Spontini Opera Revival Preserves Music, Adds Screams, Tosses Story
PARIS – Unheard at the Paris Opera since 1854, La vestale returned to the Bastille stage, entrusted to the fashionable, wildly imaginative American-born director Lydia Steier. She and dramaturg Olaf A. Schmitt clearly felt unbound by the original story.
’10 Days In a Madhouse’ Named Best New Opera By Critics Association
BREAKING NEWS – The work by composer Rene Orth and librettist Hannah Moscovitch, based on an exposé of asylum abuses, is the winner of the 2024 Award for Best New Opera conferred by the Music Critics Association of North America.
Visionary Koussevitzky Will Be Celebrated In Tanglewood Concerts
PERSPECTIVE – Marking the 150th anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky's birth and the 100th of his appointment to lead the Boston Symphony, where he reigned for 25 years, the orchestra will honor his legacy in festival programs July 26-28.
Flourish Of Beethoven’s Last Piano Sonata Gives Pulse To Summer Music
TORONTO – For 19 years, Toronto Summer Music has been filling the off-season gap with chamber music and recitals reflected in Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko's program fashioned around Beethoven's Op. 111 and accented by Prokofiev.
It’s A Suite Of Brilliance As Conductor, Orchestra Co-star On Dazzling CD
DIGITAL REVIEW – American composer Elizabeth Ogonek's three-part All These Lighted Things fits neatly between famous suites by Prokofiev and Ravel in a recording by the greatly undervalued Antwerp Symphony with its conductor Elim Chan.
Manic ‘Barber,’ Blistering ‘Salome,’ Plus Premiere: Opera In Quiet Iowa
INDIANOLA, Iowa – In an adventurous 52nd season, Des Moines Metro Opera also caught the nightmarish quality of Pelléas et Mélisande (pictured) and offered the world premiere of composer Damien Geter's American Apollo.
In The Rainy Northwest, New Festival Conductor And Breath Of Fresh Air
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The seemingly complicated business of finding a new music director for the Bellingham Festival of Music turned out to be an easy task. In his first summer here, Brazilian-born Marcelo Lehninger has proved to be a fine fit.
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.
To Orchestra In Need, Guest Conductor Brings Affinity Of An Old Friend
SEATTLE – in its search for a new music director, the Seattle Symphony has played under the wide-ranging styles of seven different conductors this season, but the high-level playing under David Robertson conveyed an aura of mutual comfort.
Energized Spoleto USA Runs Brash Gamut From Barber To Balloon Pops
CHARLESTON, S.C. – An imaginative revival of Barber's Vanessa was the 2023 festival highlight, but the offerings around town also included edgy and outré works along with standards like The Rite of Spring and the New World Symphony.
On Portland’s Vibrant Music Scene, New Is Nourished Everywhere
PORTLAND, Ore. – This city has become a busy hub for new music. Its vigorous creativity ranges from chamber ensembles dedicated to contemporary music to companies that explore the latest operas. The place is jumping.
A Ring Of Authenticity: ‘Das Rheingold’ Played On Period Instruments
PERSPECTIVE – Kent Nagano led the early-music ensemble Concerto Köln in
a version based on lengthy research by a special committee that sought the sound Wagner might have hoped for when composing the piece in the 1850s.
Michael Tilson Thomas Returns To SF Podium In Warm Homecoming
SAN FRANCISCO – His characteristic erect posture unaltered by the recent physical and emotional challenges of brain-tumor surgery, MTT, who turns 77 on Dec. 21, led the San Francisco Symphony in his own music and Schumann's.
Hail, Bright Abode! Life (And Art) Reaffirmed At The Resurgent LA Opera
LOS ANGELES – Defiantly back in business after a long pandemic-induced hiatus, the LA Opera took a giant step toward normalcy by staging Wagner’s Tannhäuser, the company’s first production of anything by Wagner in eight and a half years.
Not Bass, Not Baritone, Davóne Tines Revels In A Register All His Own
PERSPECTIVE – Tines, who has burst onto the world's music stages, commands a range of more than three octaves, from low D to high E-flat. He says he is neither a bass nor a baritone: “It’s a broader conception of how to think about voice.”
Summer Fests: Warm Air Renews Its Familiar Lure Across Midwest
PREVIEW – At last, some good news! William Grant Still's opera Highway 1, U.S.A. is among the offerings this summer as Midwest opera and orchestra festivals offer their novel enticements to draw people back into the concert habit.
