TheSunNews.com: Music News - Wire

Geneva's 'Parsifal' ends in embrace

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:35 EDT

Geneva's new "Parsifal" production escaped the boos heard after several recent Richard Wagner opera premieres at the Grand Theatre, with a richly colored staging accompanying music that was at times so sensuous the allegory of Christian salvation seemed destined to end in embrace.

Perhaps it was a nod to Wagner the young revolutionary, and not the moralizing elder, that Swiss director Roland Aeschlimann chose to finish the German composer's final opera with spiritual and earthly redemption.

Instead of falling lifelessly to the ground, the bewitched temptress Kundry walked halfway across the stage during Thursday night's opener to seek out the Holy Grail's shamed keeper Amfortas. In place of a scripted solemn bow to the hero Parsifal, Amfortas takes Kundry in his arms as both are relieved of suffering.

Ian McEwan plans opera version of 'Atonement'

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:40 EDT

It was a book, then an award-winning film. Now Ian McEwan's "Atonement" is to become an opera.

McEwan says he is working on an adaptation with composer Michael Berkeley and poet Craig Raine, who will write the libretto.

McEwan told Friday's Times newspaper he wanted it to be on a grand scale, saying "it's not a chamber piece, that's for sure."

Lady Gaga fires back in NY court at music producer

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:47 EDT

Lady Gaga is firing back at a music producer who claims he launched her career and is suing her for $30.5 million.

Her lawyer said in a court filing made public Friday the agreement at the heart of the suit was "unlawful."

Song writer and music producer Rob Fusari filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan against the Grammy Award-winning performer. He said his protege and former girlfriend, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, ditched him as her career soared.

No charges for son over conductor's Swiss suicide

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:54 EDT

British prosecutors said Friday that they will not charge the son of conductor Edward Downes and his wife with assisting the couple's suicides at a Swiss clinic last year.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said it was not in the public interest to prosecute Caractacus Downes, who traveled to Zurich with his parents and booked them a hotel room.

The July deaths of 85-year-old Edward Downes, one of Britain's most eminent conductors and former maestro of the BBC Philharmonic, and his 74-year-old wife Joan spurred debate about assisted suicide, which is illegal in Britain.

World music champion Charlie Gillett dies at 68

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:01 EDT

Charlie Gillett, a DJ and music historian who helped bring music from around the world to wider attention, has died at the age of 68, his employer, the British Broadcasting Corp., said Thursday.

The BBC said Gillett died in a London hospital on Wednesday. He had an autoimmune disease and last week suffered a heart attack.

Soft-spoken Gillett was a fixture of the BBC's domestic radio stations and its international World Service, where his show "Charlie Gillett's World of Music" offered a wildly eclectic mix of music from around the globe.

Singing Cornish fishermen sign major-label deal

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:45 EDT

After singing soldiers and harmonious priests, a group of English fishermen is the latest unorthodox band to sign a major-label recording contract.

The Fisherman's Friends come from Port Isaac in England's southernmost county of Cornwall and specialize in traditional sea shanties.

Universal Music said Thursday that it had signed the 10-member band after a producer spotted them performing in a local pub. They will release an album of traditional tunes and folk songs next month.

Producer files $30M suit against Lady Gaga in NYC

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:04 EDT

Lady Gaga's spokesman is declining to comment on a music producer's lawsuit.

Rob Fusari filed the $30.5 million lawsuit in Manhattan against the Grammy Award-winning performer on Wednesday. He said his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared.

The suit says they co-wrote songs such as "Paparazzi" and "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich." Fusari also says he came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal.

Drunken thief takes singer Justin Moore's guitar

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:34 EDT

Country singer Justin Moore knows his fans can get rowdy - maybe sometimes to a fault.

The singer says a drunken fan stole one of his guitars at a Michigan concert, but eventually returned Moore's favorite Gibson guitar worth about $4,000 after the fan realized it was a drunken mistake.

Moore alerted fans on Twitter and a DJ posted the news about the stolen guitar on Detroit's WYCD Web site. Moore's tour manager also contacted the Royal Oak, Mich., police department, but charges were never filed.

Marie Osmond cancels Las Vegas shows for the week

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:29 EDT

Donny and Marie Osmond are canceling their shows this week at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel while she copes with the death of her son.

Marie Osmond's publicist Alan Nierob said Wednesday that it's been a difficult time for the Osmonds, and the performer felt like she needed to spend more with her family.

The Osmonds returned to the stage March 9 after funeral services for 18-year-old Michael Bryan.

Influential Big Star member Alex Chilton dies

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:46 EDT

Alex Chilton, the singer and guitarist who had a No. 1 hit as a gravel-voiced teen with "The Letter" and went on to influence a generation of musicians through his work with Big Star, died Wednesday in New Orleans. He was 59.

The Memphis, Tenn., native died at a hospital after experiencing what appeared to be heart problems, said his longtime friend John Fry.

Chilton had his first taste of fame with the Box Tops, the band he and his friends started in Memphis. He was 16 but sounded much older when "The Letter," which opens with the lines "Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane. Ain't got time to take a fast train ..." hit the top of the charts in 1967. Their other hits were "Soul Deep" and "Cry Like a Baby."

Melancholy Hamlet returns to Met after 113 years

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:00 EDT

Ambroise Thomas' "Hamlet" was last performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1897, and it's easy to see why more than a century passed before its revival.

