Paul Barton, a piano teacher based in Thailand, has performed many times for elephants in a local sanctuary, and says he enjoys watching the their reactions to different tunes. While he was playing Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag recently, a ten-year-old male named Peter decided to join in.
He said: “I suddenly felt something strange sucking the back of my head and had an unexpected duet partner.”
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The chance of a paid bit part in a Sarasota Opera production attracted seven hopefuls to auditions held earlier today.
The canine chancers were tested on skills like walking, sitting, and ignoring loud singers. The winner will be announced in a couple of weeks.
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This gently remodelled and reverentially paced revival of Laurent Pelly's 2007 production is not a vintage night at the opera. Slightly corked more like.
Pelly's cosy Cath Kidston faux-50s perspective is not a patch on Jonathan Miller's edgier ENO production for wit, warmth and vitality. And what Pelly hasn't sucked out, Bruno Campanella's connoisseurly savouring of every last note drained down to the dregs. Luckily, this is the best cast it's had so far, and the superb individual performances make it a show worth seeing.
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The star of dozens of Royal Opera performances is the subject of a new biography
Pollyanne the opera donkey made her debut in Pagliacci. Now a mainstay of Carmen, she has upstaged singers from Angela Gheorghiu to Placido Domingo.
Read an adapted extract here.
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It's a little-known fact that Glenn Gould's earliest duet partner was an English setter.
Nicky was the first of the young prodigy's several canine companions. By his own admission, Gould got along better with animals than humans, and once even claimed he was a collie. The chillingly anthropomorphic Nicky again:
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"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.
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The swan that dived into the orchestra pit in last week's Freiburg Lohengrin has been relieved of his duties following complaints from disgruntled theatregoers, orchestra members and animal activists. It has not yet been decided who or what his replacement will be. His handler says he was perfect in rehearsals and blames the incident on the chorus, who she says approached him too quickly.
Theatre management don't want to risk another incident, so 25 live chickens signed up to debut in Elfriede Jelinek's play Winterreise on Saturday have also been given the bird. Ironically, their purpose was to represent uncontrollability.
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Although the audience gasped, the orchestra played on without missing a note.
The tame one year old dwarf swan was easily recaptured by his trainer, who promises he'll be put in a harness for future performances "now he realises he can fly away". Director Hilbrich may be disappointed - he chose to use a live animal rather than the usual stuffed substitute as "a symbol of hope".
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This evil-eyed ball of fur and fishbreath is a semi-longhaired Russian Blue, otherwise known as a Nebelung (sic).
The breed was initiated in the 1980s with the coupling of Siegfried and Brunhilde - in true Wagnerian fashion, brother and sister. Neither is still with us. Unlike their operatic namesakes, Brunhilde died of unknown causes and Siegfried was run over in a parking lot.
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Paul Halwax (Tuba) with his chihuahuas Fafner and Franca (© Zeppelzauer)
The Wiener Philharmoniker are fonder of a cold wet nose than you might think. Eight members of the orchestra are featured in this months Wuff magazine, together with their furry friends.
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Fancy working for the Bavarian State Opera? A couple of positions have just cropped up on their vacancies list.
For Der Rosenkavalier you need to be small and well-behaved, and for La Cenerentola, small or medium build, and black.
Oh, and although the jobs are teasingly listed alongside the Chorus vacancies, I'm afraid you have to be a dog as well.
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Some people claim we humans are closely related to pigs. Speak for yourself I reply.
But it appears we do share some tastes. Playing classical music to pigs in abattoirs reduces stress, according to a research project carried out by masters student Philip Wrigglesworth at Moulton College, Northampton. The pigs played classical music showed less aggression and had lower blood levels of cortisol (a stress-related hormone) than pigs played white noise or no music. Then again, for those about to enter the bacon slicer, I guess any distraction is welcome.
Sadly it seems there are no videos of Mozart-digging porkers to be found. So here's one of their etymological relatives, a guinea pig, allegedly enjoying a classical break.
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photo: Sivan Cotel
"If Webern had a cat, this is what Webern’s cat would have written."
That's how one of the judges described Piece for Piano, Four Paws, a prizewinning entry in the Paris New Music Review’s One-Minute Competition in 1997.
The composer, a black and white cat named Ketzel (Yiddish for 'cat'), sadly passed away last week at her New York home having reached the grand old age of 19 (the equivalent of 93 in human years).
Her solitary oeuvre was performed several times in public, earning her $19.72 in royalties. More (including audio) in the New York Times.
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Snoop Dogg would "like to try a little opera" on his next album according to the Daily Star, who know all about these things.
A Dogg's Heart would be the obvious choice, but maybe that's a bit too artsy for Snoop. Dogg Giovanni? Dogg Carlos?
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This comes from the Twitter account of one Rupert Christiansen. Presumably that Rupert Christiansen.
So you shooed it gently into the hose, which you then picked up and carried carefully outside, allowing the living creature within to make its escape in its own time? (Animal lovers - stop reading NOW)
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Looks like the Bavarians are taking a break from eviscerating conductors. Local animal rights activists are up in arms after it was reported that the State Opera's new Rusalka will incorporate dead deer.
A fresh deer will be provided for every performance of Martin Kusej's production, which opens on 23 October. The carcasses will have to be thrown away immediately after each show for hygiene reasons.
The Bayerischen Tierschutzbundes (Animal Protection League) have asked State Opera director Nikolaus Bachler to use a plastic dummy instead. The Bund Naturschutz in Bayern described the production as "very questionable" and expressed shock at the "insensitivity" of the artists to living beings.
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*UPDATE* the protests have forced the State Opera to back down - they're going to use a fake deer instead.
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'Sound sculptor' Henry Dagg has created his own version of the 17th century Katzenklavier using 16 fluffy toy cats.
Displayed at a festival in the grounds of Clarence House, it appeared to entertain HRH Prince Charles and his lovely wife rather more than David McVicar's Aida did.
Here's HRH's official video (with bonus Brian Blessed):
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Newspapers are dead, believe it. Rene Pape's agent dispenses with the press and interviews Der Superbass himself.
I'm not sure which is the best bit - that his ring tone is Méphistophélès' devilish laughter from Gounod’s Faust, or that he has a dachshund called --- Wotan.
Compulsive reading, and apparently there are more instalments to come.
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Cats are born ivory-ticklers, finches rock out, but parrots, it seems, prefer a little coloratura. With a Queen of the Night aria more accurate than many professional singers, I give you Menino:
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Katya Kabanova - English National Opera, 17 March 2010
ENO have turned into the Gap of the opera world - nobody with half a brain bothers to pay full price any more, because we know everything will be reduced in the sales. And with the annual scenery budget blown on the ill-judged spectacular of Turandot too, there can't have been much cash around for David Alden to play with. Is that why the set for his new Káťa Kabanová was limited to a single plywood panel and the costumes were borrowed from Dallas Opera?
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