DOS Orchestra #5 - 18 July 94

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1994, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

Boston Symphony: Funding Cut For "Evening at Pops"

As a result of cuts in funding from Digital Equipment Corporation and the Public Broadcasting System, "Evening at Pops," a series of Boston Pops concerts televised on PBS, will only have two new concerts this season. The remaining seven concerts in the series will be repeats of past performances. BSO Managing Director Kenneth Haas said that the BSO and co-producer WGBH would seek a substitute for Digital and PBS for next season rather than try to find supplemental funding for this year.

Colorado Symphony Plays with Doctored Who

Roger Daltrey and a backup group will perform music from the rock band Who with the Colorado Symphony on July 30. Although Pete Townshend, who wrote many of the Who's hits, isn't part of the group performing, Daltrey said that he has given his blessing to the event.

This is not the first rock group to start a symphonic tour with the Colorado Symphony; the Moody Blues kicked off a very successful tour last summer by performing with the Colorado Symphony at Red Rock State Park, a concert which was televised nationally on PBS.

Los Angeles Philharmonic: Tenornator II - Pay Day

On July 16, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the baton of former music director Zubin Mehta, performed at Dodger Stadium for an audience estimated at 56,000. The concert was televised live to approximately 70 countries and an estimated viewership of 1.3 billion, reportedly the largest audience for a live performance in history. The record attendance was credited at least in part to the appearance of Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti. The concert was a reprise of the famous "three tenors" concert that took place at the Caracalla Baths in Rome during the World Cup soccer tournament in 1990.

Income from ticket sales totaled approximately $13.5 million, said to be a record for a musical event. 56,000 tickets were sold at prices ranging from $15 for upper deck seats to $1,000 for seats on the field. In addition, the Warner Music Group paid $10 million for the media rights to the project. Each of the tenors was reportedly paid $1 million for the performance before income from royalties, which could reach $10 million per tenor. In accordance with terms of the audio-visual recording agreement negotiated by the American Federation of Musicians with the major orchestras, the members of the orchestra will also receive royalty income from the sale of videotapes and laserdisks of the concert, although the income per musician is expected to fall considerably short of the income per tenor.

A special stage was built in center field to accommodate the event, complete with waterfalls and 20 Hungarian-made Roman columns. The stage took 600 workers one week to assemble.

Celebrities were thick on the ground at the concert, and included Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra (both of whom were given bows by the tenors), George and Barbara Bush, Tipper Gore, and Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ronald and Nancy Reagan were expected to attend but did not appear. Itzhak Perlman made his TV debut as color commentator and salesman, promoting the sale of trinkets and mementos of the concert and providing encore-by-encore coverage of the event.

The repertoire for the concert consisted mostly of opera arias and songs from American popular culture.

The concert, which was broadcast live on PBS to most of the nation, was blacked out in Los Angeles.

Philadelphia Orchestra Hosts Cultural Diversity Event

On July 8 the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Mann Music Center co-hosted the second annual "Cultural Diversity Initiative Night at the Mann," celebrating the Cultural Diversity Initiative Advisory Council established by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The central event in the celebration was a concert of American music performed by the orchestra and conducted by James DePreist, music director of the Oregon Symphony, with pianist Leon Bates, a native of Philadelphia.

Senate Fails To End Filibuster of Labor Bill

On July 13, the US Senate failed for the second time to end a Republican filibuster of the Workplace Fairness Act, a bill intended to keep employers from permanently replacing workers striking over economic issues. The vote appeared to end chances of passage of the bill, with the leadership of the House of Representatives taking the bill off the House agenda for the current session, although Senator Howard Metzenbaum, Democrat from Ohio, vowed to reintroduce the legislation as an amendment to a future bill.

Although employers have had the legal right to replace strikers since 1935, the practice only became widespread in the 1980's after President Ronald Reagan fired members of the air traffic controllers' union after they went on strike. It is not a tactic that has yet been used against unionized orchestra musicians.

The bill was supported by the AFL-CIO, the organization of which the American Federation of Musicians is a member.
DOS Orchestra is wrapped as a setext file. For information about the setext markup, send a message to robert.levine@mixcom.com with the single word "setext" (no quotes) in the subject line, and a file will be returned to you.

DOS Orchestra is a publication of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) and is published more or less weekly. ICSOM is an affiliated conference of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO. **DOS Orchestra** may be freely distributed as long as it is distributed in its entirety and no charge is made for the redistribution. Any other unauthorized reproduction of any part of DOS Orchestra is strictly forbidden, except that non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if full credit is given. All rights reserved.
DOS Orchestra Index