December 2, 2006

It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world… I’m Randy Kinkel.  

A Mozart Manuscript Leaf has been found in a private collection in England.  The find is one of only two surviving manuscript leaves from Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and orchestra, in E flat K364, written in 1779.  the single sheet comes from what some musicologists call Mozart’s greatest work for the violin, and the greatest viola piece written by any composer.  The two surviving manuscripts from this work are the cadenzas, and this is one of those, originally written by the 23-year-old Mozart for he and his father to play.  Cadenzas are usually improvised, but Mozart had written these parts out to avoid the two instruments improvising independently and clashing.  The manuscript is due to be auctioned at Sotheby’s on Tuesday, and is expected to bring more than $200,000.

Soon, opera fans may be able to get their Puccini through Pay-per-view!  The Met has a deal with video provider In Demand, which kicks off the deal in January with a high-definition tape of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet”.  "This deal is a logical outgrowth of our arrangement to transmit eight of our operas this year to more than 600 movie theaters throughout the globe," said Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met.  Fans can choose to attend the live broadcasts at many local theaters for $22 or now can pay $9.95 for a PPV broadcast 30 days later, potentially adding more than 30 million viewers for the Met broadcasts.

Soprano Renee Fleming recently said “No thanks” to “Norma”. The singer decided to step down from her role in the Bellini opera because it just didn’t fit.  The 48-year-old Diva planned to sing the title role next summer in Tanglewood, a warmup for performances in Zurich, and a new Robert Wilson Production at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2011-2012 season.  According to Fleming Publicist mary Lou Falcone, “The part just didn’t fit as she had hoped it would after  living with it… I think she lived with it and realized that when you infuse it with the drama and everything else that goes with it, it just wasn’t the best choice for her.”  Fleming does plan on singing Eugene Onegin at Tanglewood next year.

For more information on these and other items and events, go to the KBAQ website at KBAQ-dot-org.… be listening every 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 KBAQ’s  “This week in Classical Music”…  on 89-five KBAQ, K-B-A-Q Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University