‘Lulu’ as post-racial Manifesto

October 12th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid

The socially aware agenda of the Komische Oper’s new Intendant Barrie Kosky has been ruffling the feathers of Berliners months before he officially took over this season, not least with the decision to end the house tradition of performing operas exclusively in the German language. His emphasis on cultural pluralism aside, the program so far should assuage any fears that the native Australian will create a rupture with the opera’s hallowed emphasis on reinventing opera for contemporary audiences. Following a 12-hour Monteverdi trilogy as rescored by Elena Kats-Chernin and staged by Kosky, the intendant has unveiled the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s American Lulu, a shortened, updated version of Berg’s incompleted last opera.

It is either ironic or a sign of historic progress that Berlin, where Nazi politics once thwarted a full staging of the work, has mounted the second new Lulu in less than a year. The Staatsoper presented the work with a recomposed third act by David Robert Coleman last spring when a new production by Andrea Breth made it legally impossible to use the standard reconstruction by Friedrich Cerha. Almost foreshadowing Neuwirth, Coleman drew upon the jazz band of the First Act for his orchestration, thinning out textures to a chamber ensemble including marimba, steel drums cowbells, and banjo.

American Lulu (seen Oct.6) takes the thematicization of jazz a step further, setting out to reference Afro-American culture in everything from a steam blown organ ballad to a trumpet which emerges as a symbol for the blues singer, Eleanor (a curly haired, less feudal characterisation of Countess Geschwitz). Neuwirth resets passages of Berg’s original music to the first two acts for brass, woodwinds, a small set of strings, and percussion as well as electronic guitar and piano, in some places adding contours to Berg’s expressionist lines with the deeper timbres and expanding the sonic space with recorded sound. By contrast, her entirely original third act emerges as an unsure blend of quasi-minimalist textures, jazz-band brass, spectralist fades and raw, avant-garde string textures.

The English-language libretto is redevised in a similarly awkward fashion. The story begins and ends in an upscale New York apartment, traveling through New Orleans, where Lulu is living with the painter—here a photographer. Dr. Schön is instead Dr. Bloom, who kills Lulu’s lover by throwing ice at him. She flees with Bloom’s son, Jimmy (a stand-in for Alwa), becoming a high-class whore to a white banker and rebuffing the advances of Eleanor without remorse until she is killed by a stranger. Neuwirth also inserts an unidentifiable, pimp-like character named Clarence, who upbraids Lulu for being so “damn insatiable.” Recitations about black rights and other poetic musings emerge perplexingly through the speakers between acts.

The racially conscious goals of the production mostly came across as clichéd, but it had to its credit Marisol Montalvo in the role of Lulu, able to nail her high notes and move seamlessly into Sprechgesang as she cavorted in everything from lingerie to Brazilian tassels. Despite the high dose of eroticism, her dramatic portrayal did little to convey the danger of a femme fatale, which can also be attributed to the limited scope of her character in Neuwirth’s libretto and stilted direction by Kirill Serebrennikov. In the role of Eleanor, Della Miles performed with saucy poise, coaxing the orchestra of the Komische Oper into her R&B inflected grooves. The male roles were well-cast but not outstanding. Jacques-Greg Belobo gave a smooth-voiced delivery of Clarence, and Austrian baritone Claudio Otelli was an imposing Dr. Bloom. The bass Philipp Meierhöfer was in fine form as the Athlete, and Rolf Romei made for an earnest Jimmy, including when he cracked into the higher range.

German conductor Johannes Kalitzke balanced the score’s wide-ranging demands with a steady hand. Sets and costumes by Serebrennikov provided a stark backdrop for Neuwirth’s modern fantasy but ended tastelessly with a bloodied picture of a murdered Lulu. Conventional black-and-white video projections by Gonduras Jitomirksky similarly did little for a production whose progressive aspirations fail to match up with its artistic standards. Perhaps Lulu was never meant to be a vehicle for racial mobility after all.

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Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Closed

The Birds

October 11th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

At night after watching Jon Stewart and Colbert and checking out TCM’s midnight film, I’m often up proofreading or writing captions during deadline. I was up until 5 a.m. yesterday morning finishing details for the last article of the 2013 Directory to go to the designer. Last night I had looked forward to a good night’s sleep for the first time in months, and the light was out by 2.

My wife can sleep through any alarm on the market. The other day I noticed a cream-colored conical protuberance about three-quarters of a foot high on her bedside table, and she explained brightly that it was her new alarm clock. It gradually lights up the room like the sun rising and birds begin to chirp – definitely something new in a second-floor rear apartment in Manhattan. If that doesn’t do the trick, it also has a radio. “What’s WQXR?” she asked. “96.3,” I answered, knowing full well that it has a new frequency since the Times sold the station a few months ago; I just can’t remember it.  

