Sunday, March 20, 2011

Quotidian Dope; Vol. 1, Issue 6

Riccardo Muti snags the $1 million (€720,000) Birgit Nilsson Prize for 2011. The ceremony will take place October 13, 2011, at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. [Birgit Nilsson Prize]

Carmen is not the only one getting shoved at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. A patron goes for some opera glasses and is denied re-entry to the performance. Police show up at intermission to make the arrest. [Chicago Tribune]

Evan R. Luskin, general director of the Lyric Opera of Kansas, announced he will retire at the end of the 2011-12 season after 25 years of service to the art form. [The Kansas City Star]

Wonder powers come together to create Tod Machover's new opera Death and the Powers, including "Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky (librettist), Tony-nominee Diane Paulus (director), Karole Armitage (choreographer) and Hollywood creative director Alex McDowell (designer). [San Francisco Chronicle]

Economists speculate whether opera houses built before the 19th-century are still reaping benefits by having attracted a more educated audience to particular regions. [The Economist] and [The New York Times]

The new director of opera at the Royal Opera House in London will be a great Dane - Kasper Holten. He replaces Elaine Padmore after this season. [The Guardian]

Composer John Zorn and director Michael Counts sit down with the Wall Street Journal to discuss their 11-minute opera La machine l'être that had it's premiere last week at New York City Opera. [Wall Street Journal]

After singing a wildly successful duo concert with Hei-Kyung Hong, tenor Kim Woo-kyung made his long-awaited Korean National Opera debut at Seoul Arts Center in Faust. [The Korea Times]