Of Bees And Piazzolla: Dances Familiar, Bizarre Animate A Violin Album
DIGITAL REVIEW – “I have found myself at the intersection of music and dance for over 15 years,” says violinist Michael Jinsoo Lim, who is concertmaster of Pacific Northwest Ballet and the featured artist on a far-reaching CD titled Kinetic.
Recording Sheds Light On Piano Concertos By Women History Forgot
DIGITAL REVIEW – Conductor Odile de la Martinez and pianist Samantha Ege collaborate on a pairing of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in Two Uninterrupted Speeds by Julia Perry and Concerto for Piano and Strings by Doreen Carwithen.
In Concert For Strings, Historical Style Melds With A New Concerto
NEW YORK – The program by Sejong Soloists with violinists Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony was an exercise in reaching into the past, a perspective that applied even to the premiere of a double concerto by Israeli-born composer Avner Dorman.
Seen In Royal Intimacy, Donizetti’s Belle ‘Fille’ Conquers French Hearts
VERSAILLES – Jean-Romain Vesperini’s brilliant and fizzy new production of La fille du régiment, for L’Opéra royal du château de Versailles, is a mix of wit, humor, and musical vitality. The ornate and lively 18th-century theater offers an added treat.
The Saga Of Anne Frank, Sharply Framed Within Gripping Opera For One
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Soprano Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh offered a vocally nuanced performance in Opera Birmingham's staging of Grigory Frid’s visceral monodrama with a text culled from the Jewish girl's diary, written while she was in hiding.
In A ‘Così Fan Tutte’ Refitted For Our Time, Mozart Encounters AI
DETROIT – Yuval Sharon’s new production at Detroit Opera reimagines a story that when played straight, he says, feels out of date at best and an apologia for prejudice at worst. Staged as Despina's revenge, it's a robotic AI deep dive.
After A Long Absence, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Iolanta’ Makes Colorful Return
VIENNA – The one-act opera is being mounted at the Vienna State Opera for the first time since Gustav Mahler conducted it in the 1900-01 season. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva makes a vocally rich and nuanced role debut to head a stellar cast.
A Powerful ‘Moby-Dick’ Seizes The Met Stage (Don’t Call Him Ishmael)
NEW YORK – Tenor Brandon Jovanovich heads the cast as the vengeful and obsessive Capt. Ahab in composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer's adaptation of Herman Melville's novel. But the adventure's sole survivor has been renamed.
In Dreamscape Concert, French Maestro Weaves Legends And Mysteries
NEW YORK – In an evocative program of Romantic songs and choruses titled "My Dream," 40-year-old countertenor-turned-conductor Raphaël Pichon led the Orchestra of St. Luke's, soprano Ying Fang, and baritone Christian Gerhaher.
2 Composer-Performers Merge Personalities In Rarefied Concert Fare
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Multi-talented composers Caroline Shaw (who sings and plays viola) and Gabriel Kahane (singer-pianist) showcased their new, albeit well-traveled, collaborative work Hexagons, on Jorge Luis Borges' fanciful text.
Northern Lights: Polished Singers Spark Two Canadian Concerts
VANCOUVER – Vancouver Recital Society offered exceptional vocal programs back to back: a local premiere by soprano Barbara Hannigan with pianist Bertrand Chamayou and Schoenberg by Hila Baggio with the Israeli Chamber Project.
‘Dream Of Red Chamber’ In Revised Opera Guise Delivers New Intimacy
MINNEAPOLIS – Bright Sheng's opera based on an epic Chinese novel received a lavish production for its San Francisco Opera premiere in 2016. A scaled-down version, newly staged at the University of Minnesota, refocuses the story.
Project To Celebrate New Music Outshines Compositions It Honors
MONTREAL – Prizes offered by the Canadian-based Azrieli Foundation are generous, the juries impressive, the performances first-rate. And the applicant pool is international. The prizewinning works at a gala choral concert were hit and miss.
Youthful Mozart Opera, With Some New Twists, Is Glittering Vocal Show
BOSTON – Mitridate, written when Mozart was 14, consists mainly of a parade of arias notable for their punishing tessitura and relentless coloratura. The starry cast at Boston Lyric Opera met every challenge with uniform brilliance.
Weinberg Opera Rarity And ‘Hamlet’ In Concert Score High At Salzburg
SALZBURG – This year’s Salzburg Festival boasts an impressive variety, from a new staging of Weinberg’s The Idiot, the summer's hit, to recitals and a concert treatment of Thomas’ opera Hamlet – in which the melancholy Dane is crowned king!
Britten Opera Revels In Dream Al Fresco Setting, And In Midsummer, Too
WORMSLEY ESTATE, U.K. – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with its intimate forest setting, is the perfect summer-festival opera. How fitting to see it at Garsington Opera, an al fresco enterprise located in a woods between London and Oxford.
Not Quite Traditional: ‘Ring’ Without The Rhine, But Rewards Are Golden
ZURICH – At its best, live opera is a visceral experience. Zurich Opera delivered just that with Wagner’s full Ring cycle. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda led the Philharmonia Zürich with a fine cast headed by Tomasz Konieczny's Wotan.
Batons, Bowings, Beats: A Maestro’s New Guide To Modern Masterworks
BOOK REVIEW – Leonard Slatkin’s new book belongs to a distinguished tradition, reflecting a lifetime of study and podium experience at the highest level. And it can be absorbed by anyone with a working knowledge of how to read music.
Quasi-Robotics Concert, Where AI Perhaps Stood For Almost Involved
SAN FRANCISCO – The 10th season of the San Francisco Symphony's SoundBox series ended with a conceptually fascinating program called “Press Play,” curated by “Carol Reiley and her robots.” But it needed more AI compositions.
An Oboe Ode To Joy: Youth Meets Diversity In A Profusion Of Delights
SEATTLE – Artistry and camaraderie shared top billing at Oboe / Oboe, a high-spirited concert presented by Emerald City Music, whose creative series aspires to open classical music to younger and more diverse audiences and performers.