This morning I experienced her alarm for the first time. Sometime after 8:30 I became aware that the bedroom had become flooded with light and birds were chirping as if a tiger had entered the room. It was about the same time that the workers arrived to continue pointing the building and their drilling and pounding began. (I’m not making this up.)

As I stumbled out of bed, I asked if at least the bird noises could be slowed down and reduced in volume. “No,” mumbled the woman who won’t watch my DVD of Hitchcock’s The Birds because it scares her, and she fell back asleep.

Stoki in Philly at 100

My fellow ARSC member Don Drewecki reminded me of a momentous occasion in the history of American orchestras: “It was 100 years ago today that Leopold Stokowski conducted his first concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra.  And on that day, a new era in American Orchestral Supremacy was ushered in.”

Howard H. Scott, Noted Record Producer

It’s no exaggeration to say that Howard Scott produced some of the most important recordings in history. Glenn Gould’s 1955 Bach Goldberg Variations, the Fleisher/Szell Beethoven piano concerto cycle — which belong in any serious collection — come immediately to mind, but my own personal favorite was a Stokowski pairing made during his return to the Philadelphia in 1959, nearly 20 years after he had last conducted the orchestra: Falla’s El amor brujo and the conductor’s “symphonic synthesis” of music from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, surely two of the most erotically charged performances ever commited to records — and in stereo too, which allowed the full panoply of Stokowski’s extraordinary music-making with this amazing orchestra to be captured in modern sonics for the first time.

I had the pleasure of many lunches with Howard as he regaled me with stories of Szell, Fleisher, Stoki, Gould, Stern, and many of the great Columbia artists he recorded. We have Howard’s ballsiness to thank for the complete Beethoven cycle. They were scheduled to record just the Fourth and Fifth but finished the sessions so quickly that Howard decided on his own to suggest to the artists that they record one of the others (I forget which one) in the time left. Now that three were “in the can,” and with such superb results, Columbia decided to finish the cycle. It’s still the set that I’ll take to my desert island.

Howard died on September 22 at age 92.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Season of Concessions

October 11th, 2012

Josef Köpplinger, Marco Comin, Brigitte Fassbaender

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: October 11, 2012

MUNICH — Arts groups here present a restrained 2012–13 season facing pros and cons not always aligned with those in America. Funding, for instance, holds steady: city and state (Bavaria) play their part, as do local corporations Siemens, BMW, Audi, Allianz and Linde. Excellent pools of musicians, instrumental and vocal, fill the rosters of the choir, chamber orchestra, two opera companies, and five symphony orchestras discussed below. Audiences are large and regular; not incidentally, tickets for most events are affordably priced and come with free access to the train and bus network, covering residents in a 25-mile radius. The cons are few, but they matter. Creative torpor impedes the main orchestras, a reflection in part of more than one sadly filled music directorship. The Regietheater problem rages in Germany, defiling the worthiest efforts in opera. Atrocious acoustics plague Munich’s main concert hall, and one vintage venue is shut for now for a retrofit. All that said, the groups enter the new season with active agendas.

The 201-year-old Bavarian State Orchestra ventures six programs at its home, the National Theater. Mostly led by outgoing Generalmusikdirektor Kent Nagano, these Akademie concerts extend a tradition begun when the ensemble was new; their past features names like Strauss, Walter, Knappertsbusch, Krauss, Fricsay, Sawallisch and Kleiber. Under-rehearsal can hamper results, however, a consequence of the musicians’ hectic theater schedule; that the GMD does not always supply the last ounce of insight or much rhythmic thrust only accentuates the negative. Despite and still, one upcoming program has allure (April 8 and 9): the eloquent young Czech conductor Tomáš Hanus tackles Mahler’s kaleidoscopic Seventh Symphony.

Clarinetist Jörg Widmann’s seven-scene opera Babylon is a fall commission of Bavarian State Opera, Germany’s largest and busiest opera company. Nagano conducts as part of his last season, and Carlus Padrissa, who last year introduced a circus-tent Turandot, has been entrusted with the stage action (premiere Oct. 27). Several of the season’s productions will be streamed at no charge, starting with the Widmann on Nov. 3. Hanus follows his persuasive (and filmed) Rusalka of two years ago with a revival of Jenůfa (from March 6) as well as a Richard Jones production of Hänsel und Gretel (March 24). Constantinos Carydis, among the company’s other worthy conductors — and indeed winner of its first Carlos Kleiber Prize — is absent from the 2012–13 slate, effecting a sabbatical.

