 Prom 49 Review: A Celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein Following on from the phenomenal success of last year's Prom devoted to the MGM musicals – recently released on DVD – conductor John Wilson returned to lead another evening of musical theatre music. This time, it was the turn of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, five of whose musicals were sampled in this two-hour concert. Perhaps oddly, Wilson... more> |
 Edinburgh Festival Concert Review: The Royal Concertgebouw and Mariss Jansons 'His audience expected cocktails and jazz… Cold water and a sermon for them.' So wrote Constant Lambert about the emergence of Stravinsky's neoclassical style in the 1920s. Though he wasn't primarily thinking of Symphonies of Winds, seeing the ensemble take the stage as a single choir-like bloc instead of their accustomed seating arrangements... more> |
 Opera Review: Verdi's Macbeth revived at Glyndebourne What a difference a run of performances makes! I saw the Richard Jones Macbeth in May 2007 and thought it then a confection of interesting ideas, not fully realized and not particularly well sung (although the orchestral work even then, with Vladimir Jurowski in the pit, was fresh, thrilling... more> |
 Edinburgh Festival Concert Review: The Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet has always been about the music of our times, but Saturday's spellbinding performance at the Edinburgh International Festival turned that on its head. As the sheer magnetic intensity of the music and its rapturous reception began to dissipate, reflection set in... more> |
 CD Feature Review: Sony's Masterworks Broadway series celebrates the best of Broadway with Promises, Promises, City of Angels, Regina and more At one time, the Broadway cast album industry was an important part of the music business. Within a few years of its original release, the original recording of My Fair Lady had sold over 3 million copies, and it stayed in the charts for months. Admittedly, this was the show... more> |
 Opera Review: Oscar Straus's The Chocolate Soldier at the Bard Music Festival Oscar Straus’s Der tapfere Soldat, which had its première at the Theater an der Wien in November, 1908, has never been a tremendous hit in the German-speaking operetta world. Perhaps the satire directed at militarism was a bit too potent for the Kaiser’s subjects. (One of its few revivals in Vienna was after... more> |
 Concert Review: Petra Lang and Sakari Oramo at the Edinburgh Festival After this blistering performance of Nielsen's triumphantly affirmative masterpiece, the question goes out to Edinburgh: where were you? It is a long time since I was last at such a poorly attended Usher Hall performance, and inevitably one meditates—with little to go on—about the thoughts of those people who stayed away. So, I... more> |
 Concert Review: Stephanie d’Oustrac in recital in Dordogne One of the joys of the French countryside during the long summer break is the plethora of music festivals that are centred on chateau courtyards, bastides, churches: everything from staged opera to instrumental recitals, often late at night and under the stars, can be found, with music to suit all tastes. The forces are often local and the standard varies enormously – but every so often... more> |
 CD Review: Ensemble works by Ferneyhough on Kairos This is the first collection of Brian Ferneyhough's music to be issued on the Kairos label. Featuring cracking performances by Australia's ELISION ensemble, conducted by Franck Ollu and Jean Deroyer, the selection focuses on relatively recent works, most of which see the English composer tacking the concerto form... more> |
 Concert Review: Jonathan Biss in recital at the Edinburgh Festival Actually it is quite a challenge to find the right word for a recital that started with Mozart's Adagio. As a statement of intent it signalled seriousness and at the same time a refreshing inquisitiveness, for this is a curious work. Although the programme note's description 'profoundly tragic'... more> |
 Opera Review: Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne The line-up looks outstanding. Vladimir Jurowski, Glyndebourne's music director, conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Gerald Finley singing the Don. Kate Royal singing Donna Elvira. Jonathan Kent, following up his wonderfully imaginative staging of the Fairy Queen of 2009, directing. The Glyndebourne Festival's new Don Giovanni looked like the must-see production of 2010 and was, indeed, an absolute... more> |
