‘West Side Story’ Told As Music-Drama, Its Tragic Veracity Intact
CHICAGO – Music was paramount in the Lyric Opera of Chicago production. Powered by a full-sized orchestra and with Sondheim's still-pungent lyrics drawing extra impact from solid theatrical elements, the experience became visceral.
Vänskä’s Mahler Second Leaves Dual Impression Of Restraint, Passion
SEATTLE – Capping the Seattle Symphony's season of guest conductors, Osmo Vänskä led a detailed performance that was unwavering in its attention to balance, timbral blend, dynamics, and clarity across the breadth of Mahler's vast structure.
Early Music Fest Casts Light On Women, Some Long Lost In Shadows
BOSTON – Among peak moments of the weeklong Boston Early Music Festival was Henry Desmarets' opera Circé, with a text by French poet Louise-Genevieve Gillot de Saintonge (1650-1718), the first woman to write a libretto for the Paris Opera.
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.
Handed Festival Reins, Multifaceted Musician Pushes Its Boundaries
OJAI, Calif. – As this year's music director of the Ojai Festival, the musical polymath Rhiannon Giddens intriguingly mixed genres, sometimes successfully ignoring perceived musical borders in a diverse week sprinkled with pop-up concerts.
Bonds Of Duty, Family, Asian Tradition Clash In Operatic Tale Of A Teen
SEATTLE – Chinese-born composer Huang Ruo's Bound, presented at Seattle Opera, grapples with conflicting values in a bright Vietnamese American girl abandoned by her parents and left to care for her young siblings while trying to excel in school.
Strauss’ Imposing ‘Frau’ Steps Out Of Shadows Into Spectacle Of Lights
SAN FRANCISCO – Given how rarely the work is staged, it's no surprise that San Francisco Opera’s revival of Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow) is drawing patrons from both the U.S. and abroad. Few will leave unrewarded.
Met’s All-New ‘Flute’ Spins Mozart Forward To Freshening Present
NEW YORK – Soprano Erin Morley and tenor Lawrence Brownlee star in this modern-dress take on The Magic Flute. While it unfolds with the usual mix of parts that are wonderful and others that are not, it's also an ostensible and justifiable hit.
Honoring George Floyd, Musical Remembrance Transcends His Death
MINNEAPOLIS – The new work, brea(d)th, by composer Carlos Simon (shown) and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph will have its premiere performances May 18-20 by the commissioning Minnesota Orchestra with chorus and speaker.
Finding Musical Grace In Depths Of Slavery’s Middle-Passage Horror
CHICAGO – Transfigure to Grace, Jessie Montgomery's fully orchestrated reworking of her 2019 ballet Passage, received its world premiere by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she is composer in residence.
Helsinki Phil’s Concert At Carnegie Points Up Art Of Susanna Mälkki
NEW YORK – After a 55-year absence, the Finnish orchestra offered a program under Mälkki, its authoritative chief conductor, that included the Sibelius tone poem Lemminkäinen's Return, his Second Symphony, and music by Kaija Saariaho.
Early Italian Cembalo Inspires Modern Copy And American Debut
STONINGTON, Conn. – An early 18th-century Bartolomeo Cristoforii cembalo, pictured, was inspiration for German maker Kerstin Schwarz. Her modern replica has 54 double-strung keys, hammers of paper andl leather. And yes, it sings.
A ‘Rheingold’ Premiere, Creative And Gleaming, Hints At Possible ‘Ring’
ATLANTA – Taking a bold step toward a potential complete presentation of Wagner's Ring cycle, Atlanta Opera unveiled a magnificent Rheingold, sung by a cast of superb Wagnerians. As for the other operas, only Die Walküre is slated, in 2024.
New ‘Giovanni’ At Met: Grim And Grinding, And Dramatically Top-Notch
NEW YORK – Crime and punishment permeate Ivo van Hove's new production, with excellent singing, detailed direction, and a visually stimulating update that made this unrelentingly sober version the best Don Giovanni at the Met in decades.
Fairies And Foolishness As G&S Romp ‘Iolanthe’ Lights Up Carnegie Hall
NEW YORK – Ted Sperling led his MasterVoices and a number of Broadway luminaries in a satisfying performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1882 comedy. Though the audience was disappointingly small, the response was positive.
When AC Fails, Concert Spotlighting Steel Pan Only Turns Up The Heat
PORTLAND, Ore. – Concertgoers were handed bottles of water as they entered for the Oregon Symphony concert featuring Andy Akiho's Beneath Lighted Coffers, for steel pan and orchestra. The scene might have been Trinidad.
Music Of Shostakovich Brings Fresh Drama To Silent Film ‘Potemkin’
SEATTLE – Shostakovich did not write the original score for director Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 epic Battleship Potemkin, but music from five of his symphonies has been adapted to the film, and was played at a Seattle Symphony screening.
Maestro On The Ascent, Rafael Payare Displays Wide Command Of Style
LOS ANGELES – Rafael Payare may not be quite the classical celebrity that his friend, countryman, and sponsor Gustavo Dudamel is, but he’s coming up fast. Witness his recent program of Still, Wagner, and Brahms with the L.A. Philharmonic.
Bruckner Writ Small? Handful Of Floridians Tap Into Heart Of 7th
ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Offering what music director Michael Francis calls an intimate rather than intimidating experience, the Florida Orchestra will strip the grand-scaled symphony to the bone April 21-22, with only a dozen musicians.
In Reimagined ‘Tosca,’ Grand Opera Is Shrunk To A Raw Cabaret Vibe
NEW YORK – Eight of the hardest-working people in New York City on April 11 were the members of Heartbeat Opera’s band tasked with capturing Puccini’s lush orchestrations in a modern-day dystopian concept that banished violins entirely.