The smaller but versatile Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz company enters a second season as refugee while its genial home undergoes construction work. Not all the substitute venues are ideal, but at the Cuvilliés Theater a Don Pasquale (premiere Oct. 25) should bring smiles: Franz Hawlata sings the title role, retired mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender (pictured with Intendant Josef Köpplinger and conductor Marco Comin) serves as régisseuse. This company labors under a mixed mandate, complementing Bavarian State Opera with Baroque and rare operas but also catering to a broad audience with operettas and musicals, at times amplified. Its orchestra copes gamely with the assortment, its singers less well.

Alexander Liebreich’s ongoing leadership of the MKO, a.k.a. Münchener Kammerorchester, has been yielding tidy ensemble and a crisp image for the group. Subscription concerts at MKO’s base, the Bayreuth-Festspielhaus-like Prinz-Regenten-Theater, habitually pair old and brand new, as on Oct. 18: Salvatore Sciarrino’s L’ideale lucente e le pagine rubate (2012) and Beethoven’s music for Egmont. Or Dec. 13: Ligeti’s Violin Concerto (old) and a Helena Winkelman piece jointly commissioned with Musica femina München.

Guest conductors, in contrast, are what enliven the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Ranked highly for its expertise, and drilled weekly for clean-as-a-whistle broadcasts, the BRSO perseveres under monochrome directorship. Antonini, Rattle, Haitink, Muti, Harding, Gilbert, Robertson, Salonen, Chailly and Metzmacher are names implying color in upcoming programs. The season splits as usual between the modest shoebox Herkulessaal, part of Munich’s Residenz arts complex, and the city-operated, fan-cum-vineyard Gasteig hall, where only the intra-ensemble sound travels properly.

The adventurous Münchner Rundfunk-Orchester, a second BR (Bavarian Broadcasting) ensemble, devotes much of 2012–13 to oddball concert opera — Franz Lachner’s Catharina Cornaro? — when its exploratory funds would go further in orchestral music and better balance the BRSO. Welcome projects include a German-language take (May 3) on Hindemith’s FDR oratorio When Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloom’d, which may find its way to disc alongside this orchestra’s award-winning 2005 recording of Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend by Hartmann (who wove the Whitman elegy into his own First Symphony). Playing standards have been high under Künstlerischer Leiter Ulf Schirmer. He stepped into the shoes of the late Marcello Viotti in 2006 and has more recently also assumed musical and managerial duties at Oper Leipzig.

Still under broadcasting auspices, the BR Chor supports both of the above orchestras. Alert, flexible singing places this group among Germany’s best large choirs, with perhaps only Leipzig’s MDR Chor ahead in precision. Certainly it draws the better Munich choristers, those disinclined to strip down to their underwear and strike mindless poses, as repeatedly required of their colleagues in local opera companies. Dutchman Peter Dijkstra is the affable artistic leader. BR Chor concerts this season, in the group’s own series, include Mozart’s C-Minor Mass (Nov. 24) and a well-cast Matthäus-Passion (Feb. 16), at the Prinz-Regenten-Theater and Herkulessaal respectively.

The Munich Philharmonic seemed to want to dive off a cliff three years ago when its management publicly bickered with its greatly-in-demand Generalmusikdirektor Christian Thielemann, effectively losing him, and just eight months later chose Lorin Maazel as his successor. (One tabloid reported Thielemann’s salary to be €800,000.) Those twin decisions are now home to roost, as the 82-year-old American unfurls his inaugural season. Maazel’s work ethic can only be admired, but he appeared artistically drained in interregnum Gasteig programs ten months ago — in music in which he long ago excelled, such as Debussy’s La Mer. This orchestra will gain the most if Munich ever does build a proper concert hall, as recently championed by Bavarian Minister for Science, Research and Art, Wolfgang Heubisch. As a city-run ensemble, it is today confined almost entirely to the problematic Gasteig.

Less glamorous, though certainly busy, the Münchner Symphoniker offers concert series at the acoustically preferable Prinz-Regenten-Theater and Herkulessaal. Georg Schmöhe is Chefdirigent and pianist Philippe Entremont serves as Ehrendirigent. In 2011 this orchestra undertook a long U.S. tour devoted to movie music. This season at home it offers an all-Beethoven program (Jan. 27 and 28) and a mostly Haydn evening (March 20) as part of a generally conservative lineup.