 Opera Review: Tosca at Glimmerglass Ever since its first performance some 110 years ago, Tosca has commanded the attention of the listener's eyes as well as ears. Who can forget the vivid images of the interior of the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, the iconic candles-and-crucifix ritual following Scarpia's murder and the eerie pre-dawn calm preceding Cavaradossi's execution atop Castel Sant'Angelo... more> |
 Concert Review: Valery Gergiev leads the World Orchestra for Peace at the Proms Around forty countries are represented in the orchestra; players from Berlin and Vienna Phiharmonics, from the Royal Concertgebouw, from London, Chicago and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Mariinsky, Rotterdam, China, Buenos Aires, Dublin, New York, Budapest, Melbourne and more share the stage without. ... more> |
 Festival Review: Inventionen 2010 in Berlin Since the early 1980s, the Inventionen festival in Berlin has been dedicated to airing what is current in electroacoustic and acousmatic music and sound art, presenting the listening public and the electroacoustic music community with the fruits of recent work in the area. A scene exists for electroacoustic... more> |
 Concert Review: Paul Lewis and the Hallé in Beethoven, Foulds and Strauss at the 2010 Proms If turn-of-the-century British composer John Foulds (1880-1939) had been alive today, he would surely have been delighted to behold the Hallé Orchestra giving the Proms premiere of his tone poem April – England. He himself had joined the Mancunian ensemble as a 'cellist in 1900, and... more> |
 Opera Review: Le nozze di Figaro at Glimmerglass Opera It doesn't take an expensive wedding to produce a successful marriage. Glimmerglass Opera's new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, while perhaps not entirely faithful to the composer's and librettist's original vows, injects something new and exciting into a Marriage whose looks over the years has grown somewhat predictable. It may not have been made in heaven... more> |
 Concert Review: Simon Rattle and the OAE in Wagner, and Aimard and Nott in Mozart and Benjamin, at the Proms In order for a festival season of 76 concerts to retain any sense of vitality for itself it seems necessary that it play around with traditional concert form. So far the Proms have shown themselves very willing in that respect, bending programmes to suit works. ... more> |
 Opera Review: Hotel Pro Forma and The Knife's Tomorrow, in a year at the Barbican Formed out of four awkwardly soldered parts, the work is based around the life and thought of Charles Darwin, specifically, as follows: Darwin's journey on The Beagle and the environmental observations he made; the death of his young daughter Annie, and the notion of complex... more> |
 Opera Review: Caramoor Festival's Norma and Maria di Rohan This year at Caramoor, the lovely, verdant summer festival in Westchester, New York at a former estate, the bel canto experience was what could be described as hot and hotter. I refer not only to the singing, which was on the whole sizzling, but to the...more> |
 Opera Review: Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini at Opera Holland Park For several years now, Opera Holland Park's raison d'etre has been to revive neglected rarities of the verismo school of Italian opera. As much as one appreciates their efforts in other repertoire, it's projects like Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre Re and Mascagni's Iris for which... more> |
 Concert Review: Mark Elder leads The Australian Youth Orchestra at the Proms In recent years the Proms has played host to a number of captivating performances from visiting youth orchestras. To a role call that features amongst others the Mahler and the Simón Bolívar can now be added The Australian Youth Orchestra, whose performance this evening with Mark... more>
|  Concert Review: Oliver Knussen leads the BBC SO in a contemporary programme at the Proms Despite these complaints, I rather enjoyed much of the concert. As I have said, the programme, selected by conductor Olly Knussen, was strangely organised. A sixteen minute Stockhausen lead to an early interval; three British pieces formed the middle; whilst... more> |
 Concert Review: Thierry Fischer leads the BBC NOW in Shostakovich at the 2010 Proms I recently heard a critic on Newsnight Review complaining that he was expecting John Adams to have used dissonant music for the villainous characters and more consonant music for the goodies in his latest opera Doctor Atomic, and was disappointed that he hadn't. I take the opposite view: I want to hear... more>
|  Concert Review: Domingo's Simon Boccanegra at the 2010 BBC Proms Plácido Domingo's now famous Simon Boccanegra arrived to London's Royal Opera House only a few weeks ago. The cast involved in this Covent Garden revival of Elijah Moshinsky's production came to the Royal Albert Hall for the 2010 Proms, offering a semi-staged performance, with... more> |
