This Week in Classical Music

April 05, 2009

Rufus Wainwright Opera

( Phoenix , AZ )
•Rufus Wainwright 0pera to open in Toronto
•Phoenix Symphony Troubles

This week in classical music 4/5/09p

It’s This Week in Classical Music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

Singer Songwriter Rufus Wainwright’s new opera has finally found a home after being rejected by the Met. The Opera, “Prima Donna”, is the story of an aging soprano in 1970s Paris, attempting a comeback and trying to vanquish ghosts of her past. It will have its North American Debut in Toronto during its annual Luminato Arts Festival. Originally, the opera had been scheduled to debut at the Metropolitan Opera, but Director Peter Gelb and Wainwright disagreed over the language the opera should be in—Gelb wanted English, but Wainwright became convinced it could only be in French. The Opera has its debut in Toronto in June, 2010.

In a story in the Phoenix New Times, Stephen Lemons reports that no less than eight Phoenix Symphony members have filed age discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including 62-year-old Richard Bock, longtime Principal Cellist who was fired in January. Bock has since filed a lawsuit against the Symphony Claiming Discrimination, unlawful termination and a hostile work environment resulting from actions of Conductor Michael Christie, CEO Mary Ellen Gleason, and other staff members. Former principal violist Peter Rosato was also terminated whilst in a legal battle over unpaid wages and breach of contract.
The Phoenix office of the National Labor Relations Board has issued a formal complaint against the Phoenix Symphony's leadership, including Christie, alleging violations of the federal National Labor Relations Act, which prevents employers from interfering with the right of employees to freely associate, organize, and engage in "concerted activities" for the purposes of collective bargaining or "mutual aid and protection." The complaint charges that the organization has been discriminating against its employees, punishing them, demoting them, and sometimes firing them because they have come to each others' defense, spoken out, and/or have made complaints against the symphony to the EEOC. An administrative Law Judge will hear the NLRB complaint on April 27. The Arizona Republic reports that the Phoenix Symphony is considering making Symphony Musicians part-time and shortening the Orchestra’s 40-week season to make up for a sharp slide in donations that has forced the PSO to raise 2 million dollars by June 30.

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me at noon every weekday for “The Mozart Buffet”, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I’m Randy Kinkel, for This Week in Classical Music, on 89-five KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.