The Lost Opera
THE LOST OPERA Billboard, March 11, 2023 Blues Opera, an operatic masterpiece written by white men for an all-Black cast, believed irretrievably lost, was found and restored. Can it be produced without controversy? _______________________ BY FREDRIC DANNEN JOHN MAUCERI devotes a good part of his busy career to restoring lost music. The American conductor and scholar, who […]
The Oligarch of Classical Music
THE OLIGARCH OF CLASSICAL MUSIC Billboard, May 15, 2021 After wresting control of IMG Artists in an internal power struggle, Russian-born tycoon Alexander Shustorovich has kept the agency alive through the pandemic to become the world’s largest manager of classical music talent. Billboard investigates the secretive CEO’s unlikely path — from building a publishing fortune to […]
Chairman of the Band
CHAIRMAN OF THE BAND Billboard, September 11, 2020 HOW JIM DOLAN’s PASSION FOR MUSIC IS DRIVING MSG’s HIGH-RISK PLAN TO RESHAPE THE ARENA BUSINESS _______________________ BY FREDRIC DANNEN IN THE SPRING OF 2008, James Dolan, the CEO of Cablevision, called an employee for advice. Dolan was never a man who did things by halves. When he discovered […]
A Matter of Dissonance
A MATTER OF DISSONANCE New Yorker, August 26 & September 2, 1996 LETTER FROM LOS ANGELES Arnold Schoenberg’s music was daring, discordant, and enduringly unpopular. U.S.C. is a university famous for its football trophies and film school. Whoever thought the composer’s legacy belonged in a place like that?_______________________ BY FREDRIC DANNEN SHORT, bald, quick-witted, and irritable, […]
Showdown at the Hit Factory
SHOWDOWN AT THE HIT FACTORY New Yorker, November 21, 1994 THE WORLD OF BUSINESS Warner Music’s Mo Ostin had one of the most powerful jobs in the industry. When he left it, the record men went to war._______________________ BY FREDRIC DANNEN ON THE MORNING of October 27, 1994, ten senior executives of the Warner Music Group, […]
Twilight of the God?
TWILIGHT OF THE GOD? New Yorker, October 3, 1994 NIGHTS AT THE OPERA James Levine has ruled the Met for over a decade. The general manager, Joseph Volpe, who rose from the carpentry shop, may have ambitions of his own._______________________ BY FREDRIC DANNEN IT had been a bad week for James Levine. First, Levine, the artistic director […]