Spoleto Fest USA Turns Modernist With 2014 Lineup
By Perry Tannenbaum
CHARLESTON, S.C. – A new sense of adventure pervades Spoleto Festival USA, where the scales have tipped toward newer works. Among this year's offerings is the U.S. premiere of Michael Nyman's opera Facing Goya.
The Electric Don Ellis Remembered in a New Video
By Richard S. Ginell: From Out of the West
Why isn’t Don Ellis up there in the pantheon of big band jazz icons with Duke,...
Chicago SO Fetes Three Composers In ‘Truth to Power’
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO - A Chicago Symphony festival will celebrate Shostakovich, Britten and Prokofiev under guest Jaap van Zweden, who admires the composers' ability to "create beautiful flowers in the darkest of times."
Seattle Symphony Spotlights Carter In Label Launch
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW - Joining the go-it-alone recording trend, the Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot has issued an all-American release including Elliott Carter's Instances, written for them at the unbelievable age of 103.
Rouse and Adams Scores Make Carnegie Debuts
By Heidi Waleson
NEW YORK – The first two concerts in the fourth and final "Spring for Music" featured the New York Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony, the latter in the Pulitzer-winning Become Ocean by John Luther Adams (right).
Toronto ‘Devereux’ Strong But Short On Stylishness
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO – The Canadian Opera Company is delving into lesser-known repertoire, including Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, which is onstage in a production that replaces bel canto subtlety with verismo-like intensity.
B’way, Opera Join In Chicago Lyric’s ‘Sound of Music’
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO -- An ambitious venture into the golden era of Rodgers and Hammerstein pursues an increasingly recognized connection between the mid-century American musical and the European tradition of operetta.
Holocaust Concert Celebrates Music As Remembrance
By Philippa Kiraly
SEATTLE – It's been 16 seasons since Mina Miller began to present Music of Remembrance chamber music concerts memorializing Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. These concerts are like no others.
Poignant Baroque ‘St. Matthew’ Gets An Airing At Last
By Adeline Sire
BOSTON – Lutenist Paul O'Dette tried to introduce Johann Sebastiani's Passion According to Saint Matthew in 1997, but he had to wait until last weekend to realize his dream at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall.
Wildly Inventive ‘Rheingold’ Opens ‘Ring’ In Houston
By Mike Greenberg
HOUSTON – Is it opera? Is it film? Is it circus? Yes. And the miraculous, acrobatic European production of Richard Wagner's 'Das Rheingold,' in its U.S. debut by Houston Grand Opera, is also politically fearless.
Sarasota Opera’s Verdi Project Sets the Standard with ‘Jérusalem’
By Roy C. Dicks: What's the Score?
"Jérusalem," Sarasota Opera's latest entry in its Verdi Cycle, is a satisfying, often thrilling production.CD/DVD Roundup: Haydn, Heggie, Britten & Vivaldi
By Roy C. Dicks: What's the Score?
CD/DVD Reviews: New releases of Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Heggie's Moby-Dick, Britten's Cello Symphony and Vivaldi's Four Seasons
‘Flying Dutchman’ Weathers Rough Seas In Sarasota
By Roy C. Dicks
SARASOTA, Fla. – Florida's plucky, adventurous Sarasota Opera opened its 2014 Winter Festival with Wagner's 'Der Fliegende Holländer,' in a production that had a number of gratifying moments and as many that missed the mark.
Sarasota’s Verdi Crusade Advances With ‘Jérusalem’
Bv John Fleming
SARASOTA, Fla. – Where would an obscure 19th-century opera be the most anticipated work of the season? Only at Sarasota Opera, and only if it's Verdi. This year, 'Jérusalem' fits the all-Verdi plan begun in 1989.
Met’s ‘Prince Igor’ An Exotic Romp Amid The Poppies
By Leslie Kandell
NEW YORK - A vivid new production of Alexander Borodin's 'Prince Igor' directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov returns the massive Russian work to the Metropolitan Opera repertoire for the first time since 1917.
Choruses Outshine Pale Repertoire In Toronto Showcase
By Colin Eatock
TORONTO - Three of Canada's best choral ensembles combined into a 60-voice "super choir" of supple flexibility to perform music of Latvian composer Uģis Prauliņš and counterparts from Finland, Poland, Norway and Canada.
Did Fleming Play Fast, Loose With Anthem? You Bet
By Arthur Kaptainis
A lot of money was riding on the outcome Sunday evening. I refer, of course, to the duration of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as sung by Renée Fleming. One popular over/under betting line was two minutes, 25 seconds.
Handel’s ‘Theodora’ Generously Served By Bicket Forces
By John W. Lambert
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The English Concert is touring the U.S. and Europe with Handel's Theodora, led by Harry Bicket. It's a trans-oceanic artistic endeavor with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street holding up the Yankee side.
Kremer’s Ensemble Honors Peers In Shostakovich Orbit
By Rick Schultz
"It is good to have friends," the Spanish proverb goes, "even in hell." Gidon Kremer, on U.S. tour with Kremerata Baltica, thinks a close bond helped Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczysław Weinberg thrive in brutal times: "They met in the imagination."
