Anne-Sophie Mutter Stops Performance Mid-Concerto To Confront Audience Member Shooting Video

The violinist was playing the slow movement of the Beethoven concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony when she saw a woman recording with an iPhone in the front row. “With the phone such a few feet from her face, Mutter stopped the performance and asked the woman to stop. Instead of stopping, the woman attempted to engage Mutter in a conversation. The audience was stunned.” (For Janelle Gelfand’s eyewitness report and review of the concert, click here.) – Cincinnati Enquirer

Soprano Jessye Norman, 74

“Ms. Norman, who found acclaim as well as a recitalist and on the concert stage, was one of the most decorated of American singers. She won five Grammy Awards, four for her recordings and one for lifetime achievement. She received the prestigious Kennedy Center Award in 1997 and the National Medal of Arts in 2009.” Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb called her “one of the greatest artists to ever sing on our stage.” – The New York Times

Seattle’s Intiman Theatre: A Truly Existential Crisis

Myriad issues are to blame. Donors’ funding priorities have changed, and corporations are donating less to nonprofit theaters, making the fight for funding more competitive. High-quality entertainment can be accessed on-demand at low cost. Arts journalism has become more sparse, and the public, concerned about an economic slowdown, might be less inclined to show up. – Crosscut

Mommie Dearest

The most notable thing about Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Agrippina at the Royal Opera is that every member of this ensemble can act — especially Joyce DiDonato, giving what I expect will be remembered as an historic performance of the title role. – Paul Levy

Message received

Heidi Hall, an old friend of mine from Smalltown, U.S.A., died last week. She was 49, far too young for so extravagantly vital a woman to lose her life to cancer. I, on the other hand, am 63, which isn’t nearly as old as it was a few generations ago. Why did people back then seem to age so much more quickly than they do now? – Terry Teachout

Kiril Petrenko Takes Over The Berlin Philharmonic And Wows

Mark Swed: “I’m not so sure I buy the mystique business. The ego issue is clearly complicated. But his two concerts in the Festspielhaus in Salzburg, the first a repeat of the Beethoven Ninth and second featuring a performance of Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto with Patricia Kopatchinskaja of speechless greatness, left no doubt about just how special Petrenko is.” – Los Angeles Times