 Concert Review: Paul Lewis and the BBC SO in Beethoven at the Proms There is little point any longer in referring to Lewis as a 'rising star' of British music-making, as his place in the pianistic stratosphere is firmly established. An acclaimed proponent of Beethoven and Schubert, his stage manner is self-effacing whilst retaining a distinctly authoritative air – not dissimilar to that of his... more>
|  Concert Review: Bryn Terfel and Christopher Purves in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the 2010 BBC Proms Marketed by the BBC as The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Wagner's opera was delivered as a semi-staged concert performance in the original German language by the excellent forces of the Welsh National Opera. There were no English surtitles provided, so... more> |
 Concert Review: WDR Symphony under Semyon Bychkov at the 2010 BBC Proms On paper, this looked like a cleverly put together programme. It would start with the prelude to Lohengrin, which is meant to be a musical depiction of a flight of angels descending to earth with the Grail, and their ascent back to heaven. The end, meanwhile, was to be Strauss's very earthly evocation... more>
|  Opera Review: Puccini's Tosca at Grange Park Lindsay Posner's production of Tosca for Grange Park Opera is in many ways emblematic of just how far, and how fast, artistic standards have developed at the third, and newest of the 'three G' country opera houses. It looks handsome (striking sets and brilliant use of all the available space by designer... more> |
| Concert Review: The Opening Night of the 2010 BBC Proms Amongst the undisputed masterpieces that comprise Mahler's run of symphonies from No. 5 to No. 9, there is this oddball, the 8th, which still continues to provoke debate. It was certainly an impressive way of getting the Proms season underway: eight vocal soloists, six choirs, an organ and an orchestra... more>
|  Opera Review: Strauss's Capriccio (Grange Park Opera) Thought provoking. Uncomfortable. Fascinating. And nearly
perfect! Those were my thoughts about Grange Park's production of Strauss’s last opera as I wandered into the Hampshire night air after the last performance of the run, and a few days' reflection have merely confirmed... more> |
 Opera Review: Angela Gheorghiu returns in Covent Garden's La traviata Sixteen years after her triumphant appearance as Violetta in the original showing of Sir Richard Eyre's production of Verdi's La traviata, and fourteen years after her last Covent Garden appearance in the opera, Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu returned to the Royal Opera for her.. more> |
 Opera Review: Handel's Tolomeo at Glimmerglass Opera No one need explain the subtleties of tragedy and comedy to Mel Brooks, who famously proclaimed, 'Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.' Glimmerglass Opera's farcical production of Handel's opera seria, Tolomeo, which received its North American premiere Sunday... more> |
 Opera Review: Le Nozze di Figaro at Garsington Opera For its final season in the garden of Lady Ottoline Morrell's enchanting Oxfordshire Manor house, the ever-enterprising Garsington Opera, established in 1989 by the late Leonard Ingrams, included the opera with which the whole venture kicked off: Figaro. In 1989 it was Opera 80... more> |
 Opera Review: ENO team up with Punchdrunk for The Duchess of Malfi There's no denying the effectiveness of Punchdrunk's Duchess of Malfi as theatre or spectacle. It is staged across three floors of a disused (but not derelict) office building in London’s Docklands, around which the audience – wearing Comedia dell'Arte-style masks – are free to roam... more> |
 Concert Review: The Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard at the 2010 Proms in Tchaikovsky, Ligeti, Langgaard and Sibelius A concert in three parts from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under principal conductor and fellow Dane Thomas Dausgaard, offered one of the most imaginatively programmed Proms of the season thus far. Both first and second parts began with Ligeti, his choral bagatelles Night and Morning... more> |
 Concert Review: John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in Bach's B Minor The immediate sell-out event in this year's Aldeburgh Festival was the B minor Mass with these rather special forces, and so an air of expectation was in the jam-packed Maltings on the last Friday night before even a note had been sounded. And... more> |
 Opera Review: David McVicar's Salome returns to Covent Garden with Angela Denoke After a poorly received new Aida and a revival of Le Nozze di Figaro, this second outing for David McVicar's 2008 Salome is the third of the Scottish director's productions to cross the boards of the Royal Opera House in as many months. In the hands of revival director Justin Way, it once again proudly... more> |
