The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society cancels its “Riches to Rags” chamber music season this June and postpones it until next June
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s 29th season will become our 30th season celebration next year. We’ll re-engage and present our entire 2020 season, as closely as possible, with the same stellar musicians, in 2021.
We would love nothing more than present our 29th season to you live and in person as we planned. But, dear friends, never fear!
We, at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, have always been light on our feet, nimble in the face of challenge, flexible throughout changing fortunes and venues, and we have a few tricks up our sleeve.
Stephanie Jutt and Jeffrey Sykes (below) are already planning for new musical treats as soon as we are permitted. You can look forward to some creative collaborations that we’re cooking up for August — if it’s safe to do so — and a special celebratory mini-season over the holidays in late December. We’ll get there together!
All of us in the arts community have been upended by postponements and cancellations, but BDDS will survive this tsunami because of the unending and generous support of so many of you.
We have been buoyed by so many ticket orders and we ask for your consideration for unused tickets:
- Make your tickets, or a portion thereof, a tax-deductible donation to BDDS (benefitting you and us!). Per Wisconsin law, if we don’t hear from you in 90 days (July 8), we are permitted to assume that you want your tickets donated back to BDDS and we will send you a letter for tax purposes. Or simply click on the address below and provide your contact information and your preference.
| crownover@bachdancinganddynamite.org |
- Request a refund. We’re happy to provide your money back, and look forward to seeing you again in 2021!
Samantha Crownover, Executive Director
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society: Chamber Music with a Bang!
P.O. Box 2348
Madison, WI 53701
608.255.9866 office
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Classical music: Trio Celeste makes its Madison debut this Sunday afternoon playing music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Piazzolla. They give a FREE master class on Saturday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is a slow time of the year for classical music concerts, the winter intermission between fall and spring semesters. But The Ear received for the Salon Piano Series the following announcement to post:
“We caught this West Coast group on a rare Midwest tour. Trio Céleste (below) has firmly established itself as one of the most dynamic chamber music ensembles on the classical music scene today. They’ve wowed audiences worldwide with their “unfailingly stylish” (The Strad) and “flawless” (New York Concert Review) interpretations.
“The piano trio has firmly established itself as one of the most dynamic chamber music ensembles on the classical music scene today. This season’s highlights include recital debuts at the Chicago Cultural Center and New York’s Carnegie Hall, and the world premiere of Paul Dooley’s Concerto Grosso for Piano Trio and Strings.
“Winners of the prestigious Beverly Hills Auditions and the recipients of the 2017 Emerging Artist Award from Arts Orange County, the ensemble has performed hundreds of recitals worldwide.
“Their first album on the Navona label debuted at No. 5 on iTunes for “Best Seller New Release.” (You can see them recording the first album in the YouTube video at the bottom.)”
The program for Trio Celeste’s concert on this Sunday afternoon, Jan. 6, at 4 p.m. at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on the far west side of Madison near West Towne Mall, will include:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 (1882)
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor (1892)
Astor Piazzolla – Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1965-1970) (selections) arr. for piano trio by José Bragato
For more information, about the trio, go to: http://www.trioceleste.com
MASTER CLASS
On this Saturday, Jan. 5, at 4 p.m., Trio Céleste will teach a master class at Farley’s House of Pianos, where they will instruct students from Farley’s House of Pianos and the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). This is a FREE event that the public is invited to observe.
The master class program will include portions of:
Joseph Haydn – String Quartet Op. 33, No. 3 “The Bird”
Klaus Badelt (arr. Larry Moore) – Theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet Op. 18, No. 1
Edvard Grieg – String Quartet Op. 27, No. 1
The master classes for the 2018-19 season are supported by the law firm of Boardman & Clark LLP.
Tickets are $45 in advance (students $10) or $50 at the door. You can purchase tickets at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3499176
An artist’s reception will follow the concert.
For more information, go to https://salonpianoseries.org
Service fees may apply. Tickets also for sale at Farley’s House of Pianos. Student tickets can only be purchased online and are not available the day of the event.
