Conference: Music Criticism 1950-2000 (Barcelona) There is an upcoming conference that may be of interest to our friends and colleagues in Spain. Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini is holding a conference on Music Criticism since 1950. The conference is October 9–11 at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. This is a multi-lingual conference and selected papers will be published, following the conference. It is the last in a series of conferences exploring music criticism. Last year’s conference explored criticism from 1900 to 1950, and the previous year kicked off the series with criticism in the 19th century. The Graduate Center community is being well represented at the conference. Current musicology student Erix Taxier will be presenting, along with faculty member Chadwick Jenkins and alumnus Emilio Ros-Fábregas, who is representing CSIC/Societat Catalana de Musicologia.
Recent and Upcoming Literes Events Antonio Literes was one of the most popular composers of the Baroque period in Spain. His name waned with the passage of time, but fortunately, he is enjoying something of a revival in the 21st century. As we previously announced, the New York City Opera performed Literes’s opera Los Elementos this year. The production was advised by the Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, who is the author of the only monograph available on Literes. Los Elementos was also performed this spring at Paschaliskerk in the Hague (Netherlands), by La Academia de los Nocturnos. In 2018, the Fundación Juan March will sponsor a production of Los Elementos at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela. Performances will be held the 9th–16th of April. (And don’t forget, Fundación Juan March will unveil its 2017-2018 season on September 19th, with a live stream on their website.) More than just Los Elementos has received attention. Two other works were performed at the Festival de Música Renacentista y Barroca de Vélez Blanco, on July 25: Miserere, recently edited and published by Antoni Pons, and the villancico Mortales, gozad. This villancico (a Spanish form of cantata) was unearthed in Guatemala Cathedral by none other than Antoni Pizà. It was performed at Iglesia Parroquial de Santiago by El Parnaso Español with coro Tomás Luis de Victoria. The ensemble Forma Antiqua recently performanced another cantata, Déjame, tirano dios, twice in Spain, first in Oviedo (on April 4) and then in Leon (May 5). An edition of all of Literes’s cantatas will soon be available. Further performances of these cantatas are expected in Australia, with additional performances TBD. Stay posted for details.