Around The Classical Internet: April 15, 2011

NPR | By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Published April 15, 2011 at 7:00 PM EDT

This week in classical news:

Could it be that one of America's traditional Big Five orchestras is going to declare bankruptcy? Alas, the board of the Philadelphia Orchestra might vote yes as soon as tomorrow.

Yet more bad news at New York City Opera: Their chorus and production personnel might go on strike at the end of this month.

Speaking of walkouts: the Detroit Symphony Orchestra strike is now officially over, after the players approved a new contract.

Think labor relations at American orchestras have gotten acrimonious? Well, check out Rio de Janeiro, after half the musicians in the Brazil Symphony Orchestra were sacked.

The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra rises again?

Mexican-born composer Daniel Catan passed away suddenly this past weekend at age 62.

BBC Music Magazine gave out its annual awards, and the top spot went to hometown band the London Symphony Orchestra.

In the Guardian, however, Tom Service wonders if the LSO's success has created too much of a good thing.

The Recording Academy's Neil Portnow, : "We may have done some things we want to rethink in a year."

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's newest commission: an opera.

According to the Los Angeles Times, cellist Alisa Weilerstein is a double agent. (Well, not really.)

Forget playing music for your plants — how about buying organic milk from cows treated to a live concert?

Cellist Alban Gerhardt plays for another really captive audience: newborn infants.

Opera nerds, rejoice: #operaplot returned this week for a third installment. The competition requires summarizing opera stories via twitter. Two favorites: "I'm like, so over this baby daddy drama — this Easter Sunday imma go tell yo' mama" (@tracycox on Cavalleria Rusticana); "Friday, Friday, gotta get healed on Friday, everybody's lookin' forward to re-demp-tion. Holy grail holy grail (yeah)." (Parsifal, as told by @primalamusica)

But as Alex Ross points out, Nietzsche was the prescient master of #operaplot.