Classical Notes: July 3, 2007 Archive

Remembering Beverly Sills

Posted at 10:43 AM on July 3, 2007 by Don Lee

Recollections of and performances by soprano Beverly Sills, who died last night, will be featured on Performance Today, airing at noon on Minnesota Public Radio's classical music stations.

Here's a short list of links to other Sills remembrances:

New York Times
NPR
Opera News
Washington Post
You Tube

SPCO musicians affirm new management model

Posted at 1:36 PM on July 3, 2007 by Don Lee

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and its musicians have reached a new five-year contract agreement that adds six weeks to the orchestra's concert schedule. For the first time since 1993, the SPCO will have a 40-week season.

"The ability to negotiate a return to a 40-week contract was important for the musicians in terms of providing continuous employment between Labor Day and Memorial Day, and for the organization to be able to have six more weeks of performances to be able to present to the community," President Bruce Coppock tells MPR's Chris Roberts.

The orchestra plans to expand its neighborhood concert series.

In the new contract, musicians also granted broader rights to use SPCO concert recordings on the air and on the Web--"a vast array of formats," says Coppock, who describes the new deal as "a truly modern media agreement, which should allow us to do a lot of very creative things."

In previous contracts, Coppock says, the orchestra's recording rights were much more limited. The new one covers approximately 35 years of orchestra performances.

Overall Coppock views the new agreement as affirmation of the SPCO's three-year-old management model, which gives musicians a larger stake in the orchestra's decision-making process.

Beverly Sills on TV

Posted at 2:42 PM on July 3, 2007 by John Birge

In addition to all the obit links below, and numerous, wonderful YouTube clips, Charlie Rose will air a rebroadcast of a 2002 conversation with Beverly Sills tomorrow evening in the Twin Cities at 1030p, Channel 17. Or, you can watch it right now online.

On July 5, Channel 17 is running a Great Performances profile of Beverly Sills at 700p-830p.

Beverly Sills -- More Memories

Posted at 4:57 PM on July 3, 2007 by Rex Levang

I was reading the diaries of Leo Lerman, New York journalist, man about town and aesthete extraordinaire, and came across this passage purely by chance:

April 8, 1975: Beverly's Metropolitan debut [in Rossini's "Siege of Corinth"] -- the mid-act tidal ovation was the most unusual ovation I have ever heard in any theater . . . The ovation for Beverly, mid-second act, after she sang most beautifully, reclining, and, after the third part of the aria, stood with back to the audience--a slender, blue-cloaked, bright-haired figure--quite mortal. This ovation was unique, not for much for the length as the shape. Its form was that of the ocean's waves before, during, and after a violent storm. It swept down and out, down and out. It was tremendous in its intensity; it was a whisper. It was the reward of virtue, goodness, survival.

--Leo Lerman, "The Grand Surprise"