 Opera Review: Mozart's Don Giovanni (Opera Holland Park) Stephen Barlow's new Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park is a curious creature – gloss and assured sophistication jostle with basic technical issues, insight with bizarre directorial choices. It's as though director and cast have caught sight of a great production, but only... more> |
 Concert Review: Mr McFall's Chamber and special guests play Astor Piazzolla After a few pore-splittingly hot days, how very Edinburgh to cool down just in time for Tango Night! Actually it was a lovely, sunny evening—inside the hall, one might say, as well as outside in the street. The perfect sort of an evening to spend with the music of Astor Piazzolla, in this latest... more> |
 Interview: Christophe Rousset on Les Talens Lyriques at 20 and conducting Semele at the Barbican and in Paris One of the most versatile musicians of today, Christophe Rousset divides his time between such varied activities as conducting, researching new scores to perform and playing the harpsichord. A... more> |
 Opera Review: Fidelio at Opera Holland Park It seems a strange thing to say, but the sad thing about Holland Park Opera's revival of their 2003 production of Beethoven's Fidelio is that it is still right up to date. It was meant to display a justified outrage at George Bush's decision that the inmates in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, opened in January 2002, were not entitled... more> |
 Opera Review: Placido Domingo returns to the ROH for Simon Boccanegra Celebrating his 225th performance at Covent Garden, and his first in a baritone role, the legendary tenor Placido Domingo took to the stage as the title character in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. It's a part he's always wanted... more> |
 Tribute Concert: Star musicians line up on 4th July to pay tribute to Philip Langridge The annual London Master Class series offers young singers and instrumentalists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work alongside some of the leading names in the business in order to hone their art. This year, the series opens with a special gala... more> |
 Interview: Ferruccio Furlanetto on performing Boccanegra with Domingo The climax of The Royal Opera's season is unquestionably a major revival of Verdi's revised version of Simon Boccanegra, with a stellar cast led by Plácido Domingo and Ferruccio Furlanetto. Completing the line-up are Marina Poplavskaya and Joseph Calleja, with Music... more> |
 Opera Review: Stanley Hall Opera's Barber of Seville marks an anniversary For its tenth anniversary production Stanley Hall Opera came off the operatic byways it has been exploring for the past few years (with enterprising productions of delightful works such as La Pietra del Paragone... more> |
 CD Review: Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto (Naxos) Despite the melodic invention and remarkable variety of his music, the operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 – 1864) remain unknown to most of the opera-going public. There are several reasons for this relative neglect, not the least of which is the grand scale on which he wrought his stage works: his Robert le Diable... more> |
 Concert Review: Michael McHale impresses at the Wigmore Hall Performing at one of Europe's leading recital venues may be a daunting task for any musician, but young Irish pianist Michael McHale showed no signs of nerves in his impressive Wigmore Hall début. Having won prizes at the Terence Judd/Hallé Awards in 2009 and the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition in 2006... more> |
 Concert Review: La Monnaie Symphony stunning in Bruckner 8 under Gerd Albrecht Yet in this lure to romanticism, this temptation in sound, Bruckner founds the heart of his practice. He nurtures a tension of aesthetics by pushing his material and his audiences to their limits, beyond the ken of romantic musical working, overblowing the effect with cleavages in... more> |
 Interview: Eva-Maria Westbroek talks about her Sieglinde, Turnage's Anna Nicole and her Almodóvar Charismatic, knowledgeable, and self-ironizing: this is how world-class soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek comes across in conversation. She is currently in San Francisco performing one of her signature roles, Sieglinde from Die Walküre, in a stellar cast featuring Nina Stemme, Christopher Ventris... more> |
 Concert Review: A weekend of music, films and interviews relating to Terezin at the Wigmore Hall The small garrison town, Theresienstadt in German and Terezin in Czech, lies 60 km north from Prague and was built by Emperor Joseph II for about 6000 people. But in 1941 the Nazis turned Terezin into a ghetto for Jews and crammed in up to 60000 people... more> |
