Singing A Song Of Separation
The Age
Friday June 18, 1993
THE CANDIDATES in this month's Spanish elections included a certain Alfredo Kraus, locally known as the Prince of Song and, pre-Domingo, the most illustrious of Spanish tenors. Many thought he had sung his public adios at the Barcelona Olympic ceremonies, but Kraus, 66, has found a new role campaigning for separatism on the sunny Canary Islands. He wants to haul Gran Canaria out of Spain and out of the European Community because the rival province of Tenerife has been unduly favored with subsidies. His chances are about the same as raising a laugh in `Tosca'.
THE HOLLAND Festival opened in full June bloom with a production of Debussy's `Pelleas et Melisande', conducted by Simon Rattle and directed by the deconstructionist Peter Sellars. This prospect drew an entire colloquium of critics to Amsterdam, only to leave damning with faint praise. It appears that Sellars' with-it metaphors _ he famously set a Glyndebourne `Magic Flute' against an LA backdrop and dressed its protagonists in singlets _ dispelled the foggy mysticism of Debussy's masterpiece. As for Rattle, he was up against it. This year alone we have heard Pierre Boulez conduct `Pelleas' in Cardiff and Claudio Abbado at Covent Garden, with Peter Stein and Peter Brook as directors. Rattle's timing was at fault, not so much in the score as on the calendar.
THEY WERE going to build a burger joint on Felix Mendelssohn's Leipzig home until a local hero went into action. The house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 where Mendelssohn died in 1847 _ one of the city's oldest surviving buildings _ was snapped up by West German developers for a hotel, office and restaurant complex. The city of Bach and birthplace of classical music wants to regain its status as a trading centre and needs accommodation for visiting businessman. The bulldozers were starting to growl when news of the outrage reached the Gewandhaus Orchestra, which owes its niche in music history to Mendelssohn's 12 years as conductor.
The incumbent, Kurt Masur, reached for his fax. Support from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London corporations stopped the demolition and Masur came up with a counterplan that revives the composer as an icon of renewal in eastern Germany. ``To us, Mendelssohn is not an attempt at reparation," says Masur. ``This man possessed unbelievable strength and moral rectitude.
Banned by the Nazis, Mendelssohn was equally unrespected by the communists who sublet his home as workshops and concreted over the mature garden. Masur and his foundation aim to convert the house into an arts centre that will keep the Gewandhaus and Mendelssohn archives and provide lodgings for foreign artists and musicians who come and work in Leipzig. Three-and-a-half million marks have been raised to buy back the house; another DM26million is needed to turn the site into a cultural centre. Masur set the ball rolling with a performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio, `Elijah', at StPaul's Cathedral, London.
The burger kings will have to look elsewhere.
MARLENE is back on the boards in Berlin, but to no great acclaim. A musical on the life of Dietrich, `Sag mir wo die Blumen sind' (Where Have all the Flowers Gone), uses her life as a mirror of the German problem and treats audiences to short bursts of moral platitudes on being nice to foreigners and the like. Terry Hands, of the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed for a production by Friedrich Kurz, the man who sold Lloyd Webber to the Germans. Although 100,000 seats sold on advance hype, the reviews were appalling and Kurz has a mega-flop on his Hands.
A SEMINAL cycle of Sibelius symphonies last December has won Sir Colin Davis the principal conductor's job at the London Symphony Orchestra.
Davis, 65, replaces the flamboyant American Michael Tilson Thomas, who wants to spend more time in the US.
Davis's appointment revitalises a career that was winding down after 15 years at Covent Garden and five at Bavarian Radio. The shyest of maestros, Davis was uneasy in positions of authority and saved his best for guest concerts. His sell-out Sibelius cycle overturned a decade-long decline in the composer's bankability. It generated such excitement that BBC Television changed its schedules to carry a concert and BMC rushed in with a recording contract. With the LSO performing more confidently at its Barbican base than any other London orchestra, Davis now has a golden opportunity to crown his mixed career with real glory.
BRITAIN'S biggest buyer and seller of fine art has itself been sold.
The King Street firm of Spink&Son, founded in 1666, was bought by its neighbor, the auctioneers Christie's, for 7.1million. Christie's took over assets worth 8million, stock of 15million and debts of 15million.
It will sell the stock to cover the debt. The deal was condemned by art dealers, who claimed it abolishes the fine distinction between auctioneering and personal dealing in art.
A SALE of Beatles memorabilia at Philips fizzled out when doubt was cast on instruments owned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A Lennon guitar valued at 75,000 and supposedly used in the early hits of 1962 failed to attract a bid when close scrutiny revealed that the tuning pegs were post 1967. Lennon's brown Steinway piano went unbidden and a drum kit belonging to McCartney fetched just 3630.
© 1993 The Age
