Series’ First Play Sees Charlotte SO Thrown For Loss
By Perry Tannenbaum
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Charlotte Symphony's new Thursday concert initiative faced an early challenge from the NFL, whose Carolina Panthers were at home and on TV Oct. 30. But the orchestra is experiencing good health.
Opening U.S. Tour, Gewandhaus Puts Legacy On Display
By William Albright
HOUSTON - The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra launched a five-city American tour on Nov. 3 with violinist Nikolaj Znaider and music director Riccardo Chailly in works by Felix Mendelssohn, a hero of the German city.
Pacifica Quartet Was Midwife For Fierce New Work
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO — Felix Nussbaum once wrote: “If I must perish, do not let my paintings die.” Composer Shulamit Ran has taken his work as inspiration for Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory, which the Pacifica Quartet is introducing on tour.
Desdemona Debut A Ringing Success For Soprano Pérez
By William Albright
HOUSTON — In her first-ever performance in Verdi's Otello, Ailyn Pérez proves she has the qualities needed to succeed in this challenging role. Her Otello in the Houston Grand Opera production is New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill.
Amid Controversy, Met Affirms Merit Of ‘Klinghoffer’
By Susan Elliott
NEW YORK - The relentless historical and emotional weight of The Death of Klinghoffer is carried not by the victim or his executioner. It's the chorus that recounts the carnage and voices the sorrow, the sickness, and the rage.
SF Opera Extends Long History Of Triumphs In ‘Ballo’
By Robert Commanday
SAN FRANCISCO -- With Julianna Di Giacomo in her San Francisco Opera main stage debut as Amelia, the current Un ballo in maschera ranks with some of the better ones of a past illuminated by the great stars of the last 83 years.
Bach’s St. Matthew Transfigured By Sellars, Berlin PO
By Susan Elliott
NEW YORK - Lincoln Center's White Light Festival opened at the Park Avenue Armory with the Evangelist (Mark Padmore) alone onstage, in Peter Sellars' "vividly experiential" Bach with Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic and Radio Choir.
Rattle, Berlin PO At Carnegie: With Poetry, Rare Power
By Lawrence B. Johnson
NEW YORK - Drama coaches often talk about muscularity in Shakespeare's language. In a vivid, almost verbal sense, the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle reveled in the muscularity of music in concerts at Carnegie Hall.
New Music Fuels Carolina Concerts By Pittsburgh SO
By Roy C. Dicks
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - From last year's Composer of the Year program, which was a celebration of local talent, the Pittsburgh Symphony hit the road with Elements, a suite of brief sound portraits by five Steel City composers.
Director’s Insight Sharpens ‘Giovanni’ At Chicago Lyric
By Andrew Patner
CHICAGO - A Robert Falls production with Ana María Martínez and Mariusz Kwiecień sets the action in a kind of free-floating Spain, close enough to our own era to show that the Don and Mozart are ever our contemporaries.
San Francisco SO Ives-Kubrick Fete Bizarre, Well Knit
By Jeff Dunn
SAN FRANCISCO – The plan looked puzzling on paper: two unaccompanied choral works in a bimodal program honoring Ives and Kubrick. But in his concert with orchestral and choral forces, Michael Tilson Thomas made clear his intent.
Picker’s ‘Fox’ Tale Merrily Romps At Opera San Antonio
By Diane Windeler
SAN ANTONIO – Is it wise to launch a new opera company in a new hall with a children's opera? The answer, based on Opera San Antonio's offering of Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, after a story by Roald Dahl, appears to be yes.
Operas Illuminate Transgender Life, World Of Sirens
By Rron Karahoda
NEW YORK - A transgender individual and a trio of mythic seductresses are the subjects of operas by Laura Kaminsky and Kate Soper, giving voice to characters struggling to understand themselves in As One and Here Be Sirens.
As Lady Macbeth At Met, Netrebko Fearless Sensation
By Susan Brodie
NEW YORK - Supported by a veteran cast, soprano Anna Netrebko gave a dramatically thrilling and vocally satisfying performance in her debut in one of Verdi’s most difficult roles, laying Lady Macbeth's feral character bare.
Rebuked Outside, Met Opens With Delectable ‘Figaro’
By Nancy Malitz
NEW YORK -- First-nighters at the Metropolitan Opera made it past protesters of future programming to attend a new Nozze di Figaro in which everyone has sex on the brain and "downstairs" culture has the definite edge.
San Antonio SO ‘Finally Home’ In New Concert Hall
By Mike Greenberg
SAN ANTONIO — It's back to its original location for the San Antonio Symphony. Tobin Center's new H-E-B Hall is designed by LMN Architects and Akustiks as a shoebox with a proscenium and perforated wood side panels that glow.
Latino Conductor Bows In Houston With Heroic Flair
By William Albright
HOUSTON – The lithe and diminutive Andrés Orozco-Estrada showed an exuberant podium style as he began his directorship with the Houston Symphony by celebrating his Latin American heritage and capturing the sweep of Strauss.
Sax Star Marsalis Sparkles In N.C. Symphony Opener
By John W. Lambert
Raleigh, N.C. – The first state-supported orchestra in the U.S. opened its season with 20th-century flair. Between works by Bernstein and Debussy, Branford Marsalis played Glazunov's Concerto and Schulhoff's jazzy Hot Sonate.
Jazz Star, ‘Planets’ Light Up Night At Hollywood Bowl
By Richard S. Ginell
LOS ANGELES – Bramwell Tovey closed the LA Phil's alfresco season with a sure thing and a gamble - Holst's The Planets, in sync with a NASA video, and Mark-Anthony Turnage's Erskine, for drum set and orchestra.