Tags: #ArtsOrangeCounty, #AstorPiazzolla, #BeverlyHills, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CarnegieHall, #ChamberEnsemble, #ChamberMusic, #ChicagoCulturalCenter, #CompactDisc, #ConcertoGrosso, #EdvardGrieg, #EmergingArtist, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #FourSeasonsofBuenosAires, #FranzJosephHaydn, #LawFirm, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MusicEducation, #MusicReview, #NavonaRecordings, #NewRelease, #NewYork, #NewYorkConcertReview, #OrangeCounty, #PaulDooley, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PianoTrio, #PiratesoftheCaribbean, #SalonPIanoSeries, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #StringInstruments, #StringQuartet, #TheMidwest, #TheStrad, #TrioCéleste, #WestCoast, #WestTowneMall, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, Album, artist, Arts, Arts Orange County, audience, award, Ástor Piazzolla, background, Beethoven, bestseller, Beverly Hills, blog, Carnegie Hall, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, Concerto Grosso, debut, Edvard Grieg, elegiac, Elegy, emerging artist, ensemble, Facebook, fall, Farley's House of Pianos, forward, Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Franz Joseph Haydn, Haydn, intermission, iTunes, ITunes Store, Jacob Stockinger, law, law firm, like, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, master class, masterclass, Midwest, Music, Music education, music review, Navona, new, new release, New York, New York City, New York Concert Review, Orange County, Paul Dooley, Piano, Piano Trio, Pirates of the Caribbean, post, posting, reception, recital, recording, Salon Piano Series, semester, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninov, share, Spring, String quartet, strings, Student, tag, Tchaikovsky, The Strad, theme, ticket, tickets, tour, trio, Trio Céleste, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, west coast, West Towne Mall, winter, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, world premiere, worldwide, YouTube
Classical music: For reviving and securing Bach Around the Clock, The Ear names Marika Fischer Hoyt as “Musician of the Year” for 2017
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By Jacob Stockinger
Regular readers of this blog know how much The Ear likes to recognize community-based initiatives, amateur participation, and events that are affordable or free to the public and so help build and widen the audience for classical music.
On all those counts, the Musician of the Year for 2017 goes to Marika Fischer Hoyt (below) who revived Bach Around the Clock and has given it a seemingly secure future.
In Madison, Bach Around the Clock was originally sponsored and put on for several years by Wisconsin Public Radio’s music director Cheryl Dring. But when Dring left for another job five years ago, WPR ended the event, which got its national start in New Orleans and is now celebrated in many other cities to mark the March birthday of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
Yet it is not as if Fischer Hoyt didn’t already have enough on her plate.
She is a very accomplished and very busy violist.
As a modern violist, she plays with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and is a founding member of the Ancora String Quartet (below), with which she still plays after 17 seasons. She is also a member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
As a specialist on the baroque viola, she is a member (below far left) of the Madison Bach Musicians who also plays for the Handel Aria Competition and the Madison Early Music Festival.
In addition, she is a private teacher who finds time to attend early music festivals around the country.
To get an idea of what she has done to put Bach Around the Clock (BATC) on a stable footing here, read the update posting from a couple of days ago:
Not only did Fischer Hoyt obtain the participation of some 80 performers — students and teachers, amateurs and professionals, individuals and groups– she also got cooperation, facilities, performers and help from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street, on Madison’s near west side.
She obtained donations of money and even food to stage the event.
She herself played in the event that drew hundreds of listeners.
She lined up local sound engineers who recorded the entire event, which was then broadcast in parts by Rich Samuels (below) on WORT-FM 89.9 and streamed live as far away as London.
She served as an emcee who also conducted brief interviews about the music with the many performers (below right, with flutist Casey Oelkers)
Recognizing she can’t keep doing so much by herself, the energetic Fischer Hoyt has turned BATC into a more formal and self-sustaining organization with a board of directors.
She has sought advice from experts about Bach and Bach festivals.
She applied for and won one of five national grants from Early Music America in Boston.
She has consulted legal help to make BATC a nonprofit charitable organization, which should help guarantee a steady stream of funding.
And artistically, she has added a back-up mini-orchestra to accompany singers and instrumentalists.
The event this year is on Saturday, March 10, a little early for Bach’s 333rd birthday (March 31, 1685) but a smart decision to avoid spring break in the schools and at the UW, and to help recruit the many performers who are also important, if secondary, Musicians of the Year.
But the center of the event, the force holds it all together, is Marika Fischer Hoyt and all the hard work, done over a long time, that she has invested in making Bach Around the Clock a permanent part of Madison’s classical music schedule and cultural scene.
If you didn’t go last year, try it this year. It is wonderful, inspiring and enjoyable.
Please join The Ear in congratulating Marika Fischer Hoyt for making Bach Around the Clock the success it now is and giving it the future it now has. Leave your comments about her and BATC in the COMMENT section.
To celebrate, here is a YouTube video of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach:
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Classical music: The Madison Opera stages Bizet’s “Carmen” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Opera will perform Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” this Friday night, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Nov. 5, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall at the Overture Center, 201 State Street. (Below is the set from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City that is being used for the production.)
Tickets are $18-$130. (See below for details.)
With some of the most famous music in opera, Bizet’s passionate work is a vivid story of love, jealousy and betrayal.
Set in 19th-century Seville, Spain, the opera follows a gypsy determined to live life on her own terms – whatever her fate may be.
On a break from her shift at the cigarette factory, Carmen tosses a flower at a corporal named Don José, who ignores her advances. Only after Carmen is arrested and placed in José’s custody does he begin to fall for her, breaking the law and abandoning his hometown sweetheart.
What follows is a torrid love affair of passion, agonizing rage, and fanatical desire that will change their lives forever.
“Carmen is the reason I run an opera company,” says Kathryn Smith, Madison Opera’s general director (below, in a photo by James Gill). “I fell in love with opera as a teenager in the children’s chorus of a ‘Carmen’ production, as its incredible score and intense story hooked me immediately – not to mention the sheer excitement of having principal artists, chorus, children’s chorus, dancers, and orchestra all come together to create this astonishing world. I am so delighted to produce ‘Carmen’ in Madison, with this spectacular cast and production team.”
At the premiere of “Carmen” in Paris on March 3, 1875, audiences were shocked at its characters’ apparent lack of morality and virtue, and critics derided Bizet’s music. (You can hear the ever-popular Toreador Song in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Three months after the opera’s premiere, Bizet died of heart disease. He was only 36 years old and would never know that his “flop” of an opera would become a global sensation over the next two centuries.
“Carmen was the first opera I saw as a young teenager,” remembers Madison Opera’s artistic director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad). “It should be everyone’s first opera. It is the perfect blend of musical theater and grand opera, with thrilling choruses, great tunes from start to finish, and a compelling story of ill-fated love. And then there is Carmen herself, one of the most alluring characters of all time. I love conducting this great opera, which is so gorgeously orchestrated.”
Madison Opera’s cast features both returning artists and debuts. Making her debut in the title role is Aleks Romano (below), a rising young singer whom Opera News recently praised for her “attractively smoky mezzo-soprano.”
Acclaimed tenor Sean Panikkar (below) makes his role debut as Don José. He debuted with Madison Opera at Opera in the Park 2014, but this is his first mainstage appearance with the company.
Also returning to Madison Opera are Cecilia Violetta López (below top) as José’s hometown sweetheart Micaëla and Corey Crider (below bottom) as the toreador Escamillo. López debuted at this past summer’s Opera in the Park; Crider sang the title role in “Sweeney Todd” with Madison Opera in 2015.
Thomas Forde (below), who most recently sang Luther/Crespel in Madison Opera’s “The Tales of Hoffman,” returns to play José’s commanding officer, Zuniga.
Studio artists Anna Polum and Megan Le Romero play Carmen’s friends Frasquita and Mercedes. Studio Artist Benjamin Liupaogo and Wisconsin native Erik Earl Larson play the smugglers, Remendado and Dancaïre. Rounding out the cast is Charles Eaton in his debut as Morales. (Many have ties to the opera program at the UW-Madison.)
Directing this traditional staging is E. Loren Meeker (below) in her first production for Madison Opera. Meeker has directed at opera companies around the United States, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival and Wolf Trap Opera.
“A piece like Carmen captures our imagination and begs to be re-told over the centuries because the characters speak to the deepest and most honest parts of human nature,” says Meeker. “Today we grapple with love, lust, jealousy, morality, honor, and freedom just as much as people did when this opera premiered in 1875.
“At Madison Opera we have a brilliant cast who is willing to unravel the mystery of these characters with me scene by scene – making each choice onstage new, fresh, and true to the characters and arch of the story.
“Bringing this vivid world to life set to some of the most rich and well known music in the operatic canon, plus the fun of working with dancers, a fight director, the Madison Youth Choir, and a large adult chorus challenges me and inspires me all at the same time. The energy created in the performance, the brilliant music sung by such amazing artists, makes this classic opera worth seeing again and again and again.”
Carmen is a truly grand opera and features the Madison Opera Chorus, led by chorusmaster Anthony Cao (below); members of the Madison Youth Choirs; the Madison Symphony Orchestra; and dancers from Tania Tandias Flamenco and Spanish Dance.
For more information about the cast, go to:
http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2017-2018/carmen/cast/
For informative and entertaining Q&As with the cast members, go to the Madison Opera’s Blogspot:
http://madisonopera.blogspot.com
For tickets, call the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141 or go to:
http://www.overture.org/events/madison-opera
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Classical music: This is a very busy weekend for FREE choral music, band music, chamber music, a brass master class and a Berlioz colloquium at the UW-Madison.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is the time of the academic year, the end of a semester, when performers and venues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music really get a workout.
Take this weekend and especially this coming Sunday, which features seven events.
There will be two popular Winter Choral Concerts at Luther Memorial Church, 1026 University Avenue (below, in 2014) plus performances by the Concert Band and University Bands and a couple of recitals by students. Mills Hall, Morphy Hall and Music Hall will all be in use.
Here is a link to the full Sunday schedule with information about the many concerts, but which, unfortunately, does NOT include programs for the choral concerts and a band concert:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/2016-12-04/
This Friday and Saturday are also busy, though less so.
FRIDAY
At 4 p.m. in Room 2441 of the Mosse Humanities Building is a FREE public colloquium about the pioneering Romantic French composer Hector Berlioz (below).
Here is a description by the presenter, Professor Francesca Brittan of Case Western Reserve University:
“Against Melody: Neology, Revolution, and Berliozian Fantasy.”
“Complaints levied against Hector Berlioz’s music during his lifetime (and after) were many: deafening, terrifying, “too literary,” “too imitative.” But by far the most pervasive anxiety voiced by critics revolved around Berlioz’s illegibility. In particular, his music was ungrammatical, failing to adhere to the rules of syntax, the tenets of “proper” melody, and the laws of rhythm.
“These were not just idle or irritated complaints but urgent ones, linked by 19th-century critics to fears of social unraveling and even revolutionary violence. Berlioz’s musico-linguistic perversion, as one reviewer put it, was tantamount to Jacobinism. This strand of the criticism began in earnest with the “Symphonie fantastique,” a work that usually claims our attention for its orchestrational innovations and autobiographical resonances.
“In this talk, I redirect attention to the symphony’s syntax, arguing that melodic-linguistic deformation was at the heart of the work’s radicalism. I link Berlioz’s notions of “natural” grammar (borrowed in part from Victor Hugo) to notions of “natural” sound, and the “natural” rights of man. More broadly, I examine relationships among grammar, revolution, and 19th-century fantasy, between musical neology and the Berliozian imaginary.”
The event is funded by the University Lectures Anonymous Fund.
For more about Francesca Brittan (below) go to:
http://music.case.edu/faculty/francesca-brittan/
At 6:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, a student brass quintet will perform a FREE concert of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Malcolm Arnold, Kevin McKee and Victor Ewald. Performers are Nicole Gray, Brandi Pease, Kirsten Haukness, Hayden Victor and Michael Madden.
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall is a FREE public master class with David Wakefield (below), a former member of the American Brass Quintet who now teaches at The Hartt School. Sorry, no program of works to be played.
At 8:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall is a FREE graduate student concert of chamber music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Rayna Slavova is a second-year Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) student in collaborative piano, studying with professor Martha Fischer.
The all-Mozart program includes the Violin Sonata in F, K. 376, with Biffa Kwok, violin (an excerpt, played by Hilary Hahn, can be heard in the YouTube video at the bottom); the Piano Duo Sonata in C, K 521, with Alberto Pena, piano; and the Piano Quintet in E flat, K 452, with Juliana Mesa, bassoon, Kai-Ju Ho, clarinet, and Dafydd Bevil, horn.
SATURDAY
At 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the University Strings – made up of talented non-music majors — will play a FREE concert. Sorry, no news about the program.
At 4 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall is a FREE Fall concert by the Flute Studio at the UW-Madison. Sorry, no word about the program or players.
At 8:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital in a FREE recital by Seth Bixler who is a senior violinist studying with Professor Soh-Hyun Altino. He will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Peter Tchaikovsky and Eugene Ysaye.
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Classical music: A new opera takes listeners back to The Bad Old Days of anti-gay America – and reminds us of the bigotry today that camouflages itself as religious freedom
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CORRECTION: Yesterday’s post about the fourth annual Handel Aria Competition had a mistake about when it will be held. The correct time is next FRIDAY, July 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The Ear regrets the error. General admission is $10. Here is a link with more information:
By Jacob Stockinger
Issues pertaining to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people are much in the news these days.
Of course there were the shootings and mass murder at the Pulse gay bar in Orlando, Florida.
And there were the so-called “bathroom laws” enacted against transgender people and designed to protect “normal” people who ere never really threatened.
In contrast, the military announced that transgender people could serve under the usual conditions and regulations.
Then President Obama declared the Stonewall Inn (below) in Greenwich Village in New York City, a national historical landmark. In 1969 a police raid against the gay bar led to riots that, in turn, sparked the gay liberation movement to secure human rights and civil rights for homosexuals.
This week saw a U.S. District Judge in Mississippi ruling against so-called “religious freedom” laws that many states have enacted in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage a year ago.
Such laws were ruled to discriminate against LGBT people and to unconstitutionally favor certain religions or forms of religion.
A lot of the proponents of such laws seem to have a false nostalgia for the good old days.
Well, maybe they were good for some people. But they were terrible times for many others, including LGBTQ people.
Gregory Spears’ new opera, called “Fellow Travelers” (below is a crucial scene in a photo by Philip Goushong for the Cincinnati Opera) has an interesting take on that historical era with its “Lavender Scare” that parallels the Red Scare of McCathyism.
Here is a story that aired on NPR or National Public Radio:
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Classical music: On Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., SoundWaves moves to Mills Hall to present a FREE and PUBLIC discussion and performance of inventions and music from the 1920s.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Daniel Grabois (below, in a photo by James Gill), a professor of horn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and a friend of The Ear, writes:
I’m not sure if you know about my FREE and PUBLIC series SoundWaves. But I’d like to tell you about it because we have our first-ever presentation in the UW-Madison School of Music next week. It is part of the statewide Wisconsin Science Festival.
The basic idea is this: I choose a theme and get four scientists from different disciplines (or sometimes academics from the humanities) to explore the theme — for the layman — in short 15-minute talks.
I then give a short talk about the theme as it relates to music.
Then, there’s a related music performance.
To make this concrete for you, our program coming up is about The Roaring ’20s.
Now in its fourth year, the SoundWaves series is underwritten by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF, below with founder Prof. Harry Steenbock), which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. So it seemed fitting to explore the decade of its creation for our first event of the year.
Accordingly, we will have a historian of science speaking about Vitamin D, which was discovered and synthesized by Steenbock, explaining things like “What the hell IS a vitamin, anyway?”
Then, a dermatologist will talk about bandaids (invented in 1920). Kids love them, but do they work? How? Why does someone invent a bandaid?
Next, a law professor will discuss the lie detector, also invented in 1920. We see them on cop shows, but do they work? Is their evidence admissible in court? How do they work?
Then, an industrial engineer will speak about automotive breakthroughs from the 1920s that have shaped our driving experience. Power steering, the traffic light, the car radio (invented by Motorola, hence the “motor” in the company name) — all were invented in the 1920s and all have had a broad impact on cars and driving today.
