It's this week in classical music, an update on what's happening in the world of classical music, I'm Randy Kinkel.

The Metropolitan opera has managed a complete turnaround in the last few years from struggling to thriving; the result of many different factors, including, outreach, promotion, and daring new works on venerable Met stage; Insider Ben Rosen, in his blog "Rosen-colored Glasses", had this to say: "There seems to be enough data now to demonstrate that the Battleship Met has indeed turned around. Just two years ago, every indicator for the Met Opera was pointing down. And now they're all pointing up -- attendance, subscriptions, sellouts, philanthropy. And if one looks at that ephemeral quality associated with success -- buzz -- the Met now has it again. In fact, the Met has become the hot cultural ticket in town.
Yes, it's costing more money to effect these changes, but the increases in revenues -- from philanthropy, box office, and telecasts - are likely to offset these costs in the future.
Even though opera is an anachronism, a centuries-old art form replete with some of the creakiest plots imaginable, in 2008 opera - at least the Met Opera-- is where the action is. The Met has begun a new act. Who woulda thunk it? "


Apparently there's one thing the Viennese fear more than a badly-sung aria---and it's Soccer fans. Vienna State Opera Officials say the Euro 2008 Soccer matches have cut into their normally robust audiences. The Historic Opera house saw it's attendance numbers drop to the lowest level in years the same day Austria played Germany in the city's Ernst Happel Stadium. The reason given was not that opera fans chose football over Verdi, but that fans avoided the evening performance for fear of running into hordes of rowdy soccer fans roaming the city center. Ticket sales are also down for other performances scheduled on the same day as other Euro 2008 quarter final matches. Vienna Opera has cancelled a ballet performance scheduled for June 29th-the same day as the champinship match will be played in Vienna. Company director Ioan Holender said that this was the first time in his 17 years at the Vienna State Opera that anxiety over low attendance has prompted a cancellation

From the editors of "Wired" Magazine: Getting "Fur Elise" stuck in your head is the result of a glitch in your auditory cortex. This part of your brain processes sounds and stores them for later recall. It powers up and can start crooning uncontrollably after hearing just a few notes of a familiar tune. Want it to stop? Listen to the whole song or do some math.
For more on these or other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org, be listening each week at this time for another update, and join me every weekday at noon for "The Mozart Bufet", an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I'm Randy Kinkel for KBAQ's "This Week in Classical Music", on 89-5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

Permanent link | Comment on Story

---

Linking Policy

We encourage you to link to this page using the following format:

June 22nd, 2008 by Randy Kinkel courtesy of KBAQ.

Attribution Information

Title: June 22nd, 2008
Author: Randy Kinkel
Publisher: KBAQ 89.5 FM
Link to Content: URL

License Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

---