 Opera Review: Paul Daniel leads a provocative new Macbeth at La Monnaie Two years after what from all reports seems to have been an equally divisive Médée (Cherubini's version that is, not Dusapin's), Krzysztof Karlikowski seeks with this Macbeth to create a disquisition on evil as a human phenomenon, specifically as it foreshadows, plays out in, and recalls... more> |
 Opera Review: Katie Mitchell's new Idomeneo opens at the Coliseum At the end of Act 2 of Mozart's Idomeneo, the people flee the Cretan port in terror at the storm that the God Poseidon has sent as a punishment. For me, that moment epitomises why Katie Mitchell's new production of the piece for English National.... more> |
 Concert Review: Leon Fleisher and the Signum Quartet at Aldeburgh Take an 82 year old pianist, one-time pupil of Schnabel, add four fine young string players just out of an Aldeburgh residency, put them onstage together and what do you get? The answer is one of this year's finest Aldeburgh Festival concerts, an evening of joyous music making that will live long.... more> |
 Opera Review: A Double Bill for the Aldeburgh Festival For his second season as Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has stuck to his modernist guns and has programmed an adventurous collation of old and – mostly – new music. Getting us off with a bang was a double bill of one act operas – Recital 1... more> |
 Concert Review: The Ojai Festival opens in California The famous Ojai Music Festival, held yearly in the homonymous town of Southern California, boasts a 63-year-long tradition and a list of musical directors of the greatest available prestige and lasts four full days (10-13 June this year). In keeping with artistic.... more> |
 Concert Review: The Ojai Festival featuring Ensemble Modern and George Benjamin Eric Huebner's rendition of Messiaen's gargantuan Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus opened the third day's musical activities. Delivered in a straight two-hour session to a chorus of rustling leaves and (it seemed) appreciative birds, this performance pushed all the right buttons as far... more> |
 Concert Review: Pierre-Laurent Aimard leads the Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh More eclectic programming from Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Aldeburgh Festival. In this opening orchestral concert he was soloist and conductor in JS Bach's keyboard concerto in D minor and keyboard soloist in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, which took the first half of the concert. He then... more> |
 Interview: San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti chats about his Puccini and his future plans In one word: inspiring. Maestro Nicola Luisotti is enjoying his time as Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, and so are the people working with him. Waiting next to his office before talking to him, I was exchanging some words with the... more> |
 Opera Review: Carmen at the Royal Opera House You know it must be summer when three separate productions of Carmen are staged simultaneously in London. Alongside the all-singing, all-dancing, cast-of-thousands extravaganza at the O2 Arena, and Opera Holland Park's small-but-perfectly-formed offering, is another revival of Francesca Zambello's... more> |
 Opera Review: Così fan tutte at Glyndebourne Nicholas Hytner's production for Glyndebourne of Mozart's third and last comic opera written by da Ponte, Cosi fan tutte, won high praise when it premiered in 2006. I saw it at the time and enjoyed the clean visual lines, the elegance of a set that converted easily, by human hand, from ante-room... more> |
 Opera Review: Luisotti's La fanciulla del West shines at the San Francisco Opera La fanciulla del West premiered in New York in 1910. One hundred years later, it remains a problematic work from many perspectives: its colonialist tinge, which embarrasses us sitting comfortably in the theatre; its exotic representation of the America of the far west; and – perhaps more seriously – a libretto full of... more> |
 Concert Review: The Scottish Ensemble on fine form at Aldeburgh This was a delightful concert from the 11 string players who make up the Scottish Ensemble under their leader/director Jonathan Morton. The players were keen and alert (standing at their desks) throughout, their sound was precise and well-focused and the choice of repertoire ideal for a... more> |
