Classical music news and obituary thread.

[CBHagman]

Post here if you run across any interesting stories regarding singers, musicians, composers, conductors, and the like. You can also post any obituaries of note to the classical music world.

I'll start with the obituary of the tenor Ernst Haefliger.



http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/18/news/obits.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901822.html

Ernst Haefliger, the Swiss opera singer renowned for his oratorio and minstrelsy, died March 17 from acute heart failure in the southeastern town of Davos, Switzerland. He was 87.

(SNIP)

Mr. Haefliger was the leading lyric tenor with the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1952 to 1972 and sang all of Mozart's tenor parts and performed as Hans in Smetana's "Verkaufte Braut."

His recordings with companies such as Columbia Records and Deutsche Grammophon of numerous Mozart operas and Beethoven's "Fidelio" brought Mr. Haefliger several awards.

[CBHagman]

1. Soprano Dawn Upshaw being treated for breast cancer.

On the arts pages of The New York Times recently, I ran across a reference to Dawn Upshaw's cancellation of an announced appearance due to fatigue brought on by chemotherapy. She was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in November -- a story I'd completely missed. I was sad about the news of her diagnosis, but at least the prognosis seems hopeful. Good wishes to Ms. Upshaw and her family and friends!

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/5574.html

The soprano Dawn Upshaw has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. She is preparing to begin aggressive treatment shortly, according to her manager, and her current prognosis is excellent.

"Dawn knew she had a family history" of the disease, Alec Treuhaft, Upshaw's manager at IMG Artists, told PlaybillArts. "She caught it early, and she has the benefit of an enormous amount of medical knowledge gained in recent years ... The treatment is worse than the disease at this point."

More news. I guess she's still in treatment:

http://www.examiner.com/a-610156~Dawn_Upshaw_Cancels_Carnegie_Performance.html

[CBHagman]

2. Dawn Upshaw returns to the concert hall.

I'm glad to see she's back on stage after breast cancer treatments. Anthony Tommasini has some warm praise for her Sunday concert:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/arts/music/01dawn.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref=slogin

“It’s great to be here,” the soprano Dawn Upshaw said on Sunday afternoon at the beginning of her recital at Town Hall. “I mean, really great,” she added, looking misty-eyed, to which the audience responded with a long round of applause and cheers.

Many people in the hall knew the deeper meaning of Ms. Upshaw’s comment. In the fall she was told she had early-stage breast cancer, forcing her to miss many months of work. This recital, with her good friend and longtime partner, the pianist Gilbert Kalish, was only her second, and her first in New York, since coming back from “treatments,” as she put it. She looked vibrant and hardy. Her voice sounded warm, full and lovely. If anything, there seemed to be an even richer dimension to Ms. Upshaw’s deeply communicative artistry.

She also said she was honored to be opening this spring’s Free for All at Town Hall series, now in its fifth season. She noted, beaming with pleasure, that earlier in the day Mr. Kalish had become a grandfather for the fourth time: his daughter, Judith, had given birth to a boy.

(SNIP)

A group of French songs by Fauré, Debussy and Ravel culminated with two astounding songs from Messiaen’s “Poèmes pour Mi.” In the ecstatically frenzied second song (“Fulfilled Prayer”), Ms. Upshaw sang with wild-eyed, almost frightening exuberance, as Mr. Kalish deftly dispatched the outbursts of astringent cluster chords.

Mr. Kalish’s ruminative interpretation of Brahms’s pensive Intermezzo in B minor (Op. 119, No. 1) set the tone for songs by Schumann, Wolf, Berg and Weill. The program ended with sly and captivating performances in three of the clever and stylistically eclectic “Cabaret Songs” by the composer William Bolcom and the lyricist Arnold Weinstein.

[MikeH]

3. Russian maestro Rostropovich dies

Last Updated: Friday, 27 April 2007, 11:45 GMT 12:45 UK

The celebrated Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich has died at the age of 80.

A master musician, Mr Rostropovich was also renowned for his backing for human rights and opposition to Soviet rule.

He spent much of his career abroad, in self-imposed exile from the Soviet Union over his support for Nobel prize writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

But he returned as communism collapsed and performed a Bach suite as the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

...

In August 1991, he flew to Moscow to support Mr Yeltsin as hardliners attempted to reverse Mr Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika reforms, spending days protesting in the parliament building.

...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6598895.stm


I have always admired him for his dedication to human rights and freedom. I particularly admire his having gone to Moscow in 1991 during the attempted coup by the old hardliners.

The NPR program http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/">Performance Today, which I hear on my local PBS station, KPBS 89.5 FM in San Diego, dedicated a series of programs to him the week of his 80th birthday, March 27, and then dedicated a program to him the day of his death, April 27.

[CBHagman]

4. Yes, he and his wife put their careers on the line.

They really came through for Solzhenitsyn, from what I've read, and at quite a high personal and professional price. I'm glad Slava was able to live to see the fruit of his labors.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. Beverly Sills is gravely ill with cancer (June 28th, 2007)

The "Oh Shit!" Department. :cry:

I saw her sing live three times. :cry:

[Lithos]

6. She's passed

A great talent.

L-

[CBHagman]

7. A link with addtional links.

Tim Page wrote up a tribute in The Washington Post, as did Anthony Tommasini for The New York Times.

http://womenshistory.about.com/

[CBHagman]

8. Very sad news about Jerry Hadley.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/arts/music/11cnd-hadley.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The New York Times is reporting that he is on life support following an incident in which he apparently shot himself in the head.

[CBHagman]

9. Soprano Rose Bampton dies at the age of 99.

New York Times obituary:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/arts/music/23bampton.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

When Ms. Bampton made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Laura in “La Gioconda,” in November 1932, she had been singing professionally for only three years. But she had a considerable artistic arsenal that included a strong, finely polished voice and a trim, statuesque figure. During her years with the company — she retired in 1950 — her sound was generally regarded as attractive rather than thrilling, but she used it with an intelligence and interpretive flair that made her one of the most distinctive singers of her time.

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/20070823_Rose_Bampton_was_a_star_of_opera__her_voice_a_miracle.html

Bampton's vocal range was something of a curiosity. She entered Curtis as a coloratura soprano, but soon found her voice wanting to sing lower, and settled into a mezzo range. At an audition at the Met, she found her register again in question.

"I had a cold, and they asked if there was anything else I could sing," Bampton told an interviewer for the radio documentary The Art of Rose Bampton. "I said the only thing I have is an aria I just learned. It's Rossini, and it has a great deal of scale work."

After she sang it, members of the panel laughed. "They said, 'We're laughing because we don't think that you are a mezzo. We're quite sure that you are going to be a soprano.' "

And so, eventually, she was - a dramatic soprano.

She was a colleague and muse to various of the major figures of 20th century music -- Barber, Stokowski, Menotti, Toscanini.

[CBHagman]

10. Pavarotti has left us.

I'm sorry to report that Luciano Pavarotti has died. He was 71. God rest his soul.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20607839/

[CBHagman]

11. An overview of the 2007's obituaries.

The Washington Post devoted an article today to many of the cultural figures -- singers, composers, writers et al -- who left us this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101923.html

[CBHagman]

12. "Brokeback Mountain" opera commissioned.

My only question is, is Jack the tenor and Ennis the bass-baritone?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7443651.stm

The New York City Opera has commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on the 1997 short story.

The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, the company said.

[CBHagman]

13. And of course I can't forget "An Inconvenient Truth."

Yes, it's going to be an opera.

But here's something fun from The New York Times. Get it while it's hot:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/earth/17tier.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin