Jansons' protest

Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons has refused to renew his contract with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, blaming the restricted financial support for the orchestra, and also the poor acoustic of the Oslo Concert House. Recently Jansons has been under pressure caused by bad health and high pressure of work, but he has not used these as reasons for stepping down as the OPO's Artistic Director. Full story >>

Offenbach critical edition

The confusion that has grown over the years with serious shortcomings in the existing orchestral material for the Offenbach operas is at last to be addressed with the announcement of a critical edition from Boosey & Hawkes/Bote & Bock. They are collaborating with experts to ensure that all Offenbach's opera bouffes are cleared of ambiguity and error for a definitive edition, of which the first titles are expected this spring.