 Opera Review: Britten's Billy Budd provides a highlight at Glyndebourne For their first ever production of Britten's 'other' grand opera about the sea, Billy Budd in its revised two act version of 1960, Glyndebourne have pulled out all the stops. The set, beautifully designed by Christopher Oram, takes us onboard an authentic-looking man o'war...more> |
 Opera Review: Rinat Shaham in Baden-Baden's Carmen Teodor Currentzis, the non-instrumentalist Greek conductor- composer, who during the last few years as Musical Director of the Novosibirks Opera, splendid but totally underfunded, brought it to internationally acceptable standards, where he even had Wozzeck performed...more> |
 Opera Review: A successful Walküre with Stemme and Westbroek at the SF Opera Those few seconds of expectant silence between the final chord and start of the applause could only have meant one thing: it was a triumph. Once the curtain fell for Die Walküre's first night, the audience at the War Memorial House needed a few moments to go back to reality and realize that what they experienced had...more> |
 Concert Review: Roberto Alagna sings extracts from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in Brussels Concert recitals featuring the redoubtable voice and personality of Roberto Alagna are always in danger of giving the tenor too much of the spotlight, to the detriment of musical purpose. Such was the case in Brussels this week, though Alagna's rich...more> |
 Opera Review: The LA Ring's Götterdämmerung The first two chords of Götterdämmerung—known to motive-o-philes as Brünnhilde's Awakening, or simply Awakening—are justly revered. When that bald Eb-minor chord, a heartstopping bellow in the brass, resolves to the most languid of Cb-major arpeggios, with its seemingly endless ascent into the stratosphere of the upper strings and winds...more> |
 CD Review: Sir Charles Mackerras and the Philharmonia in Dvorák Symphonies (Signum) As the Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras approaches his eighty-fifth birthday later this year, he continues to make impressive contributions to an already imposing discography. World-renowned in large part for his fervent advocacy of Czech music, Mackerras has made... more> |
 Concert Review: Daniel Hope and the LSO led by Mark Elder in Britten and Shostakovish The only native Briton in charge of one of the major British orchestras, Sir Mark Elder is one of those rare conductors who is equally at home in the concert hall or the opera house. On this occasion he traded the Hallé, where he has been Music Director for ten years...more> |
 Interview: John Relyea chats about playing the bad guy, his Faust and future plans The San Francisco Opera summer season started only a few days ago with a production of Faust starring some of the most acclaimed singers on the contemporary opera scene. Together with Patricia Racette and Stefano Secco, a young superstar features in...more> |
 Interview: Patricia Racette talks about Faust, her cabaret repertoire and future plans Tatyana or Jenufa, Tosca or Suor Angelica: whether she is portraying a fiery singer or a strong woman trapped in a conventional society, Patricia Racette always discloses the most intense nuances of each character. Her lirico soprano voice makes all her performances special: she is aware of the puissance... more> |
 Concert Review: Thomas Ades conducts the LSO The convivial reception that greeted the London Symphony Orchestra's programme of almost entirely new works suggests that contemporary art music occupies a more robust position in British culture than its detractors would have one believe. It seems curious, then, that it was necessary to include...more> |
 CD Review: Gerald Finley: Great Operatic Arias (Chandos Opera in English) Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is one of the most versatile artists currently active on the world's stages. As a robust, lyric baritone, he is perfectly poised in a hybrid vocal category that easily encompasses traditional operatic roles, the intimacy of the recital platform, and even musical theater... more> |
 Opera Review: Alfie Boe in The Pearl Fishers at ENO Although possibly known by many opera lovers only for its famous duet 'Au fond du temple saint' ('Deep in the holy temple') of the male protagonists Nadir and Zurga – friends but rivals in their love for priestess Leila – Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) is tuneful, easy on the ears and thus has endured...more> |
 Opera Review: Gounod's Faust at the SF Opera with Relyea and Racette Despite the absence of a definitive critical edition, Gounod's Faust remains one of the most performed operas from the French repertoire. As the inaugurating piece for the San Francisco Opera summer season, this Faust came across as a mixed experience. Contributing to its success were John Relyea and Patricia Racette, whose... more>
