The Fredösphere

Richard Danielpour's new opera Margaret Garner takes the stage in Detroit this weekend.  The Detroit News has the story.  The director is keeping the racial tensions of the work tightly wound:

To emphasize the "us" and "them" nature of that antebellum society, Danielpour has created wholly separate 36-voice choruses, one black and one white. As their music is different, the two choirs have pursued all of their rehearsals apart from each other -- literally segregated. This for a racially mixed MOT Chorus that two weeks ago was singing "Tosca" together and next month will recombine for Donizetti's "The Daughter of the Regiment."

It has been a weird, disturbing several weeks, singers from both groups say.

Meanwhile ... here's a new approach to getting volunteers together to make music: the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble packs its rehearsals into a 3-week burst, gives a performance, then dissolves itself until the next year.  I've seen debates over this approach vs. the more typical one night a week approach.  My guess is that the 3-week schedule attracts more serious musicians, assuming any can make the commitment at all.  The other schedule seems more amenable to the "Monday night bowling" mentality, aka the "let's just have fun" mentality, which is no fun.