Even with two outstanding singing actors in the lead roles, the work exudes at best a fragile charm, a refinement typical of French grand opera that is worlds apart from the visceral excitement Verdi summoned for his adaptations of Shakespearean tragedy, "Otello" and "Macbeth."

On Tuesday night, the Met brought back "Hamlet," with one of the crucial ingredients for success - the fine English baritone Simon Keenlyside as the tormented hero. He first sang the role in this production in Geneva in 1996, and his interpretation is riveting. He couples athletic agility and grace with a brooding intensity as Hamlet confronts his father's ghost and then resolves to kill Claudius, the uncle who usurped the throne.

Country music impresario Johnnie High dead at 80

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:29 EDT

Johnnie High, a north Texas country music showman who gave such performers as LeAnn Rimes and Boxcar Willie their early exposure, has died at the age of 80.

High's daughter, Luanne Dorman, says her father died Wednesday after battling heart disease.

The impresario of "Johnnie High's Country Music Revue" began his Saturday show in 1974 after converting an old movie theater in Grapevine, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, into the Grapevine Opry. There, he gave Boxcar Willie and Rimes, then a child, some of their first stage experience.

Luke Bryan, Gloriana among ACM top new artists

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:24 EDT

Reverse psychology may have done the trick for country singer Luke Bryan.

Fans picked him as the Academy of Country Music Awards' top new solo vocalist. A YouTube video he posted went viral, featuring fellow country singers who jokingly told fans "Don't vote for Luke Bryan."

Gloriana won top new vocal group, and Joey + Rory won top new vocal duo.

Sony bets MJ fans won't stop 'til they get enough

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:00 EDT

The man who spearheaded the record-breaking deal in which Michael Jackson's estate will get up to $250 million in the next seven years said Tuesday that Sony Music Entertainment bought a treasure trove of new Jackson music, some of it recorded "quite recently," some in collaboration with other artists.

John Branca, who negotiated the deal along with co-executor John McClain and team of attorneys, was clearly elated about the deal. He said in an interview with The Associated Press that this is only the first of more deals that will bring Jackson's music to his fans and introduce it to a world of potential new fans.

"The remarkable thing is to make the biggest deal in history in a market with declining record sales. It's a pretty big thing," Branca said. "It's a testament to Michael's incredible talent and his music. It's really an honor to be part of this."

Dixie Chicks to tour with Keith Urban, the Eagles

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:34 EDT

All three members of the Dixie Chicks, including lead singer Natalie Maines, are heading out in June on a one-month stadium tour with The Eagles and Keith Urban.

This marks the first time in four years that the Chicks will take the stage on tour together.

Their first show with The Eagles kicks off in Toronto on June 8. Urban joins both acts two nights later in East Rutherford, N.J. They all will continue on to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago, with the last two dates - June 22 in Winnipeg, Canada, and June 24 in St. Louis - featuring only the Chicks and The Eagles.

Norteno star denies knowledge of playing for gang

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:51 EDT

Latin Grammy winner Ramon Ayala said the lights went out, people started running and he and his band hit the floor when the Mexican military raided a drug cartel's holiday party in December.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the raid and his arrest, the renowned norteno accordion player said Tuesday that he had no idea he'd been booked to play at a private home - much less a drug gang's holiday party - before the raid near Mexico City. He and members of his band, Los Bravos del Norte, were detained.

Ayala has not been charged with any crimes and said Mexican authorities recently told him he was no longer under investigation for ties to drug trafficking. But a spokeswoman for Mexico's federal attorney general's office said the investigation continues into Ayala's possible links to drug traffickers.

The top 10 singles and albums on iTunes

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:39 EDT

iTunes' top 10 selling singles and albums of the week ending March 15, 2010:

Singles:

1. "Break Your Heart (feat. Ludacris)," Taio Cruz

Warrant issued for Lil Wayne in Arizona case

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:45 EDT

An Arizona judge issued a bench warrant Tuesday for Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Wayne after he failed to appear for a hearing on drug and weapons charges because he is serving jail time in New York.

A Yuma County Superior Court judge issued the warrant after the entertainer, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, failed to appear in court for a final trial management conference.

But Lil Wayne's attorney, James Tilson, said his client couldn't appear because he is already serving a one-year jail sentence for having a loaded gun on his tour bus. The rapper began serving that sentence March 8 at the Rikers Island jail complex.

Judge OKs settlement in deadly Lear jet crash

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:00 EDT

A judge approved a multimillion-dollar legal settlement Tuesday involving the wife and young son of former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker's assistant, who was killed in a 2008 plane crash in South Carolina.

The settlement with Learjet Inc., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and other companies involved in the ownership, operation and making of the jet will pay for college for Chris Baker's 3-year-old son and establish an annuity giving him more than $17 million over his lifetime.

It also will pay Baker's widow more than $7.6 million.

Rapper DMX ordered to 6 months in Phoenix jail

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:00 EDT

A judge has ordered rapper DMX to spend six months in a Phoenix jail for violating probation and to undergo a mental health evaluation.

DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, admitted in court Tuesday to a single violation of probation for failing a drug test last June. He was arrested March 9.

The 39-year-old rapper was released from jail in May after serving a 90-day sentence for felony convictions including cruelty to animals, theft and two drug counts.