BERGEN, Norway – At the 67th International Bergen Festival, director Anders Beyer has put together an intriguing mix of brand-name artists and experimentalists likely to leave some viewers wanting more and others overwhelmed.
BANFF, Alberta – Adapting an ancient Greek story, Veronika Krausas and André Alexis populated their opera with humans and puppets. Giddy laughter from the audience during Act I gave way to silence for the dark ending.
BEIJING ‒ Canada's Tony Siqi Yun, the 17-year-old winner of the first China International Music Competition, played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
NEW YORK – At a concert called "Balancing Bubbles," featuring youth choruses from Newfoundland and New York City, the singers gave their all for the sweeping, heartfelt world premiere of Ellen Reid's So Much on My Soul.
KANAZAWA, Japan – Concerts in this national favorite holiday destination, and in Tokyo and Osaka, amply demonstrated the Taiwan Philharmonic's impressive artistic ascent under music director Shao-Chia Lü.
MONTREAL – Observing the fifth anniversary of its Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique, the Maison symphonique showcased the 6,489-pipe colossus with a four-hand go at The Rite of Spring by Olivier Latry and Shin-Young Lee.
NEW YORK – An enchanting new chamber opera by Michi Wiancko and Deborah Brevoort features the author of a radical 11th-century Japanese psychological novel. It’s a parable about creativity, authenticity, and destiny.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Blue Heron ensemble's performance of selections from Cipriano's I Madrigali a cinque voci whetted the appetite for a forthcoming CD. (Monteverdi might have stood in line for a signed copy.).
CINCINNATI – Composer Mark Simpson likened The Immortal to ‘a giant orchestral séance.’ Juanjo Mena led the U.S. premiere to open the 2019 May Festival. The grieving protagonist was wonderfully sung by baritone Rod Gilfry.
TORONTO – Composer Dean Burry's Shanawdithit, about the woman who was the last known member of the Beothuk, a people that lived in Newfoundland, reflected the work of a team that included many Indigenous artists.
MUNICH – Panned and booed at its Met premiere, and often revived, this staging has gained nothing from longevity. A decade on, as seen at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Anja Harteros and her co-stars failed to save the show.
PORTLAND – The Oregon Symphony under Carlos Kalmar tackled Grieg's Peer Gynt in one of its popular SoundStories concerts. The visuals – some of which didn’t resonate – came from German artist Alexander Polzin.
HOUSTON - Colored lights provided a soft backdrop to the world premiere of Jimmy Lopez' Aurora, played by its dedicatee, Spanish violinist Leticia Moreno, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra under Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
NEW YORK – The 1930s-era courtship and love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena “Hick” Hickok is explored in the world premiere of a chamber work by Daniel Thomas Davis for the ensemble Rhymes With Opera.
BOSTON – Poul Ruders’ bracing score is almost too good for the wretched society depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale, from Margaret Atwood’s novel. Boston Lyric Opera’s venue for its new staging proved effective, if unwieldy.
CHICAGO – In the aftermath of a bruising labor dispute, Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti sounded themes of tradition, continuity, and community. The first program featured Joyce DiDonato in Berlioz.
BERLIN - The first stop on a trek leading to the bicentenary of Bruckner’s birth in 2024 found Christian Thielemann leading the Second Symphony and Christian Mason’s Eternity in an Hour, premiered in Vienna in April.
NEW YORK – Seven years after its unveiling, the controversial Robert Lepage production, with that storied 90,000-pound mechanical set at its center, again vied with an able cast of singers, led with unifying clarity by Philippe Jordan.
NEW YORK – The resident ensemble at City University of New York's Baruch Performing Arts Center spotlighted Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Quartet No. 3 (Leaves of an Unwritten Diary) to cap a forum on Poland and the Jews.
BERLIN – Deutsche Oper has given Detlev Glanert’s 12th opera an elegant staging. Although the score and Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s libretto are expertly crafted, the two-act work emerges as more cerebral than emotionally shattering.
