Canadian Opera Company Appears To Beat Washington National Opera At The Kennedy Center To Staging of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin (Love from Afar)

'The Canadian Opera Company’s 2011-2012 season includes the Canadian premieres of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2000 opera "L’Amour de Loin (Love From Afar)" with a French-language libretto by Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf, and Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky’s 1917 opera "A Florentine Tragedy".

Company General Director Alexander Neef said that five of next season’s seven operas were part of a mock season he prepared when he applied three years ago for the top creative job at the company. The search committee asked each applicant to come up with a list of productions for 2011-2012.'

The new Washington National Opera of the Kennedy Center will announce its 2011-12 in early February.

Photo credit: (c) Copyright controlled.

Washington National Opera And Kennedy Center To Affiliate -- American Composers And Librettists To Be Given Greater Opportunities At National Center

The affiliation will become effective on July 1, 2011. The Washington National Opera of the Kennedy Center 2011-12 season will be announced in early February.

"Will the Opera’s offerings change? How will the affiliation affect the quality of performances?

WNO and the Kennedy Center have a shared commitment to presenting performances and programs of the highest quality. The 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons are confirmed, and the Kennedy Center will be a part of artistic decision-making for future seasons.

Last updated 1/20/11."



*

Washington's Post-Classical Ensemble Artistic Director Joseph Horowitz has co-created (with the video artist Peter Bogdanoff) a 10-minute film, "Ted Sorensen Remembers JFK" for the National Symphony Orchestra's concerts this week celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy inauguration. The program features a commissioned work by Peter Lieberson: "Remembering JFK: An America Elegy."

Joseph Horowitz has also been engaged by the National Symphony Orchestra as an artistic consultant for their performances of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, March 10-11-12, 2011.

Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival 2011

"Six of the Bay Area’s Youth Orchestras come together at Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday afternoon for a celebration of music. Proceeds from the concert will benefit six organizations, one within each orchestra’s local community, that provide resources to underserved and homeless youth."

Underserved youth ...

Photo credit: (c) San Francisco Symphony 2011.

*

Program:

Dvořák: Symphony No. 8, Opus 88, Allegro con brio
Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra
Richard Loheyde, conductor

Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko, Opus 5
Peninsula Youth Orchestra
Mitchell Sardou Klein, music director and conductor

Arturo Márquez: Danzon No. 2
Oakland Youth Orchestra
Michael Morgan, artistic director; Bryan Nies, principal conductor

Ginastera: Estancia Suite
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra
Donato Cabrera, music director and conductor

Sibelius: Symphony No. 1, Opus 39, Finale (4th movement)
Young People’s Symphony Orchestra
David Ramadanoff, music director and conductor

R. Strauss: Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome
California Youth Symphony
Leo Eylar, music director

Respighi: selections from Pines of Rome
Festival Orchestra (members from all six orchestras)
David Ramadanoff, conductor

Black Month, Black Week: The Adagio Makes Way For An Elegy

Valentin Silvestrov composed Elegy for String Orchestra, which is dedicated to Marina Kapitsa, between 2000 and 2002. Kirill Karabits led the premiere in Kyiv, Ukraine, Future European Union, on September 15, 2002.

"When my father [conductor and composer Ivan Karabyts] died in 2002, he left a sketch of what he was writing during the last weeks and days of his life. Composer Valentin Silvestrov picked up some of the melody from ... the unfinished lines, and called it 'Elegy.'

-- Conductor Kirill Karabits, debuting this fortnight with both the San Francisco Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington).

Thomas May program notes to the Elegy, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.
(Not on the National Symphony Orchestra website.)

Martyn Harry’s July 2003 Gramophone interview with Valentin Silvestrov.

Photo credit: Valentin Silvestrov (c) Victor Marushchenko 2010. December's democratization riot in Minsk, Belarus, Future European Union (c) ria novosti 2010.

Belarus Intensifies Efforts Against Former Candidate, His Wife, Their Three-year Old Son, And His Mother-in-Law

Latest Belarus News from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Belarus Service

Photo credit: (c) Felipe Dana/Associated Press 2011.

