There is a really nasty disease out there called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. When it afflicts beef cattle, it is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Humans who eat the meat of BSE-infected cattle can contract Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, commonly known as "Mad Cow Disease."

In an effort to prevent another outbreak of...

The decision by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association to file for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code may well turn out to be one of the most bone-headed business judgments ever made by a major American arts organization. It is already one of the most deplorable.

In

It comes as no surprise that the economic downturn has hit arts organizations with stunning force. It is also no surprise that opera companies have been hit hardest of all, and the responses have run the gamut from sober-minded analysis to panic reaction. Were the issue not so serious, the...

Every now and then a story comes across the wire that is inexplicable. You read it, you scratch your head, and you conclude after much thought that it makes no sense. Occasionally the mystery comes from stylistic lapse, as in the case of the report of the Mexican bus that...

It must be summer; some of the most interesting music news is coming from the law courts.

A few weeks ago the English press went all atwitter over a claim brought by tenor David Rendall against the Ministry of Culture of Denmark, owner of the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.

Every now and then I get a newsletter/propaganda piece from my state senator. For the better part of two decades, Toni Harp has been lauded and honored by a slew of progressive and liberal groups for her legislative work. She has not heretofore been some manner of Sharon Angle clone.

On July 2, 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los Angeles Opera's production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen lost $5,960,000. A deficit this stunning could only have happened as a result of world-class incompetence. Mere provincial incompetence cannot explain it.

According to Los Angeles Opera chief...

For all of the traditional reasons, the fall-out from Leonard Slatkin's unhappy experience conducting Giuseppi Verdi's "La Traviata" at The Metropolitan Opera just keeps raining down. It is astonishing that this ghastly dust-up, which began in late March of this year, continues to "have legs" in early June.

The broad...

On May 8, 2010, the world premiere of Daron Aric Hagen's opera Amelia, to a libretto by Gardner McFall, took place at the Seattle Opera. Audiences on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon went berserk with wild applause, and it is devoutly hoped that audiences elsewhere in the country soon will...

In case you have not noticed, 2009 has been The Year of Sputtering Rage. Talk radio lives on it. The evening news seems calculated to foment it. The Senate Republicans would be utterly lost without it. Sputtering rage is "pure" and is alleged to embody "common sense" at high volume....

"Much good has been shown me and much evil, and the good has never been perfect. There is always some flaw in it, some defect, some imperfection in the divine image, some fault in the angelic song, some stammer in the divine speech. So that the Devil has something to...

Every four years, on January 20th a new president is inaugurated. Every four years, roughly seven months later, the Seattle Opera presents Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Both events provide extravaganzas and spectacles that incite the imagination. Der Ring des Nibelungen is, however, the vastly better show.

When the...

The silly season is starting a bit early this year. It is often very easy to find something to mock in the shenanigans of California politicians, but Los Angeles Supervisor Mike Antonovich has earned a place of distinction in the Pantheon of Public Stupidity.

The State of California is unable...

An article in the on-line edition of Gramophone dated June 4, 2009 has brought us news of Green Aria, a work of musical art. We are advised that the piece was composed by Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson to a libretto (if that's the right word) by Stewart Matthew.

The press in Scotland has uncovered the news that orchestral musicians have been known to drink. This is of the "Mob Influence on Waterfront" or "Cronyism in Department of Sewers and Streets" genre. It would be quite easy to dismiss the report that ran on March 1, 2009 in Scotland...

"Of all the noises known to man," Moliere is alleged to have observed, "opera is the most expensive." Although this statement could only have been made by a man whose wife never knew from Bloomingdale's, it is well to keep it in mind at this time when the nation's opera...

Gilbert & Sullivan have told us that "the policeman's lot is not a happy one." The musical detective has it far worse, I'm afraid, and the Encore Identification Detectives' Union has had a particularly bad time of it lately.

The story is told of the young man who once...

Once again, there has been a nasty collision at the corner of Law and Music. This time the crack-up is in Urbana, Ohio, where the Champaign County Municipal Court is presided over by Hon. Susan J. Fornof-Lippencott. According to that august tribunal's official web site, Judge Fornof-Lippencott is a 1985...

An Op-Ed piece in the weekend Wall Street Journal by Greg Sandow took almost thirty six column inches to rail against "the appearance" of conflicts of interest insofar as they relate to music reviewers and orchestras. This dust-up seems to have been caused by the Cleveland Plain Dealer's decision to...

Very little good ever happens when artists insert themselves in politics. The major exceptions to this rule were Ignacy Paderewski (Polish Prime Minister and pianist), Giuseppe Verdi (peerless composer; a member of the Italian parliament and senator) and Vytautas Landsbergis (Lithuanian Prime Minister and musicologist). On the other hand, Condoleeza...