Strauss’ Arabella: Hidden Trove Of Seductive Beauty
By Ilana Walder-Biesanz
SAN FRANCISCO – Richard Strauss’ lyric comedy Arabella languishes on the edges of the core operatic repertoire, but its charms were evident at the San Francisco Opera with German conductor Marc Albrecht making his U.S. opera debut.
In Wainwright’s Hadrian, Musical Merit, Iffy Libretto
By Arthur Kaptainis
TORONTO – Despite a story of fiery passion and a score with many highlights, Rufus Wainwright’s second opera needs a rewrite. The Canadian Opera Company brought a dream production team and a stellar cast to the premiere.
Gardiner Relishes Berlioz’s Riotous Sonic Creativity
By Susan Brodie
NEW YORK – The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique played two Carnegie Hall programs of music by the French composer under John Eliot Gardiner, awakening ears to arresting period-instrument colors.
Handel’s Solomon At Royal Opera Is One For The Ages
By John W. Lambert
LONDON – The Royal Opera House’s concert version of the 1749 oratorio featured a superb cast, the orchestra of the Early Opera Company led by founder Christian Curnyn, and a dazzling showing from the Royal Opera Chorus.
Alfresco Creation Takes Long Opera To New Dimension
By Susan Brodie
NEW YORK – David Lang’s The Mile-Long Opera asks the audience to walk through “a biography of 7 o’clock” told in fragments by 1,000 singers stationed along the High Line, an elevated rail bed on Manhattan’s far west side.
Early Music Group Champions Superb Ockeghem Rarities
By Marvin J. Ward
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – As part of its long-term project Ockeghem@600, Blue Heron vocal ensemble showcased the Missa Cuiusvis toni (Mass in Any Tone) and other works by the 15th-century composer Johannes Ockeghem.
The Neighborhood Is Threatened By Hip Replacements
By Anne E. Johnson
BROOKLYN – Ted Hearne’s new opera, Place, with a libretto co-written by slam poet Saul Williams, explores the stresses of gentrification – which is seen all around the world premiere’s venue, the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Worst Mom Goes Mad, In French, At The Staatsoper
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – In her role debut, soprano Sonya Yoncheva launched herself fearlessly into the drama of Cherubini’s Médée. Andrea Breth’s new production for the Staatsoper
follows a wave of stagings in the original language.
Around the U.S.
Elizabeth DeShong And The Art, Lure Of Bel Canto Opera
By Roy C. Dicks
INTERVIEW – American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, soon to sing another Adalgisa, has had success in a range of roles from Suzuki to Hänsel to Hermia, but it’s the bel canto niche that’s bringing her international renown.
LA Phil Unveils Vibrant Andrew Norman Creation
By Richard S. Ginell
LOS ANGELES – The LA Phil kicked off its centennial season under music director Gustavo Dudamel with a program pairing the Norman premiere with works by Beethoven and conductor laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen.
From Rough Youth To Opera World’s Greatest Stages
By Patrick D. McCoy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In his Marian Anderson Vocal Award recital at the Kennedy Center, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green offered a program that reflected his journey and the “village” that brought him to this important moment.
Around Canada
Chang’s Ferocious Mahler Fifth Pulls Out All The Stops
By Arthur Kaptainis
TORONTO – Can there be too much energy on the podium? Cellist-turned-conductor Han-Na Chang’s intensely kinetic approach to Mahler with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was a nonstop spectacle but became a bit exhausting.
Orchestra Brings First Nations Culture To Stage
By Arthur Kaptainis
MONTREAL – In its season opener, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra premiered Chaakapesh, The Trickster’s Quest, a chamber opera sung in Cree about the adventures of the eponymous Aboriginal mythical hero.
Magic Of Mozart, In A Staging Both Novel, Traditional
By Arthur Kaptainis
QUEBEC CITY – The Festival d’opéra de Québec’s marquee production affirms stage director Robert Lepage’s status as a leading conservative of our time. Mozart’s humanistic message shines through Ex Machina’s dazzling visuals.
International
Dun Links Ancient, Modern Worlds In New Violin Work
By Xenia Hanusiak
OSLO – Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, who has long championed music of Tan Dun, premiered Fire Ritual, which draws from techniques of erhu and guqin, at the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival, the composer conducting.
