In Brief

Here is your regular Sunday dosage of interesting items, from Blogville and beyond:

• Fred Himebaugh directed me to this episode of Saint Paul Sunday with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. The program is like a Best of Catholic Polyphony -- and Fred did not even make one of his anti-Catholic jokes (although the host, Bill McGlaughlin, manages to get his ugly dig in) -- with pieces that, if we are lucky, we get to sing once a year at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Lotti Crucifixus à 8, which The Sixteen sing right at the beginning of the program, is one of those pieces that most choral singers know and adore (we will sing it on Good Friday, of course). The host had never heard of it. [The Fredösphere]


• You have probably already read it, but in case you missed it, go now to Alex Ross's latest report on the somehow reviving corpse of classical music. [The Rest Is Noise]


• On the same topic, we anxiously await a new article by Billboard's Anastasia Tsioulcas, who has just reactivated her blog, after a hiatus of several months. The long silence only appeared silent on our end of the Internet tubes: she has been very busy with a new baby. Happy baby! [Cafe Aman]


• Leona Baker and her 5-year-old daughter participated as supernumeraries in a Virginia Opera production of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci. Not only did they live to tell about it, but she wrote an entertaining article about the experience. (Hat tip, All About Opera.) [Portfolio Weekly]


• My beloved alma mater, the School of Music at Michigan State University, will be mounting a production of Daniel Catán's 1996 opera Florencia en el Amazonas next weekend. The composer is overseeing the performance in person. A live Webcast will be made available over the Internet during the Sunday performance (April 1, 2 pm), complete with interviews with the composer and performers. [MSU College of Music]


• Phil Ford will join the musicology faculty at Indiana University next fall. Chapeau! [Dial M for Musicology]


• Norman Lebrecht, who recently dismissed blogging outright, has -- wait for it ... -- started a blog. Why? Because "some of the amateurs out there [are] stealing our thunder." Someone feels threatened, I think... [Slipped Disc]


• Jens has been writing some great posts for the WETA blog. He and George Pieler also recently had a Letter to the Editor published on what is going on with the playlist at WETA, called "WETA as 'Ought To Be'." [The Connection Newspapers]