Photo © Christian Zach

Related posts:
Pintscher Conducts New Music
Mastersingers’ Depression
Gärtnerplatztheater Reopens
Gergiev, Munich’s Mistake
BR Chor’s St Matthew Passion

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Posted in Munich Times | Comments Closed

Demystifying the Business of Jazz

October 11th, 2012

By: Laura Hartmann

I am delighted to have as guest blogger this week the widely respected and admired founder of LVanHart Artist Productions, Laura Hartmann. This is the first Ask Edna post that addresses jazz, and it couldn’t be in better hands. — EL

This summer, while having lunch together, my friend and colleague Edna Landau and I entered into a discussion about the differences between management practices in the classical and jazz worlds.  Afterwards, she asked if I would write a piece on this topic for “Ask Edna.”  What an honor!  So, here you go:

In thinking about how to approach this subject, I remembered a panel that I put together for Arts Presenters in the late ‘90’s called “Demystifying the Business of Jazz.” In the audience that day were artists who wanted to know how to approach the whole concept of finding help with their careers.  They were stumped as to how to navigate among the different people who are involved in a jazz artists’ life.  It can be daunting, but the key to demystifying the process is to understand what roles we each play.

In the classical world, companies like Alliance Artists, CAMI, IMG, or Barrett/Vantage Artists are ‘one-stop shopping.’  They provide management services as well as booking services, and they even have publicity and travel or operations departments. Artists may not need to hire anyone else to help them with their careers and get them work. However, in the jazz world, a given artist may have a manager, a booking agent, a publicist, or any number of people who may work out of separate offices.  The size of the team, of course, depends on the level of the artist. So, let’s examine the different roles and define each one.

The manager is the person who is responsible for guiding the artist’s career (the captain of the ship, as I like to think of it). They would include Karen Kennedy at 24/7 Artist Management, Gail Boyd Artist Management, Louise Holland of Vision Arts Management, and myself, LVanHart Artist Productions. The manager may also advance concerts and tours (including planning flights, booking hotels, ground transportation, hiring sidemen, budgeting, making sure the artist’s technical needs are met by each venue), assist with business, help in developing promotional materials, and guide the artist in finding a booking agent, a publicist, an accountant, or a record label. For providing these services, a manager would typically ask for a commission of 10-20%, depending on what the artist requires. Some managers are also asking for a small monthly fee to cover administrative duties that do not generate income, yet are necessary to care for the artist.

The booking agent books engagements for the artist, without necessarily providing guidance for career advancement. (In many states a booking agency must have a license because it is viewed as an employment agency.)  Examples of jazz agents would be Myles Weinstein at Unlimited Myles, Ted Kurland & Associates, IMN, Michael Kline Artists, and Ed Keane & Associates.  A booking agent generally charges 10-15%.

A publicist’s job is to generate and manage publicity for their artist, gaining attention in the press for their concerts, recordings, and any noteworthy developments, such as prizes and special projects. Some of the publicists in jazz are Seth Cohen PR, Don Lucoff at DL Media, Jim Eigo at Jazz Promo Services, and Michael Bloom Media Relations. Publicists are usually hired on a project basis, for example to promote a CD release or a specific tour. The fee is likely to be based on the duration of the campaign or the number of cities in a given tour. The publicist might also be hired on a monthly basis to help the manager paint the ‘big picture,’ beyond a single event.  Fees for publicists vary widely and really depend upon what the artist wants him/her to do.  Monthly fees can range from $400 to over $3000.

As you search for someone to help you with your career, it is very important that you understand the difference between the artist manager and the booking agent.  The classic mistake an artist makes is to go to a manager and think that they will book them a whole bunch of gigs.  Booking concerts is NOT their primary function.  If you have all of your business together, have a clear idea of how you want to grow your career and how to make it happen, you would just want to seek out a booking agent.  There are artists that do that very successfully.  Bill Charlap is one.  He is booked by Ted Kurland’s office, but doesn’t have a manager.  He has done an impressive job of furthering his career and he really knows how to take care of business!

But if you are like most artists, you want help with your career. You want help in making it grow, or you want to have someone to take care of business so you have more time to practice or write music. A manager is really what you are seeking. When my client Steve Wilson came to me almost 16 years ago, he was working in the bands of Dave Holland, Chick Corea and many others.  Yet Steve was anxious to lead his own ensembles.  That was a priority for him in taking his career to the next level.  Over the years I have helped him bring his quartet to Europe and have made introductions that led to dates in larger and more prestigious venues. We have also worked together to develop his creative ideas. A project with string quartet, featuring music from Charlie Parker’s ‘Bird with Strings’, began as a residency in colleges and has expanded into a program including a chamber orchestra and newly commissioned works, at venues such as The Kennedy Center and the Detroit Jazz Festival.

