This Week in Classical Music

by: Katrina Becker

December 14, 2008

This Week in Classical Music - December 14, 2008

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Baltimore Opera Company files for bankruptcy
•Classical music critic sues Cleveland Orchestra management
•Bass-baritone Richard Van Allan dies at 73

This Week in Classical Music -- December 14, 2008

On Tuesday the 58-year-old Baltimore Opera Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, canceling the last two productions of its season. The company’s bankruptcy petition listed over one-point-two million dollars owed to more than seventy creditors, including Bank of America and several media outlets, like The Baltimore Sun, WBJC, and The Washington Post, as well as a $19,500 unpaid bill for a spa in Milan, Italy. The Baltimore Opera is not alone in its financial difficulties; California’s Opera Pacific suspended operations in November, and New York’s Metropolitan Opera has dropped next season’s highly-anticipated revival of John Corigliano’s opera The Ghosts of Versailles. However, the Met has also set up a discount program to boost ticket sales, offering a weekly drawing on its website (metopera.org). Weekend evening performance orchestra and grand tier seats that usually sell for $140 to $295 are available for $25 to winners of the drawing, which takes place each Tuesday morning.

Classical music critic Donald Rosenberg, who was removed from his post at The Cleveland Plain Dealer, has filed a lawsuit charging officials of the Cleveland Orchestra and the newspaper with defamation. The 56-year-old critic also accuses the defendants of interference with his job, age discrimination, and violation of Ohio’s free speech principle, seeking damages of at least $50,000. Rosenberg, who has often criticized music director, Franz Welser-Möst, remains at the paper as a music reporter and dance critic, but no longer reviews the Cleveland Orchestra.

British bass-baritone Richard Van Allan died December 4th at the age of 73. With a debut in the Glyndebourne chorus in 1964 and a final appearance at the Edinburgh Festival two years ago, Van Allan was praised for his portrayal of Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, as well as his performances of the title role in Massenet’s Don Quixote for the English National Opera’s 1994 revival; he debuted at the Met in 1987. Born Alan Jones, the singer was first winner of the John Christie Award at Glyndebourne and director of the National Opera Studio for 15 years, known as a warm, cultivated, and cultured man.

The December 14, 2008 edition of “This Week in Classical Music” features KBAQ’s Katrina Becker, in for Randy Kinkel.

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