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DETROIT – Yuval Sharon’s new production at Detroit Opera reimagines a story that when played straight, he says, feels out of date at best and an apologia for prejudice at worst.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.
Festival’s Wide Scope Offers Classical Music Writ On Intimate Scale
SAVANNAH – The 2025 Savannah Music Festival is focused on genre-bending artists and works, and where once the Atlanta Symphony was featured annually, chamber music rules, and soloists, like pianist Michelle Cann (right), hold center stage.
Weill-Lerner ‘Love Life’ Dusted Off, Buffed Up, Made Fascinating Again
NEW YORK – Recklessly ambitious, bewilderingly epic, the 1948 Kurt Weill-Alan Jay Lerner musical has been periodically resurrected as visionary theater. This smart revival boasts two knockout leads in Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Orchestra Is Way Over The Moon With Its New Conductor At Controls
SEATTLE – In the first program led by Xian Zhang since her appointment last fall as music director-designate, the Seattle Symphony delivered a supercharged performance of Holst's The Planets enhanced by high-definition images from NASA.
Shattering Convention, Two Engaging Singers Redefine Voice Recital
NEW YORK – In separate performances, American soprano Karen Slack (pictured) and Singaporean-British mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, both Grammy winners this year, offered skillfully tailored programs over an exciting range of music.
Amid Blast And Balm, String Troupe Maps Out A Walk On The Wild Side
NEW YORK – Courage and fortitude aren’t typical listening requirements spelled out in pre-performance talks, but at the Darkness Sounding festival, the LA-based Wild Up string collective led by Christopher Rountree warranted fair warning.
With A Searing ‘Salome,’ Opera Company Shows It’s Back In The Dance
SAN DIEGO – Eleven years after a near-implosion, the 60-year-old San Diego Opera is alive and well. Strauss’ Salome, part of a three-opera season, affirmed a company that can offer an imaginative, well-executed production to a nearly sold-out hall.
2 Off-The-Wall Operas, One Starring A Cello, One A Singing Dummy
NEW YORK – In an evening called "SOLOperas" (maybe pronounced "solo operas"), Experiments in Opera swung from the micro-personal to the cosmic with Jason Cady's This Is Not About Natalie and Anna Heflin's The INcomplete Cosmicomics.
‘The Shining’ As Opera Is Mad, Brutal, Tragic In A Horrifically Good Way
PORTLAND, Ore – Based on Stephen King’s horror novel, the opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, which underscores the psychological background of its main characters, glowed in Portland Opera's intense production.
A ‘Cosi’ Full Of Laughs (The Girls Are Clued In) But Still Edged With...
LOS ANGELES – The San Francisco Opera's screwball 2021 version of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, now ported over to the LA Opera, offers a refreshingly humorous feminist take with an excellent cast of singers led by James Conlon.
Starry ‘Indigo Heaven’ Concerto Is Principal Clarinet’s Sparkle Time
CHICAGO – Besides delivering clutch solos in big orchestral works, principal players also thrive in the concerto spotlight, as Chicago Symphony clarinetist Stephen Williamson did in the premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' evocative essay.
Music Fest Summons Its Summer Warmth In The Intimacy Of Winter
SUN VALLEY, Idaho – Established three decades ago as a summer enterprise, the Sun Valley Music Festival in recent years has spread its winter wings with indoor chamber concerts, this year curated by and spotlighting pianist Joyce Yang.
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.
Old Companions Muti, Vienna Phil Light It Up Once More At Carnegie
NEW YORK – Over the course of three different programs at Carnegie Hall, conductor Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic, a collaboration that dates back more than half a century, offered nothing less than kaleidoscopic musical riches.
Orchestra Takes Deep Dive Into Watery Image Of Mankind’s Destiny
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – John Luther Adams' Become Ocean, played by the Charlotte Symphony under Yaniv Dinur, was an elaborately staged musical reflection on how life emerged from the seas and could return there sooner than we might imagine.
Touring U.S., London SO Parades British Classics (With Bernstein, Mahler)
NAPLES, Fla. – In his first season as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano is emphasizing homegrown music, and his theme has been evident in the LSO’s tour concerts in California and Florida.
Back From Injury, Hahn Offers Brahms Concerto Of Rare Personal Depth
NEW YORK – Violinist Hilary Hahn returned from a six-month, injury-related hiatus with a distinctive account of the Brahms with the NY Philharmonic under Matthias Pintscher, showing how far she has evolved since I first heard her in the mid-'90s.
‘Magic Flute’ Animation Mirrors Vocal Vitality In Winning Kosky Revival
SEATTLE – Judging from the packed audience at this Seattle Opera presentation, director Barrie Kosky's mixture of delightful animation and copious silent-film references continues to speak to opera lovers and curiosity-seekers of all ages.
Mahler Venture Begins On Pathway Of Songs, Symphonic Fragments
LOS ANGELES – Gustavo Dudamel led the LA Philharmonic's three-week "Mahler Grooves" opener with the First Symphony's discarded "Blumine," the Adagio from the Tenth, and songs with Ekaterina Gubanova and Simon Keenlyside.
