8 APRIL
Topic: CLASSICALmanac.com
8 APRIL 1708 First Performance of G. F. Handel´s oratorio La Resurrezione "The Resurrection", with Arcangelo Corelli conducting at the Bonelli Palace in Rome. La Resurrezione (HWV 47) is a sacred oratorio by George Frideric Handel, set to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece (1652-1728). Capece was court poet to Queen Maria Casimira of Poland, who was living in exile in Rome. It was first performed on the Easter Sunday of 1708 at Rome, with the backing of the Marchese Francesco Ruspoli, Handel's patron at this time.
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Pavarotti's last performance
WITH a global audience, it should have been the climax of Luciano Pavarotti’s career. However, when the star tenor made his last public appearance, at the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006, disease and a failing voice led him to fake a live performance of his trademark aria Nessun Dorma. The disclosure comes in an affectionate but candid memoir published last week by Leone Magiera, a conductor and pianist who performed at Pavarotti’s side in more than 1,000 concerts. It paints a warts-and-all portrait of the singer’s passions for food and women, his triumphs and blunders.

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Topic: CLASSICALmanac.com
1908 Birth of Czech conductor George SCHICK in Prague. Chicago Symphony. 1908 Birth of Austrian conductor Herbert von KARAJAN in Salzburg. d-Anif, Austria, 16 JUL 1989.

Topic: NEWS performers
Dan Ettinger, who has spent the past five years as Daniel Barenboim's protégé and assistant, has been appointed to be the new music director of The Mannheim Opera House in Germany at the age of 36. The three-year contract is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2009. MORE

Topic: MILESTONES 2008
Gerhard Samuel, an innovative conductor and composer who played a pre-eminent role in the musical life of the San Francisco Bay Area throughout the 1960s, died Tuesday, 25 MAR 2008, at his home in Seattle. He was 83. MORE | OBIT

Karajan 100 legacy
Now Playing: VIDEO: Pines of Rome
Topic: 2008 Anniversaries
Herbert von Karajan (April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989)
As his centenary approaches, what is Herbert von Karajan's true legacy? Michael Shmith looks back at one of music's most revered and reviled figures...

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27 March 1808
Now Playing: Haydn's last public appearance
Topic: CLASSICALmanac.com
March 27, 1808 Franz Joseph Haydn gives his last public appearance at a performance of his oratorio The Creation to mark the composer's upcomming 76th birthday. Beethoven and Salieri also attend the performance and meet Haydn, in Vienna.
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Topic: NEWS performers
French conductor Serge Baudo was awarded honorary citizenship of the Czech capital of Prague for his great contribution to the development of Prague culture and the promotion of Czech music abroad, at a ceremony at Prague's Old-Town Hall Tuesday. Baudo, 80, said he really appreciates the honour and he would do his utmost to deserve it. Baudo performed in Prague for the first time in 1959.

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Topic: NEWS performers
The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields had plenty before Tuesday's downbeat in Jones Hall. First, Murray Perahia, the announced conductor and piano soloist, withdrew from the 11-city tour after his doctors recommended extended rest to recover from a skin infection. Then his replacement, Sir Neville Marriner, who founded the Academy in 1959, stabbed his left hand with his baton during Tuesday's rehearsal onstage.

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4 APRIL 1956
Topic: CLASSICALmanac.com
A little more than 60 years ago, conductor Arturo Toscanini gave his first televised concert, leading the NBC Symphony Orchestra. April 4 will mark the 52nd anniversary of his last public performance. NPR LISTEN LINK | WEB LINKS | IMAGES | SHOP Arturo Toscanini