Boston Camerata’s Liberty Tree: Early Americana In Paris
By Jason Victor Serinus
PARIS – The Camerata, an early music group, performed a program of American patriotic and religious tunes from the 18th and 19th centuries during the themed weekend it shared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Philharmonie.
In City Of Love, BSO And Nelsons Receive Beaucoup
By Jason Victor Serinus
PARIS – The Philharmonie’s Boston Weekend opened with a Mahler Third so stunning that the audience refused to bid adieu to the performers – Andris Nelsons leading the Boston Symphony, Susan Graham, and Paris choruses.
Issues in the Arts
Season Of Verdi Reflects Lifelong Passion Of Conlon
By Kyle MacMillan
INTERVIEW – American conductor James Conlon will lead 39 performances of the Italian composer’s works in 2018-19, reaching his 500th Verdi performance overall. He’s not yet saying where that landmark performance will be.
Pulitzer Compass Key To Mapping American Music
By Johanna Keller
TOKYO – At the recent institute on Music From Japan, I was asked to sum up musical trends in North America today. A brief survey of the last eight Pulitzer winners reveals a rich landscape: chaotic, diverse, experimental, many-faceted.
Archive Retrieves Golden Interviews With Studs Terkel
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO – When Louis “Studs” Terkel left WFMT in 1997 after 45 years on the air, he took more than 5,600 of his reel-to-reel tape chats with the A-list of culture at large. That treasury of incredible stories is getting new digital life.
Disc and Stream
Back To Blitzstein, Political Roots Of Cradle Will Rock
By Paul Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – The premiere of this highly political piece proved to be one of the seminal moments in American musical theater. More than 82 years later, we finally have a recording of the original orchestration.
(R)evolution-ary Opera About Steve Jobs Arrives On CD
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – One of the biggest immediate successes of the 2017 music season was the world premiere of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs, which is now available in a recording from the inaugural Santa Fe Opera production.
New CD Unearths Three Diamonds, All In The Rough
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Works by David Diamond, including the first commerical recording of his Symphony No. 6, are roundly unsatisfying in performances by Indiana University ensembles conducted by Arthur Fagen.
MCANA Hosted Blogs
Monterey Jazz Salutes The Year Of The Woman
By Richard S. Ginell: From Out of the West
MONTEREY, Calif. – The 61st Monterey Jazz Festival Sep. 21-23 was billed as a salute to “The Year Of The Woman” – and they weren’t kidding. Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and alto saxophonist Tia Fuller were designated as the artists-in-residence, singer Dianne Reeves was the 2018 Showcase Artist. The schedule was loaded.
Unreleased Coltrane CDs Stir Up The Jazz World – Again
By Richard S. Ginell: From Out of the West
Everyone in jazzland seems to be weighing in on the release this week of Both Directions …
Fanciful Turandot Takes The Stage At Lyric Opera Of Chicago
By Dorothy Andries: Windy City Arts
A China-that-never-was opened on the stage of Lyric Opera of Chicago, complete with a giant eye-popping dragon, which hovered with considerable menace in Puccini’s “Turandot.”
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT
John Fleming
MCANA President
Welcome to Classical Voice North America, the online journal of the Music Critics Association of North America, of which I was elected president in 2017. I have been a member of MCANA for 26 years, joining after I became performing arts critic of Florida’s St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times).
I remember fondly the first MCANA annual meeting I attended, organized around the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 1992 premiere of McTeague, with a score by William Bolcom. That meeting gave me – then new to music criticism – the invaluable opportunity to get acquainted with leading journalists in a specialized field. Many newspapers and magazines sent their staff critics, a far cry from the situation today when traditional print is severely stressed. Still, our meetings continue to be a great way to exchange ideas and hear top-notch performances together. In April, we met in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the SHIFT Festival of orchestras.
Under Barbara Jepson, my predecessor as president, and other MCANA leaders, CVNA was launched in September 2013 to provide a new outlet for classical music coverage. With readers in 90 countries it has shown consistent growth, recently passing half a million page views on 1,100 stories by 123 authors, the great majority of whom are members of MCANA.
This year saw the second annual MCANA Award for Best New Opera, which went to composer/librettist David Hertzberg for The Wake World, premiered by Opera Philadelphia. Click on an article about the award here.
Thank you for reading CVNA, which seeks to convey the richness of musical life in North America and elsewhere, with reviews and commentary by expert MCANA members and occasional guest contributors. Are you a writer with experience in classical music? If so, please consider this an invitation to join us.