Now, as with all things, there are gray areas. Myles Weinstein is a booking agent for some artists who have managers, and others who don’t.  He finds that with the clients who don’t have management, he does have to step in from time to time to help with travel and advancing their dates, or even give general guidance. His primary focus, however, is on booking concerts, not guiding his clients’ careers. Karen Kennedy is a manager, all of whose clients are currently with booking agencies; but if she signs an artist who doesn’t have an agent — an up-and-coming artist perhaps — she will book gigs to get them going. Clearly, nothing is black and white, but if you keep the above guidelines in mind as you search for partners in your career, you will maximize your chances for finding the right team.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.


Posted in Ask Edna, Finding a Manager | Comments Closed

They Can’t Do That To Me!

October 9th, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

I just got a notice that a venue where I booked one of my artists is closing. I have a written engagement contract that was signed by the venue over a year ago. The notice I received says that they have run out of money and are cancelling their season. Can they do that? Do I have a valid claim? Should I file a lawsuit? Can I alert the media? How do I send a message to other venues not to do this?

Assuming you have a valid, enforceable contract with no cancellation clause or other termination provision, then the venue had no legal right to cancel regardless of their financial situation and the venue is in breach of the engagement contract. The question is whether or not your claim is worth pursuing…or, assuming that you were acting as an agent on behalf of your artists, whether or not your artists have a claim worth pursuing.

The first course of action would be to send the venue a letter notifying it that it is in breach and will be liable for damages if you are unable to re-book the date. Then, you must make every effort to re-book the date and minimize (aka “mitigate”) damages. As a matter of contract law, your artists are not automatically entitled to the full engagement fee. Rather, if you were to re-book the date for a smaller engagement fee, your artists would be entitled to the difference. If you were to re-book the date and obtain a higher fee, your artists would not be entitled to any damages at all. Even if you are unable to re-book the date, you must be able to show that you made every effort to do so and made every effort to minimize any other losses or out-of-pocket expenses. (ie: Can you cancel or get a refund for any travel expenses? Are they any production or crew costs you can avoid if the engagement is cancelled?)

To enforce your claim, you would need to file a lawsuit. Depending upon the terms of your contract, you may be able to file the suit where you are located or where the venue is located. However, any judgment outside of the state where the venue is located would be unenforceable unless you took the judgment into a court in the venue’s state and had it recognized by that state. Regardless, getting a judgment does not mean that you will get any money. It just means you are legally entitled to money. With the judgment in hand, you would still need to “collect.” Collection would involve more court proceedings in order to levy bank accounts and attach assets. All of this would need to be done in the state where the assets are located. Also, unless your contract provides for court costs and attorneys fees, those would not be recoverable. Ultimately, whether or not you want to file a lawsuit depends on the amount of your damages and whether the time and costs of pursing the claim outweigh the likelihood of collection. Unless the venue actually owned its own performance space or has other assets to draw from, it can be near impossible to see any actual money. If the venue has no assets or files for bankruptcy, then you would get nothing…or next to nothing.

Your more immediate and practical course of action, aside from making every effort to re-book the date and mitigate damages, may be to notify the venue of your claim and then wait. The statue of limitations for a written contract varies from state-to-state, but, in most instances, you will have from 3 to 6 years to file a lawsuit. If the venue is able to re-organize and re-open before the statute-of-limitations runs out, you could revisit the matter and, if they refuse to pay or otherwise agree to a reasonable settlement, still file your lawsuit. On the other hand, if the non-profit ultimately closes, and it turns out that there are assets to distribute, they will need to seek a court approval of the distribution. You can file a creditor claim and stand in line with their other creditors at that time.

This is may also be a good opportunity to review your engagement contract. As you can see, a lot of your options in these situations depend on the enforcement tools you give yourself in your contract. Do you require non-refundable or forfeitable deposits? Are there specific liability provisions? Interest? Attorneys fees?

As for alerting the media, I realize the venue’s actions appear outrageous, unprofessional, and unethical. Nonetheless, without knowing more about the specific circumstances of this particular venue and what has led to their decision to cancel, “going public” could easily backfire on you as well as your artists. Resist the urge to go on a crusade. They are rarely successful and everyone dies. As for sending a warning to other venues, I seriously doubt most non-profits need to be reminded that contractual breaches, lawsuits, and dissolution of assets are not effective strategic plans.

