Tag: 08.05.05

At the age of 64, tenor Placido Domingo says he’s close to retiring from singing. “The day is close that I quit singing. I really don’t know how to do it – a tour or a concert or if I just say, that’s it, that’s the last night.”

“Classical music fits badly into the Walkman world, and even worse into the iPod world. For one thing, the technology doesn’t suit it very well. Try listening to an opera on an iPod, and you’ll discover the software puts a gap between tracks, which is pretty annoying if you’re trying to enjoy the dramatic flow of an opera scene. And just try searching for your favourite Beethoven trio on iTunes, which is designed to search for “song” and “artist”, and copes badly with keys and opus numbers. But the very conception of music embodied in the iPod is bound to seem odd to a classical music lover.”

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has put itself up fo sale on eBay. The winning bidder will have the opportunity to conduct the orchestra. “It will be interesting to see whether it will be bought by some terribly serious budding conductor who sees this as their break, or someone completely inexperienced who wants to be charitable towards us.”