Grade 1 Violin

  Philip Eisenbeiss has written an excellent book on Domenico Barbaja. In the following thumbnail he summarises the story he tells so well but there are some details I think he should have incorporated such as Barbaja having had dealings with Beethoven and Schubert when he controlled the Opera in Vienna and the fact his rebuilding of the Teatro San Carlo, Naples was within a year and from his own pocket. Here is Philip's summary; Domenico Barbaja in Naples in the 1820s Credit: Eisenbeiss, Philip (2013).  Bel Canto Bully Only the most hard-boiled opera lovers could name the leading impresarios of today: Peter Gelb of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Alexander Pereira of La Scala of Milan (formerly of Zurich Opera and the Salzburg Festival) and possibly Stéphane Lissner of the Paris Opera (formerly of La Scala). Some might even remember Sir Rudolf Bing, who ruled over the Met (old and new) with an iron fist for over twenty years and wrote two successful memoirs. And yet these...

 Philip Eisenbeiss writes (and I couldn't put it better myself): Of the three great impresarios of 19th century Italy (Domenico Barbaja, Alessandro Lanari, Bartolomeo Merelli), Lanari stands out as the one who commissioned the most operas that have lasted to this day: Gaetano Donizetti’s  Lucia di Lammermoor  and  L’Elisir d’Amore , Vincenzo Bellini’s  Norma  and  Beatrice di Tenda  and Giuseppe Verdi’s  Attila  and  Macbeth . Lanari also deserves the prize for running the largest number of theatres between 1820 and 1850: Milan’s La Scala, Venice’s La Fenice, Naples’ San Carlo, Florence’s La Pergola plus the theatres of Verona, Mantua, Faenza, Padua, Arezzo, Ancona, Lucca, Senigaglia; and the list goes on. In an era when the country was crazy about opera, Lanari controlled more theatres than anyone else. Born in a small town in the Marches region, he started early as an impresario of smaller stages until he moved to Florence where h...

  Adorable people in the Musical World are few and far between. I used to joke that my memoires would be entitled 'Ghastly people I have known.' Hans Werner Henze was one of the adorables. It was my old violin teacher Michael Tillett once again who first mentioned Henze's name to me. Together with his mention of the name of Karlheinz Stockhausen I was suddenly connected to the German avant-garde of that time, the 1950s.  It was thanks however to Michael Vyner of the London Sinfonietta that I actually met Hans. Michael had been acting as Henze's agent and wanted to divest himself of that function. I was of course delighted to take on his conducting activities although he was not a great conductor. Composers are always interesting as interpreters of other people's works however and I remember a Mahler 5 with an interesting and persuasive take on the last movement. Hans explained to me that this movement was problematic unless you saw it as a fable. Telling a story. A ...

  I only met him once though I knew him well thanks to his distinguished career at the Edinburgh Festival, Covent Garden, English National Opera and Opera North of which he was the founder. Everything he did was with distinction.  He was actually quite approachable for a grandson of George V. and 1st cousin to the queen. Only once did I hear anything to suggest he was 'royal' in nature as well as in fact. I believe that a visitor to his office at the ENO was told by his colleague Edmund Tracey not to disagree with anything he said but to tell Edmund later.  I only met him once. In that meeting we were discussing a contract for the Australian soprano Eileen Hannan. Eileen was there. Harewood asked her 'You're not Irish are you?' Eileen replied that she was not. 'Good, because I hate the Irish,' said Harewood.  I thought that was a bit rich coming from someone in his position. What if I had gone to the newspapers about that? Of course I didn't say anything...

  The man from the backwoods of Saskatchewan, Jon Vickers really did embody the Heldentenor type. All those open spaces, fresh air and physical challenges appeared to be the breeding ground for dramatic singers. So it was not considered strange or exceptional when such a type was added to the Covent Garden company in 1957. At that time British theatre companies could employ guests from the Commonwealth and did so. When we joined the Common Market as it was then, we had to employ European artists leaving Commonwealth ones out in the cold as 'aliens.'  Vickers was a great success from the start. In 1959 he recorded 'Messiah' with Sir Thomas Beecham. The story goes that Vickers was apprehensive of this collaboration and apologetically told him that he wasn't like a normal British tenor at which Beecham said 'Thank God for that.' Indeed, Beecham was so impressed he ruined a great take by exclaiming to Vickers 'You're good!' I saw Vickers in many role...

  Brian McMaster was and is a fantastically knowledgeable surveyor of the cultural scene. He is also a brilliant executive and wonderful human being. He has occupied many of the great offices of the operatic and musical state: first at EMI, then the English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Vancouver Opera and Edinburgh Festival. When starting his 15 years at WNO he took the company to a new level at the forefront of operatic activity almost at a stroke. For a description of the opening production of his era see my post on Harry Kupfer.  The company went from there to performing The Ring at Covent Garden, and to guest appearances at Leipzig, Dresden, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Milan - at La Scala no less. This hasn't been repeated either by the WNO or any other company I can think of. Brian is motivated by Art. He thinks first of what would be the greatest imaginable project and then how to realize it. When the subject of how to pay for it comes up he says 'we'll raise ...