|  Opera Review: The LA Ring continues with Siegfried The Little Prince by way of…Hagrid? In director Achim Freyer's new Ring production for Los Angeles' first-ever complete run of the cycle, Siegfried looked like a Warhol-silkscreened, stereoid-inflated version of Saint-Exupéry’s hero, at least from the waist up; from the waist down, he could have been a refugee from Sendak's... more> |
 Preview: The 2010-11 Operatic Season in the States Now that many important opera houses have completed or are winding down their 2009-10 season of productions, summer is just around the corner, and it’s time to start looking ahead to an exciting new season for 2010-11. In the United States, almost all major and regional opera companies have announced their detailed plans for the new season... more>
|  Opera Review: The LA Ring continues with Die Walküre In one of the conferences that make up part of the gargantuan Los Angeles Ring Festival already underway as LA Opera moves through its first complete Ring cycle, a telling point of contrast was registered between this production and others more familiar to Continental audiences. David Levin... more> |
 Concert Review: Mr McFall's Chamber and Michael Marra collaborate You see our Michael Marra, besides being a master singer-songwriter, is the master of wry, deadpan introductions. You could almost say that twenty percent of a Marra song is its introduction. As a troubadour, he bears a certain resemblance to the likes of Tom Waits or Dr John, but of course such... more>
|  Opera Review: Scottish Opera's 5:15 in Glasgow Five operatic vignettes; roughly fifteen minutes a throw (and roughly fifteen musicians a show): that's the Five:15 deal from Scottish Opera that sold out both the Traverse run in Edinburgh, and the Òran Mór run in Glasgow. Since you'd expect a mixed bag with such a venture, pairing composers and writers in (for.... more> |
 Concert Review: Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin in a 'Sound and Language' concert It has been remarked ad nauseum in the past, and doubtless will continue to be remarked ad nauseum in the future, that a defining quality of that music of our time derived from the western art music tradition, is its unprecedented multifaceted nature, stylistically speaking. Going... more>
|  CD Review: Placido Domingo explores Loncavallo rarities in La Nuit de mai Tenor and baritone, conductor and artistic director, Wagnerian and Handelian: there's apparently nothing Plàcido Domingo can't do. This year he's singing Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, a baritone role, as well as Bajazet in Handel's Tamerlano, his first part in a Baroque opera...more> |
 Concert Review: Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano at the Wigmore Hall I've always found it hard to warm to Ian Bostridge's voice. Though his technique is solid, particularly in terms of finely drawn rhythms and crisp diction, his rather silvery tone and his very arch manner of phrasing means that his voice often comes across as somewhat cold and unfeeling... more>
|  Opera Review: Das Rheingold at La Scala with René Pape 2013 will be the bicentenary of Richard Wagner's (as well as Verdi's) birth. To celebrate the German composer, La Scala is staging a new production of the Ring which will span over four seasons, with the Tetralogy being performed in its entirety in June 2013. This is certainly something to look forward to, especially... more> |
 Concert Review: The Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin in works by Mozart and Vivier Having previously been conductor with Frankfurt's Ensemble Modern, Ingo Metzmacher has been at the helm with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin since 2007. In this position he has won praise for his programming of contemporary works alongside the usual classical repertoire, bringing quality contemporary music to a wider audience... more> |
 Opera Review: The controversial LA Ring opens successfully with Das Rheingold In a word: dangerous. Los Angeles' first-ever complete staging of Wagner’s Ring cycle, directed by Bertolt Brecht protégé Achim Freyer, hangs on the edge of a knife—and the fiscal, cultural, and political, stakes for the West Coast are exceedingly high. The stage says it all. Chiefly composed of a...more> |
 Opera Review: Erwin Schrott returns in Covent Garden's Le nozze di Figaro A young cast headed by Erwin Schrott came together for this second revival of David McVicar's production of Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden. And while the vocal elements aren't of the highest quality, the feeling of ensemble and the imagination of the direction make for a highly... more>
