Friday leftover links

Sorry, I have run out of creative subject lines. Also sorry for all the edits, all links should work now, Blogger is stupid and changes them just to spite me.

• UPDATE: Rolando Villazón out of La Bohème at the Wiener Staatsoper.  Stephen Costello in (I saw him back at the Academy of Vocal Arts when I was in college, and thought he would be going places).  Too bad, but is anyone surprised?
• Jessica Duchen talks to Andris Nelsons and Vladimir Jurowski about Mahler in the Independent. I don’t agree with the lead’s (and Nelsons’s) suggestion that Mahler was initially misunderstood due to his time being insufficiently apocalyptic--painful birth of modernism, duh.  But Jurowski says some smart things.  BTW, it is Mahlerjahr and I’m about to move to Vienna. There’s a lot of Gustav in this blog’s future.  (Independent)
• Apparently Vice Magazine has sprouted a classical section.  Wait, what?  “Some major monster party boner jams on this sophomore effort by Big Boy Schumann. Serious brank-ass jimmy-hat jim-jams.” Or, “Ever see a fat kid jiggling down the sidewalk in a WHY BE NORMAL shirt and feel an overwhelming urge to pity-hug? Same deal here.”  That last one has to be the pithiest description of Havergal Brian I have ever read.  (Part of the “Anti-Music Issue.”)  (via Life’s a Pitch.)
• The Kurier has been doing a series on the past intendants of the Wiener Staatsoper.  The current entry deals with Karajan.  (Kurier, in German)
• Meanwhile, Die Presse talks to incoming intendant Dominique Meyer.  I’ll do an English roundup of what he’s saying before opening night, but I’m guessing this is just the first of many interviews. (Die Presse, in German)
• It’s August, here’s your funny cat video. (YouTube, Il Tabarro)