Then I’ll be talking about music of the 1920s. I’m particularly interested in what was then the recent invention of the 12-tone system by Arnold Schoenberg (below). If you are a composer, how on earth do you respond to that? Do you reject it, and if so, what do you do instead? How is the musical aesthetic reshaped by such a radical (and difficult to listen to) idea?
At the end, there will be a performance of the String Quartet No. 1 (subtitled “Kreutzer Sonata,” based on the short story by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy) by Czech composer Leos Janacek (below top), written in 1923, played by the Rhapsodie String Quartet (below bottom, in a photo by Greg Anderson), made of Madison Symphony Orchestra players including Suzanne Beia, our own second violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet. (You can hear it in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
We’ve been getting around 175 people for our programs at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, including lots of people who come back over and over.
For me, doing this series is hugely stimulating — being able to collaborate across traditionally rigid academic boundaries is one of the reasons I was excited to come to Madison.
Here are the specifics:
Date: This Saturday, Oct. 24, at 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Speakers and performers:
Kevin Walters, WARF historian-in-residence
Klint Peebles, Department of Dermatology
Keith Findley, UW Law School
John Lee, Department of Industrial Engineering
Daniel Grabois, School of Music and SoundWaves curator
Rhapsodie String Quartet
For more information, visit:
http://discovery.wisc.edu/home/town-center/programs–events/soundwaves/soundwaves.cmsx
Sales pitch over!
Hope to see you there.
Tags: 12-tone, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, automobile, band aid, bandaid, car radio, cars, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, cop, cop shows, court, Czech, Czech music, dermatology, driving, engineering, Harry Steenbock, Horn, industry, Jacob Stockinger, Janacek, Kreutzer Sonata, law, lie detector, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Motorola, Music, Orchestra, power steering, Pro Arte Quartet, Radio, Rhapsodie Quartet, Roaring 20s, Russia, Russian literature, science, short story, String quartet, Tolstoy, traffic light, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Law School, Viola, Violin, vitamin, vitamin D, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The opera world is divided over accusations of sexual harassment against superstar tenor Placido Domingo. Here is how John DeMain reacted. How do you react and what do you believe?
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By Jacob Stockinger
By now, you have probably heard about the allegations of sexual harassment recently made anonymously against the still-active superstar Spanish tenor Placido Domingo (below), 78, who holds the record for the most opening-night appearances at the Metropolitan Opera.
What you might not have heard is how divided the opera world is over those accusations, which are now being formally and independently investigated.
Much of that division falls along lines of Europe versus the United States. The former has so far not cancelled upcoming appearances while the latter was quick to. And Domingo has been defended by famed Russian soprano Anna Netrebko (below, with Domingo).
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, sexual misconduct and sexual assault continue to be perhaps the most controversial issues amid many similar or more serious criminal allegations against conductors James Levine, Charles Dutoit and Daniele Gatti as well as many teachers and orchestra players.
Perhaps the best account of the divided reactions came in a story from The New York Times. Here it is:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/18/arts/music/placido-domingo-opera-harassment.html
One sign of the difficulty in dealing with the situation can be found in the carefully worded, balanced and empathetic Facebook comment by maestro John DeMain, the music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of the Madison Opera.
DeMain has often worked with Domingo, perhaps most notably in the famous 1992 Concert for Planet Earth in Rio de Janeiro, which DeMain conducted. (You can hear Domingo singing an aria by Puccini and see DeMain conducting the orchestra in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Says DeMain (below in a photo by Prasad): “Thinking about the Placido Domingo controversy. While I’m not in a position to take sides in this very sad situation, I would just like to say that in my many interactions with this great tenor over many decades, I personally never witnessed him do anything that was inappropriate. He was always a kind and gentle person to me and my family. I wish him and his family well through this difficult time.”
Here is a link to DeMain’s Facebook page if you would like to read comments from others or leave one of your own: https://www.facebook.com/jldemain
How do you react to the accusations?
What do you believe should happen to Domingo?
The Ear wants to hear.
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