June 24, 2024

Scientists in Austria have reconstructed what Mozart might have looked like from his skull. Apparently, he looks like a popular character on Coronation Street.

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It's Monday. Let's get to it.

• The big idea: Music Professors busted for high-priced tutoring scheme
• Opera world: Public funeral held for young opera singer
• Making news: Barrister banned from practicing after physical altercation at Covent Garden
• Laugh of the week
• Around the web: A deep dive into the San Francisco Symphony, a cat on a quest, baseball sleep radio, plus more curious internet finds.

CLASSICAL CHARTZ

Weekly selections are based on sales numbers and albums we simply love and think you NEED to hear!

For the complete top 20, tune into Classical Chartz with the New Classical FM’s Mark Wigmore every Saturday from 3-5 pm EST!

THE BIG IDEA

Music Professors Busted for High-Priced Tutoring Scam

Seventeen music college professors and brokers have been handed over to prosecution in Seoul for participating in illegal vocal tutoring and serving as biased judges in entrance exams. The anti-corruption investigation revealed that these individuals, including an incumbent professor, violated multiple laws by hiding their involvement in high-priced tutoring services.

A music major, identified as A, rented undeclared teaching centers in Seoul from January 2021 to February 2023, providing 679 vocal classes and charging hefty fees. A conspired with 14 professors, collecting a total of 130 million won ($100,000+), despite academy restrictions on extracurricular activities.

The scheme unravelled as professors were found to be favouring their tutored students during entrance exams, even at prestigious institutions like Seoul National University. Despite blind testing efforts, professors identified and graded their tutored students favourably.

The investigation also uncovered professors receiving up to 700,000 won per session and luxury gifts from parents. The scandal has sparked outrage and raised concerns about the integrity of academic admissions in Korea. — MV

TOUR DE HEADLINES

Florida Grand Opera. Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto. (Photo: Florida Grand Opera)

Ron DeSantis Cuts $32 million in Arts & Culture Funding in Florida  —  Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has vetoed over $32 million in art and culture grants from the 2025 state budget, impacting numerous cultural institutions across the state without providing a specific reason for the cuts. | OperaWire

Amelia Earhart: how the feminist icon's tragic story inspired a thrilling new work — Composer Michael Daugherty and violinist Anne Akiko Meyers discuss how Amelia Earhart's adventurous life and mysterious disappearance inspired the new violin concerto "Blue Electra," which premiered in November 2022.  | Classical-music.com

While U.S. Companies Struggle, German Opera Houses Move Ahead Ambitiously — While U.S. opera houses struggle to recover post-pandemic, German opera houses like Hamburg and Berlin's Staatsopers are ambitiously staging expensive, challenging works, demonstrating a stark contrast in the current state of opera production between the two countries. | The Observer

OPERA WORLD

Jodie Devos, soprano (Publicity photo)

Public Funeral Held for Young Opera Singer

The opera world is mourning the death of Jodie Devos, a 35-year-old Belgian coloratura soprano who died of breast cancer last week. Devos passed away in Paris surrounded by her family. 

Driving the news: Jodie Devos, a prominent coloratura soprano from Belgium, died last week of breast cancer. Devos was known for her interpretations of Mozart’s coloratura heroines, as well as those of Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Her career highlights included second place at Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth Competition, recordings with Warner and Alpha Classics, and performances at the Paris Opera and other top opera houses.

Her funeral will be held in Namur at the Cathédrale Saint-Aubain. 

A little context: Jodie Devos joins a list of prominent opera singers who have died of cancer before their time. In 2020, the Canadian-American soprano Erin Wall, known for her portrayals of Richard Strauss and Mozart heroines, passed away of the disease.

In 2017, the baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky died of brain cancer, as well as soprano Arleen Auger in 1993. In 2006, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson also died of breast cancer. May Jodie Devos rest in peace et merci beaucoup pour la belle musique. — SS

MAKING NEWS

Barrister Banned From Practicing After Physical Altercation At Covent Garden

The barrister Matthew Feargrieve has been given a 12-month ban from practicing law after punching the fashion designer Ulrich Engler before a Wagner opera at Covent Garden in 2019. The two were reportedly disputing an empty front-row seat.

The DL: The barrister Matthew Feargrieve has been given a 12-month ban from practicing law following his physical altercation with the fashion designer Ulrich Engler during a dispute during a 2019 performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at London’s Covent Garden. Feargrieve reportedly “lost his temper” when Engler moved from his seat in Row B to an empty seat next to Feargrieve’s wife in Row A, on which she’d placed her coat shortly before the performance began. The lawyer was convicted of assault following the incident in 2019 and has now also been fined for his actions. 

Wait, what?: We know it’s a shocking tale. But historically speaking, the pandaemonium conjured by engaging with the works of Richard Wagner is not without precedent. As Alex Ross reminds us in his book Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, released the year following the Feargrieve-Engler altercation, Wagner’s musical works and ideas are always implicated in an ideology of hate. 

But let’s leave all that aside when we come to the opera, shall we? — SS

GAMES

Nothing says Monday like a mini-crossword.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: Symphony No. 5 in D Major by Ralph Vaughan Williams premieres in 1943.

🤿 Deep dive: Hear that? It’s the sound of the San Francisco Symphony setting itself on fire.

📻 Useful: Baseball Sleep Radio is a super relaxing podcast featuring a fictional baseball game, perfect for drifting off to sleep.

😺 Game: You’re Smudge, a cat on a quest to explore the ruins of the ancient city.

🐢 Awww: This is Guacamole.  He is three years old today.

LAUGH OF THE WEEK

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