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For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

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THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Agents, Artist Management, Arts Management, Contracts, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Liability, Non-Profits, Presenters, Venues | Comments Closed

Dudamel’s Mahler 8th for All Time

October 4th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

Gustavo Dudamel’s recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony will restore your faith in life. Quite simply, it is the most thrilling newly recorded release I’ve heard in decades.

This Mahler Eighth must be seen to be believed. With a mind-boggling choral phalanx of 1,200 on risers, the combined orchestras of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, eight soloists, and lord knows how many more choristers tucked into the nooks and crannies of Caracas’s Teatro Teresa Carreño, the work handily earns a new nickname as the “Symphony of Over 1,400.” Deutsche Grammophon has released it on Blu-ray, conventional DVD, and CD, but forget about the latter format unless you want to listen in the car or on a walk in Maiernigg.

I sat transfixed last Saturday night watching a Blu-ray on a 60-inch Panasonic plasma TV with a Bose sound system in a large room, wishing I had had the presence of mind to catch its HD theater engagement earlier this year. But even a home viewing was overwhelming, with every last chorister clearly etched and instrumental timbre true. The camera work, attributed to Michael Beyer (video director), was remarkably musical: none of that frenzied American brand of a new angle every second, which made last week’s New York Philharmonic Live from Lincoln Center broadcast unwatchable.

The Eighth was the climax of Dudamel’s complete (numbered) Mahler symphony cycle shared between the two orchestras in L.A. and Caracas last January and February, except that in the Eighth the orchestras performed together. He was leading the Eighth for the first time. It’s a great performance—as masterly as his LAPhil Mahler First video is callow. Perhaps most astonishing, even allowing for the magic of digital editing from two performances, the playing and choral singing are amazingly clear and precise.

If it doesn’t sweep the Grammys in every eligible category, I’ll eat all the Mahler recordings in my collection.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts:

10/5 Carnegie Hall. Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Riccardo Muti. Dvořák: Symphony No. 5. Martucci: Notturno. Respighi: Feste romane.

5/10 at 7:30. Avery Fisher Hall. New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert; Robert Langevin, flute; Nikolaj Znaider, violin. Nielsen: Flute Concerto; Violin Concerto. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 (“Little Russian”).

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Who Should Write Program Notes?

October 4th, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Congratulations to Mollie Alred of Sciolino Artist Management who won a $25 gift card for submitting the following question

Dear Edna:

As a manager of classical musicians, I have the opportunity to work with many different presenters. No matter the type of presenter, size of the hall, the budget or the number of staff members, one question frequently pops up: Who is writing the program notes? Some organizations hire a professional writer, others handle the task on site, and still others have generous (and well informed, very skilled) volunteers. Yet, there are others who expectantly ask me for this material. This has led to the very last thing I want to have: an uncomfortable exchange with a presenter. As a concert goer, I love program notes and read them carefully. I think they go a long way in engaging our audiences. I also see the presenter’s point of view that the notes should be included as part of the “whole package”. Nevertheless, as an artist manager, writing program notes on Beethoven string quartets falls outside of the duties I can realistically handle. Please help me solve this. What is the industry norm? — Mollie Alred, Associate, Sciolino Artist Management

Dear Mollie:

Thanks for sending in your excellent question. I understand that this was a hot topic at a recent Major University Presenters meeting so it is clearly on many people’s minds. As I usually do in a situation like this, I surveyed a number of manager and presenter colleagues from various parts of the country. What emerged is that there is no industry norm but that most presenters view it as their responsibility to produce program notes. They usually hire someone to do this or resort to one of the solutions you mentioned in your question. The one exception mentioned by everyone I spoke to is new music. It is common for composers to write notes for their works and I would go so far as to say that it is even expected. There are some instances where artists who write well like to submit their own notes. This lends a special personal touch to the program and is gratefully received by the presenter, especially when the works on the program are rather unusual. In the case of vocal recitals, presenters will not necessarily expect to receive program notes but they will expect to receive song texts and translations from foreign languages into English. Most managements keep a data base of such texts and will also refer to the REC Music Foundation’s website, www.recmusic.org.