Breaking News: National Gallery Thrilled That Kandinsky Agrees To Meet Schönberg (And Carter, Cage, Ligeti, Soderberg, DeLio, JL Adams, Antosca & Lin)

Upcoming in Washington:

When Kandinsky Met Schönberg
A Wind From Another Planet

National Gallery of Art — West Garden Court
January 23, 2011 6:30 PM

pre-concert talk West Building Recital Hall 6 PM

Program Notes

*

Also upcoming:

Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border

June 11–September 4, 2011

"After a visit to his native Moscow in 1912, Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) sought to find a way to record the “extremely powerful impressions” that lingered in his memory. Working tirelessly through numerous drawings, watercolors, and oil studies over a five-month period, Kandinsky eventually arrived at his 1913 masterpiece, Painting with White Border. The exhibition will reunite this painting with over 12 preparatory studies from international collections, including the Phillips’s oil sketch, and compare it with other closely related works. Complemented by an in-depth conservation study of Painting with White Border, the exhibition will provide viewers with a rare glimpse into Kandinsky’s creative process."

Co-organized by The Phillips Collection and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Theme & Improvisation: Kandinsky & the American Avant-Garde (1912 – 1950)

Photo credit: Later Kandinsky and later Guston (c) The Phillips Collection 2011. Copyright controlled.

*

The Kreeger Museum, Washington, D.C.: IN UNISON: 20 WASHINGTON, DC ARTISTS January 15 - February 26, 2011

French Embassy Thrilled That Roger Reynolds Will Join Diotima SQ In Contemporary Music Series -- Next Up, Phillips Collection Music Series

"We are thrilled that famous composer Roger Reynolds has agreed to a pre-concert lecture before Diotima String Quartet's performance on Wednesday, January 19!

Reynolds, who is one of the most famous American composers today, is a tenured professor at the University of California, San Diego. His music is published by C.F. Peters, New York and is widely represented on foreign and domestic recordings around the world. The Library of Congress has a special collection dedicated to his works and The Los Angeles Times describes him as “an all-around sonic visionary.”

Roger Reynolds will talk about the process of composition - how ideas come and how they take shape. With the cooperation of the Diotima String Quartet, we will hear live examples!

This contemporary music series gives our audience a unique chance to enjoy the masterpieces of today."

La Maison Française, Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Rd, NW



Diotima String Quartet

Image credits: Four Lions (c) Copyright controlled 2010. Diotima String Quartet photo © Thibault Stipal.

"When I Hear The Word Renaissance I Rearch ... "

[Click on images for enlargements.]

San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, Restored 2011.

"The weeping figures surrounding the boxes on the colonnade were the work of the sculptor Ulric Ellerhusen. Some say they were intended to express Contemplation; others, the melancholy of life without art. These lachrymose ladies were to have been partially shrouded by vines watered by their tears, but funds were insufficient to provide all the greenery that Bernard Maybeck had wanted. Therefore the boxes at the top of the columns were never planted. Nor were the redwood trees which were to have surrounded the Palace, to add to the romantic atmosphere."

Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900-1949 (Google Books)

Photo credits: (c) Liz Hafalia for San Francisco Chronicle 2011. Copyright controlled.

Free Danil Sannikov! Free Belarus!

Danil Sannikov, 3, at a Minsk, Belarus, Future European Union park. With his parents in prison, a grandmother is caring for him.

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Belarus Signals It Could Seize Opponent's Son

"Rather be my hopes beguil'd, Take him all, but spare my child

The name of the wicked shall quickly be past;
But the fame of the just shall eternally last."

Photo credit: (c) Andrei Liankevich for The New York Times 2011. Copyright controlled.

community leaders missing in action

Twas The Night Before ...

... Happy Christmas greetings 2011 to my Orthodox readers.

Photo credit: Restored Saint Michael's Church, Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Future European Union. (c) Copyright controlled.

State Of The State/Union/Culture: Not Good And Requiring Courage, Sacrifice, Loyalty

Photo credit: (c) Rich Pedroncelli and Associated Press 2011.