Friday, January 21, 2011

Sorry Grandma, His Opera Is Not For You

"'I was woefully ignorant of classical music,' he recalls of his early days at Duke University. 'I couldn't tell you anything about the nine Beethoven symphonies at the time. I knew the Fifth like anybody else, but that was about it.' All that would change soon enough. Upon graduation, (Viswa) Subbaraman won a Fulbright grant and relocated to Paris, where Kurt Masur offered him a post as assistant conductor with the Orchestre National de France. The founder and current artistic director of Houston's innovative Opera Vista is now one
of five finalists in the Colorado Springs Philharmonic's search for a new music director. His program here will include Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 4 and, appropriately enough, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7." Opera Vista's tagline is "This is not your Granny's Opera." [Source]