You might be interested to know that some managements put in their contracts that they don’t provide program notes. I haven’t seen the exact language but I’m sure there is a way to state this which acknowledges that you wish it could be otherwise. In cases where this doesn’t go down well, it should be possible to explain over the phone that it is becoming harder and harder to provide top level service in every aspect of artist booking and servicing in these difficult economic times and that you must concentrate on the essentials. You might also want to add that it is not in your management’s budget to commission program notes for presenters and that you are keenly aware that it is illegal to reproduce and provide notes that have been written and copyrighted by others. One manager told me that since she knows where each artist is playing each program, she sometimes puts one presenter in touch with another to see if they might be able to share the cost of commissioning the notes. Another knew of situations where exceptional students received credit for writing program notes. Bert Harclerode, Executive Director of Chamber Music Sedona, told me that they are fortunate to have Northern Arizona University nearby, where often the Chair of the School of Music has provided informative and witty notes. There may be other presenters who haven’t thought of these possible solutions and who would be grateful to learn of them from you.

I hope that the above suggestions and feedback from both presenters and managers will reduce, or even eliminate, the possibility of you having any further uncomfortable exchanges on this subject in the future.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

 

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A Sure Grammy Bet

October 3rd, 2012

Tune in tomorrow to read about the recording destined to sweep the classical Grammys!

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Can A Visitor Record An Album?

October 3rd, 2012

By Brian Taylor Goldstein

So glad I found your page on the internet, so far it’s been the most helpful out of all my Google searches! I have just a couple of questions. We are from Australia and I have a 14 year old son who has signed a recording contract in the US. Currently we are traveling back and forward on the Visa Waiver Program. I understand he is not aloud to perform until he has an “O” visa. However, is he aloud to record music in his producer’s studio for the album and take label meetings in the hope of placing a major recording contract? When I say meeting, its meeting with music labels for an interview/audition and you normally have to sing a song so that they can hear you and see if they like you in their office.

First of all, congratulations on the recording contract. Those are NOT easy to come by these days.

The visa waiver program allows citizens of certain countries (with Australia being among them) to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days as a “visitor” without first having to obtain an actual B1/B2 (visitor) visa from a U.S. Consulate. Citizens of visa waiver countries only need to have a valid passport to enter the U.S. as a visitor. When an individual enters on the visa waiver program, he or she is subject to all of the same rules and restrictions as if they had an actual visitor visa.

A “visitor” to the U.S. is allowed to do all of the normal visitor activities (sightseeing, shopping, visiting friends, etc.) as well as have business meetings. Visitors cannot work or look for work. Artists who enter as visitors are allowed to attend competitions and auditions (which, as we all know, is a heck of an amount of hard work!), as well as have meetings with producers, agents, and other arts professionals. However, with limited exceptions, they are not permitted to perform in front of an audience–even if they perform for free and/or no tickets are sold! An artist must have an appropriate artist visa (either an O or a P) in order to perform. When it comes to recordings, there’s a limited exception: A recording artist is permitted to come to the U.S. as a visitor to use recording facilities in the U.S., for recording purposes only, provided the recording will be distributed and sold only outside the U.S., and no public performances will be given. Otherwise, when recording artists enter the U.S. to record albums, they are required to obtain an appropriate artist visa.

In your situation, it is perfectly fine for you son to enter the U.S. on the visa waiver program to meet with his agents, producers, and representatives of his label. He can even have interviews and auditions. However, he cannot record music in his producer’s studio for purposes of a publicly released and distributed album unless it’s for an album that will be sold and released outside of the U.S.

You’re fortunate in that Musical America just released a fantastic downloadable report on the complex issue of obtaining U.S. visas for artists, full of helpful tips and explanations. You’ll also want to check out artistsfromabroad.org which has become the definitive resource tool on the issue and which contains an exhaustive array of information and materials.

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For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

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THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Artist Management, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Recordings, Visas | Comments Closed

The Elixir fails to work its Magic at Lincoln Center; Efterklang with the Wordless Music Orchestra

September 30th, 2012

By Rebecca Schmid
Many American opera-goers, including New Yorkers, look across the ocean and wish that their home institutions would afford themselves the same liberties of programming. Back in Berlin, the Deutsche Oper kicked off its season with a Lachenmann opera, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, while the Komische Oper launched a Monteverdi trilogy including themed culinary experiences during intermission, devised by the new Intendant Barrie Kosky. Anyone steeped in bel canto might be secretly happy to spend his or her time otherwise, melody being as foreign to Lachenmann as plot is to the tradition of Regietheater. But the opening production of the Metropolitan Opera this season, L’Elisir d’Amore (seen September 27), sadly reaffirms the stereotype that even this country’s leading companies are often content to rehash well-known repertory in not so inspired packages.

