Handel’s ‘Saul’ Crowns Boston Society’s 200th
By Marvin Ward
BOSTON - The Handel and Haydn Society, led by artistic director Harry Christophers, brought its bicentennial season to a grand conclusion with a work it had never performed, Handel's fourth oratorio in English, from 1738.
Encounter In Cage: Kraft’s Ambitious Timpani Concerto
By Chuck Lavazzi
ST. LOUIS – Shannon Wood, principal timpani of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave a bravura performance -- caged in by many drums -- of William Kraft's athletic 2005 Timpani Concerto No. 2 (The Grand Encounter).
‘Hopper’s Wife’ Sets NYC Opera 2.0 On Promising Course
By Susan Brodie
NEW YORK – Reconstituted City Opera offered Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie's 1997 pop-culture fantasy imagining that American realist painter Edward Hopper and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper were married.
‘JFK’ in Ft. Worth: An Opera As Big, Brash As Texas
By James L. Paulk
FT. WORTH – In its premiere at the Ft. Worth Opera, David T. Little's opera about President Kennedy's fateful Texas stopover channels Philip Glass, John Adams, Britten, and Hollywood while indulging in some graphic sexual banter.
Old-School Muti Touches Poignant Heart Of ‘Falstaff’
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO – Ambrogio Maestri, the world's reigning Falstaff, again linked up with Riccardo Muti, who taught him the role, in a week of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert performances. There was no stage director in sight.
Coming Events: 88 Keys Are Champs At Gilmore Festival
KALAMAZOO – Since 1991, the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival has assembled a biennial blitz of concerts by esteemed pianists from all over the world. This year's 19-day immersion starts April 26.
Brilliant Design Illuminates Core Of ‘Dark’ Music
By Garrett Schumann
DETROIT — The charms of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark serve a grand structural purpose. Her new work, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony, is confident and focused in a decisive artistic vision.
Siegfried Slashes Like A Samurai In Houston Spectacle
By William Albright
HOUSTON – Jay Hunter Morris wielded Nothung with youthful bravado in a dazzling mashup of computer imagery and Cirque du Soleil-style staging by Spanish theater group La Fura Dels Baus as HGO's Ring cycle continues.
Campy Campra Spectacle Tickles Eyes And Ears
By Leslie Kandell
NEW YORK - William Christie brought his period-instrument ensemble Les Arts Florissants - and lots more - to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a full production of André Campra's opera-ballet Les Fêtes Vénitiennes.
Stellar Stemme Heads Chéreau ‘Elektra’ at Met
By David Shengold
NEW YORK - Patrice Chéreau's bracing 2013 production made its Metropolitan Opera debut with the commanding Nina Stemme in the title role and Esa-Pekka Salonen leading an elegant account of Strauss' score.
Cincinnati Music Hall Poised For Major Renovation
By Janelle Gelfand
CINCINNATI - The city's acoustically admired multi-purpose hall, built in 1878, will have many more amenities and fewer seats in an overhaul budgeted northward of $135 million. It is expected to reopen in October 2017.
Joffrey, Cleveland Orchestra Partner In Psycho Thrillers
By Daniel Hathaway
CLEVELAND – The intensity of Poe and Hitchcock hovered over stagings of Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin and Bluebeard’s Castle under Franz Welser-Möst with choreography by Yuri Possokhov.
Savannah Vamps Toward Opera, In Bite-Size Pieces
By Perry Tannenbaum
SAVANNAH – Baritone Sherrill Milnes and his wife, soprano Maria Zouves, have brought operatic singing into the fold at this historic city’s music festival, but cultivating appreciation for opera itself remains a work in progress.
Coming Events: Summertide Opera Kicks Up Its Heels
DATE BOOK – Travelers in search of opera may not espy the high-prestige options to be found overseas this summer, but the domestic variety can be every bit as rewarding artistically, with tickets easier to get and prices not so insane.
Orlando Fans Musical Flames With Silent ‘Joan’
By William Albright
HOUSTON - The Orlando Consort first performed Voices Appeared: The Passion of Joan of Arc in 2014. The ensemble has since taken its a cappella pastiche and the movie it enhances to 32 cities in Europe and America.
Smart New Spaces Open At SF Opera And Chapman U
By Richard S. Ginell
CALIFORNIA – Two West Coast performing arts centers have debuted, their design and acoustical philosophies miles apart. Helping to celebrate were Matthias Goerne, with his multimedia Winterreise, and Placido Domingo.
Sarasota’s Verdi: Every Opera, And Complete Pleasure
By John Fleming
SARASOTA, Fla. – Since Saratoga Opera's initial production of Rigoletto in 1989, Victor DeRenzi has led the company in a glorious cycle of the 27 standard versions of Verdi's operas and six alternative versions.
Completing Triple, Radvanovsky Regal In Met’s ‘Devereux’
By James L. Paulk
NEW YORK - After conquering the great Verdi roles, Sondra Radvanovsky has moved into soprano assoluta territory, taking on Donizetti’s “Tudor Trilogy” at the Metropolitan Opera: Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux.
Audiences (And Sheep) Flock To Andriessen Work
By Susan Elliott
NEW YORK – In its premiere North American staging at the Park Avenue Armory, Dutch composer Louis Andriessen's De Materie is either awesome or ridiculous, depending on one's point of view and disposition at the time.
