Intermezzo

Salzburg boss blames sponsors for poor reviews

It seems Salzburg Festival boss Alexander Pereira has a mouth so big that he can put his foot in it while biting the hand that feeds.

Guess who's number 1 in the charts?

In Amazon.co.uk's ALL-music chart - the proper one, not just the yawny old classical chart - Nicola Benedetti is currently riding high. 

Her latest recording, The Silver Violin, finds the Scottish violinist whupping the unit-shifting asses of Elbow, Emili Sandé, Paloma Faith, The Black Keys, etc - with a selection of Shostakovitch, Mahler and Korngold.

Could this prove that any publicity is good publicity?

Glyndebourne vs Grimeborn

Prom 60 - Le Nozze di Figaro - Royal Albert Hall, 28 August 2012
Handel Furioso / The Emperor of Atlantis - Arcola Tent, 29 August 2012

Glyndebourne's new production of Le nozze di Figaro received some ecstatic reviews when it opened at home base a couple of months ago. In front of a capacity audience, the transfer to a Proms semi-staging didn't fare so well.

Furry fingers

"He likes the sound of the piano but he’s not very good at playing it."

A blind rescue cat enjoys playing the piano because the sound helps him connect to the outside world, say staff at an animal charity. Stevie Wonder, as he's been named, compensates for his lack of sight with excellent hearing.

Salzburg Festival - Style barometer

Salzburg's chicest interval retreat, the Karl-Böhm-Saal, has been hosting a wardrobe full of shoes all summer. Thirty-four pairs to be specific, hanging from a ceiling as the centrepiece of an installation  by Javier Perez. Imaginary couples dance in circles around a phonograph which endlessly repeats the same tune.

It's an apt metaphor for the dress sense of the Salzburg audience, to most of whom fashion is a foreign word.

But there were exceptions. Let's start with the most stylish of all.

Salzburg's Soldiers

Die Soldaten - Felsenreitschule, 26 August 2012 (Salzburg Festival)

Amidst the greying audiences of the Salzburg Festival, a 50 year old punter counts as young. And a 50 year old opera can pass as contemporary. It is perhaps with the conservative spectators of Salzburg (and co-producers La Scala) in mind that director Alvis Hermanis has declawed Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s bleak anti-war masterpiece.

Angela Gheorghiu's Korea crisis

Angela Gheorghiu's visit to South Korea isn't going too well. 

First off, two of her planned four shows of La bohème with Vittorio Grigolo had to be cancelled after tickets sold poorly amidst overpricing complaints. The most expensive were 570,000 won, or over £300.

Then one of the remaining two performances was postponed due to Typhoon Bolaven - no, not another one of Angela's mystery illnesses, but the strongest storm to hit Korea in a decade. 

Now the remaining tickets are being flogged off at discounts of up to 87% - and even so, there are plenty remaining.

If things carry on like this, Angela might find herself reduced to actually turning up for her bookings to earn a crust.

Carmen without bull

Carmen - Salzburg Festival, 25 August 2012

Who is Carmen? A seething volcano of unfettered passions? An independent woman with the courage to forge her own destiny? A projection of male nympho fantasies? Or a whey-faced Berlin housewife with the voice of an angel and two left feet?

Cecilia's Cesare

Giulio Cesare in Egitto - Haus für Mozart, 25 August 2012 (Salzburg Festival)

This Leiser and Caurier production formed the centrepiece of Cecilia Bartoli's Salzburg Whitsun Festival, a venture that proved such a hit with audiences and critics alike that we may not have to wait long until la Ceci is offered the Big Festival job as well.

Older Slower Better

Vienna Philharmonic / Bernard Haitink / Murray Perahia - Grosses Festspielhaus, 25 August 2012 (Salzburg Festival)

Many of this year's Salzburg Festival operas have been, for various reasons, disappointing. The concerts have been anything but.

Das Labyrinth fails to amaze

Das Labyrinth - Residenzhof, 24 August 2012 (Salzburg Festival)

The main reason why Peter von Winter's Das Labyrinth has remained virtually unperformed since its 1798 debut is a simple one. It's not very good.

But as 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of its librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, and the Salzburg Festival has also programmed his eminently more successful Die Zauberflöte this year, it's not unreasonable of them to give everyone the chance to double-check its cash-in sequel for hitherto-hidden qualities.

Nope, still not very good.

Bayreuth 2013 opens on the big screen

Katharina Wagner has confirmed that the opening night of next year's Bayreuth Festival will be shown live in cinemas. The screening of Der Fliegender Holländer follows this year's successful experiment with Parsifal.

Mittwoch aus Licht - Birmingham world premiere

Mittwoch aus Licht - Argyle Works Birmingham, 22 August 2012 (World Premiere)

The last opera in Stockhausen's Licht cycle to remain unperformed, Mittwoch received its belated world premiere on Wednesday. It would have been the composer's 84th birthday. Had he still been around, he would have performed the part he wrote for himself - compere of the notorious Helikopter-Streichquartett. That role was assigned instead to the cheesily effective ("Let's hear it for Stockhausen!") DJ Nihal, who rattled the chin-stroking fraternity by treating the whole thing as a Radio 1 Big Weekend with beards.

John Cage at the Proms

Music Walk - London SW7, 17 August 2012
Prom 47: Cage Centenary Celebration - Royal Albert Hall, 17 August 2012

Guess who's more talented than Katherine Jenkins?

According to Japanese scientists, gibbons can sing like opera stars.

Stockhausen does pub opera

Beat this King's Head.

The Spotted Dog pub in Digbeth, Birmingham will be live-streaming this afternoon's performance of Mittwoch aus Licht on their big screen. All six hours of it.

Mittwoch aus Licht streamed live in full

Missed out on tickets? Birmingham Opera Company are to stream the whole of Thursday's six-hour performance of Mittwoch aus Licht live.

*Important* - you need to sign up in advance to get the link.

Also, the Helicopter String Quartet section of Wednesday's world premiere (but not the whole opera) will be live-streamed on The Space at around 7pm.

A special website page has been set up with more information about the production.

Mozart - The Dirndl

Let it never be said that Salzburg overlooks its most profitable son. Hot on the heels of The Mozart Soap comes The Mozart Dirndl.

Debutantes at Salzburg's Festspielball on 1 September will sport specially-designed dirndls incorporating photos of this year's Zauberflöte stars on the apron. Look really, really closely at the photos and you may be able to identify Bernard Richter as Tamino and Markus Werba as Papageno between the voluminous folds.

See ENO's Julietta for less

Get 30% off Dress Circle and Upper Circle tickets for the first three performances of ENO's "new" Richard Jones production of Julietta with the code JOURNEY. (Needless to say, there are plenty left, so you may be better off waiting for discounts on the day).

Here's what the 2002 Paris production looked like on its most recent outing, earlier this year in Geneva.

Mozart - the real soap opera

An Austrian entrepreneur who makes pricey soaps inspired by classic literary works recently completed a special commission - a Magic Flute you can wash your hands with.

Soapmeister Wolfgang Lederhaas found inspiration for the soap's rose, cypress and laurel fragrance in the opera's libretto.

Before you stampede Superdrug be warned that Die Zauberseife is not available in the shops. So far just 120 pieces have been presented to Nikolaus Harnoncourt for giving away to singers, musicians and friends in commemoration of this year's Salzburg Festival production. Lederhaas does not rule out selling it commercially in future - but only after consultation with the Maestro.