The director Bartlett Sher, who recently presided over Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters at English National Opera, attempts to go against the grain by positing Donizetti’s opera as an allegory for the Risorgimento. Sergeant Belcore and his soldiers represent the Austrians, while the peasant Nemorino and the beautiful landowner Adina must hold to their Italian territory. This is at least what the program notes tell us, all the more convincing given that the love potion which Nemorino falsely believes has allowed him to win over the heart of Adina is nothing more than a bottle of red wine. Yet the production concept fails to materialize with depth and stalls an inherently humorous, light hearted opera.

The star of the production is of course not Sher but Anna Netrebko, the Met’s official poster child who opened last season in another Donizetti opera, Anna Bolena. Her reappearance this year in a top hat failed to distract from the fact that bel canto operas are not an ideal vehicle for her vocal skills. The Russian soprano’s timbre has only become rounder and richer in recent years, and her personality naturally lends itself to the role of the flirty Adina, yet her Italian diction is largely incomprehensible and her mastery of coloratura still subpar. It was refreshing to see the American tenor Matthew Polenzani in the spotlight as Nemorino, albeit in a more earnest than buffo portrayal. He briefly stopped the show in a soulful account his romanza “Una furtiva lagrima,” demonstrating fine use of messa di voce.

Mariusz Kwiecien possesses a tough, gallant baritone that suited Sher’s vision of Belcore, yet it was Ambrogio Maestri who brought the heaviest of dose of authenticity—and humor—in the role of Doctor Dulcamara, distributor of the love potion. One of the most memorable moments in the opera occurs in his barcarolle with Adina at the start of the second act, in which Dulcamara portrays a rich senator. The contrast of Maestri’s old school inflections with Netrebko’s hammed up acting was especially prominent here, although they both appeared to be having a good time onstage. Rounding out the cast in the role of the peasant girl Gianetta was the lyric soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, whose nasal timbre and studied acting did little to enhance what was largely an under inspired evening.

The orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera performed with natural verve and flexible phrasing under Maurizio Benini, although the Italian conductor was a bit too eager to keep the energy high with fleet tempi. The Met’s chorus did not deviate from its high standards as the peasants surrounding Adina and Belcore’s platoon. Naturalist sets by Michael Yeargan aimed for a larger-than-life, rustic charm that gained aesthetic appeal in the pastel buildings of the village square scene in the first act, while the painted haystacks lining Adina’s farmhouse in the second act indicated a bland attempt to reinvent this familiar opera in bold, accessible strokes. Costumes by Catherine Zuber, ranging from frilly peasant dresses to Austrian soldiers’ uniforms, were well-crafted but not particularly memorable. Top hats for Adina and Dulcamara added perplexing, out of place flash. While there is no doubt that Lincoln Center remains a center of world-class opera, even with the remains of New York City Opera roaming the streets, it may not be enough to ride on big names and crowd pleasers if the Met is to live up to its name as an unrivalled bastion of quality.

Wordless Music

A visit to New York would of course not be complete without a venture into the thriving homegrown culture of indie classical. The Wordless Music Orchestra, founded in 2006 by Ronen Givony, has won attention for bringing together musicians who specialize in contemporary repertoire with rock artists such as Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead and the Japanese band MONO. On September 22, the Met Museum presented the orchestra in arrangements of songs by the Danish trio Efterklang, whose new album Piramida was released three days later. The concert boasted a strong representation of what a friend was quick to identify as hipsters, i.e. younger listeners who would most likely not venture outside their borough for a formal event at Lincoln Center. Orchestration by Karsten Fundal and Missy Mazzoli added ethereal textures to the cool vocals and ambient electronica of Efterklang, described by NPR as lying “somewhere between the cooing gloom of Bon Iver…and the soaring grandiosity of Coldplay.” A trio of female vocalists, led by Katinka Fogh Vindelev, added another layer of atmospherics, while lead singer Casper Clausen brought a friendly, casual presence to the stage.

The atmosphere took a decidedly more pop-rock direction when Clausen asked the audience to stand up for the last two numbers. Among the encores was a reprisal of “The Ghost,” a rhythmically catchy number to which Mazzoli added inventive, rubbery textures in the strings. Fundal had arranged the bulk of the songs, with a range of success. Tremoli in the slow medley “Sedna” met powerfully with vocal wailing and live electronica, while the scurrying violins were drowned out by the drums and electronica toward the end of “Between the Walls.” Despite such moments, Efterklang’s meditative, rock-inflected vibes were only enhanced in the collaboration with classical musicians. The flutes in “Told to be fine,” also entrusted to Fundal, added a heavenly sheen. The result may lack the mental rigor classical listeners associate with everyone from Bach to Lachenmann, but if blending popular and classical idioms can be such good listening, why spend one’s time otherwise?

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