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| "ChevronTexaco Corp. will drop its sponsorship of the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday radio broadcasts after next season, another sign of the troubled times for classical music in the United States," reports an Associated Press article. |
| Luciano Pavarotti "will begin his goodbye tour at the New York Metropolitan Opera next year, and 'for all of 2004 and the beginning of 2005 I will sing in theatres where I had my career,'" reports heraldsun.news.com.au. |
| "The Justice Department has used many of the anti-terrorism powers granted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to pursue defendants for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including drug violations, credit card fraud and bank theft, according to a government accounting released yesterday."--from an article by Dan Eggen in the Washington Post of May 21, 2003. |
| "Investors hammered anything that has to do with beef yesterday, fearing US consumers will shun eating meat indefinitely after Canada disclosed its first case of mad-cow disease in a decade."--from an article by Peter J. Howe in the Boston Globe of May 21, 2003. |
| "Confidence suffuses the grooves of Ani DiFranco's crackling Evolve," wrote Jon Young in a brief review of the compact disc in Mother Jones of June 2003. "So commanding are the vocals--echoing torch singers and soul shouters--that it's easy to overlook her luminous acoustic guitar . . .." |
| "Whether you are a fan of funk, folk, '50s do-wop, reggae protest marches or the oh-so-hard-to-define 'completely bonkers "hopscotch" singalong,' then Ember Swift's new CD, [Stiltwalking] is perfect for you," wrote John Black in the Boston Metro of May23-36, 2003. "I play a lot of different styles, but I'm basically a folk performer," the singer said. |
| Benjamin Zander, conductor, and the Boston Philharmonic will peform only works of Mahler in their 2003-2004 season, in a series of four concerts performed on eleven dates at locations in Boston and Cambridge. The works are Blumine, Songs of A Wayfarer, Symphony No. 1, Kindertotenlieder, Symphony No. 4, Symphony No. 2, and Symphony No. 7. No announcement has been made yet as to the vocal soloists. |
| According to a message posted at cyberlaw.stanford.edu, Starbucks forbids photgography inside its premises on the theory that photos would violate the copyright of its "environment." |
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| May 27, 2003 Liza Minnelli in a full-leg cast, because of a recent broken kneecap in a fall in a hotel, still plans to sing tonight at a benefit concert in Italy with tenor Luciano Pavarotti, said her publicist according to a report in today's Boston Herald. |
| Several Boston law firms have increased the number of summer associates that they are hiring this year, reports the Boston Herald of May 27, 2003. |
| Sloan Wilson, author of the 1950's' bestsellers The Man in the Gray Suit and A Summer Place died Sunday at age 83, according to an Associated Press obituary, dateline Colonial Beach, Virginia, in the Boston Herald of May 27, 2003. |
| Staind has canceled Toronto appearances because of concerns about SARS, reports the Boston Herald of May 28, 2003. The group's new album 14 Shades of Grey is expected to debut at Number 1 on the Billboard chart this week. |
| Under doctors' orders not to leave the hospital, Liza Minnelli sang "Cabaret" without musical accompaniment for fellow patients in Bologna, Italy. The performance was sent by satellite to a charity show of Luciano Pavarotti for Iraqi refugees and aired live on RAI state television, reports a Reuters article in the Boston Metro of May 28, 2003. |
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| Each of the ten tracks on the compact disc Classical Spirit is, as the back cover of the “jewel case” states, “an invitation to relax and allow your mind to wander on a new ambient path . . .” The recording is written, produced, arranged, performed and mixed by The Brave, whose Sacred Spirit II was nominated for a Grammy. The selections on Classical Spirit draw their inspiration from the works of classical composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Albinoni, Beethoven, and Samuel Barber, as well as from the mystical works of Hildegard von Bingen. But the selections are not merely updated versions of old melodies. Though inspired by the classical works, The Brave has created original works of art. In selection number 7, for example, based on an adagio of Albinoni, we first hear a prominent beat while the synthesizer plays a faint melody. The melody at times becomes more prominent than the beat. At times we hear a barely audible chorus but cannot make out the words (at least I couldn’t!). There is some mild percussion. In many of the selections we hear a chorus, described in the accompanying notes as a “Russian choir.” They sing sometimes in Latin, sometimes in German. Their focus is on producing a sort of background sound, not on communicating the words of the text. Susann Caroll recites poetry in a few of the tracks. We hear a guitar in one track. The effect of the music is soothing and uplifting, but it is never cloying. I would find the recording well suited for listening to at home late at night by candlelight if one were in a meditative mood. “This is chill-out music,” says The Brave, who considers the recording suitable for taking to the beach, on a day after a party, “to regenerate your spirits.” I recommend the recording highly. It is superlative “chill-out” music. |
| A production of Lakmé at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, has received a very favorable review from the Charlotte Observer. |
| "Canadian opera singer Ben Heppner urged university students to find their passion as he was awarded an honourary degree at St. John's Memorial University," Newfoundland, reports cbc.ca. |