|  Interview: Jan Vogler on his role as director of Dresden's rejuvenated Music Festival There are so many festivals that vie for the music lover's attention in Europe, that it is easy for even some of the most prestigious to slip out of the public consciousness. After the powerhouse programmes of the first years, and an inaugural concert by Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic... more>
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 Opera Interview: Nathan Gunn talks about his Magic Flute, musical theatre and future plans Established as one of the most sought-after baritones, and loved by his public, Nathan Gunn is living a very prolific phase of his career. His artistry has reached an incredibly wide audience with his Papageno: he has brought this character alive for many years at the New York Met, in the acclaimed Julie Taymor's... more>
|  Concert Reviews: Mischa Maisky and Gergiev and the Mariinsky at the Dresden Festival After two concerts that reflected little of the Dresden Music Festival's loose theme, Russlandia, here were a pair of concerts that more than redressed the balance. Mischa and Lili Maisky provided a rich programme of Russian Romances arranged for cello, followed by Shostakovich's Sonata... more> |
 Opera Review: Vera Nemirova's Ring gets underway with Das Rheingold in Frankfurt Oper Frankfurt's new Ring gets off to a very promising start with this Rheingold, directed with effective and elegant economy by Vera Nemirova. The young Bulgarian director has been carving out an important career in several German houses. Nemirova attracted attention earlier in the season... more>
|  DVD Review: Natalie Dessay in Pelleas et Melisande from Vienna (Virgin) Recorded live at the Theater an der Wien in 2009, this new DVD of Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande preserves an excellent performance by a cohesive team of talented singing actors. Debussy works his magic by slowly and persistently beguiling the listener... more> |
 Opera Review: David McVicar's Don Carlo at Oper Frankfurt This was the first night of a second run of revivals for David McVicar's 2007 Don Carlo at Oper Frankfurt, and it's easy to see why the house has been so keen to bring it back so often and quickly; it returns early next season, too.
McVicar chooses to place all the action—which in the five-act version takes in a variety of locations in two countries... more>
|  Concert Reviews: The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Pittsburgh Symphony at the Dresden Festival The first Sunday of the 2010 Dresden Festival saw an impressive tally of no fewer than three orchestral concerts in the city, as well as a choral concert in the park of Scholss Pillnitz. By the time I arrived at the Semperoper for the afternoon concert given by Murray Perahia and the ASMF... more> |
 Opera Review: Richard Jones's Billy Budd at Oper Frankfurt Frankfurt is proving to be something of an outpost for British opera. The unveiling of Richard Jones's Billy Budd in 2007 was followed by The Rape of Lucretia in 2008, while 2010 has already seen new productions of Owen Wingrave and The Tempest. This apparent predisposition notwithstanding... more>
|  Opera Interview: Tenor Lawrence Brownlee makes his London recital debut Fans of the Met's regular cinema broadcasts will already be familiar with the work of tenor Lawrence Brownlee. At 37, he is well known for his appearances in bel canto repertoire all over the world, including the leading houses in Berlin, Vienna, Washington, Milan, Tokyo, Madrid, Munich and Tokyo... more> |
 Concert Review: EU Baroque Orchestra at the Lufthansa Festival A uniquely moveable feast, every year the European Union Baroque Orchestra offers 25 young period musicians the opportunity to work with them for six months. Between their busy schedule of rehearsals and recordings the orchestra also typically tours around Europe, giving audiences... more> |
 Concert Review: The Vogler Quartet perform Schumann's quartets Op. 41 The Opus 41 String Quartets, whilst conspicuous in their debt to Mozart and Haydn in the case of the fast movements of the first two, particularly, and Beethoven in the slow movement of the first and in the entirety of the third, nevertheless strike out into typically new harmonic, formal, and emotional directions.... more>
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 Concert Review: Frederica von Stade's New York farewell concert In a generous program that was at once stylish and nostalgic (with several dollops of whimsy), beloved mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade bade farewell to New York at Carnegie Hall on April 22. Born in 1945, von Stade still retains plenty of the vocal luminescence that catapulted her to worldwide fame in the 70’s... more>
|  Concert Review: Natalie Clein and the RSNO in Elgar An unusual, though judiciously weighed, programme drew another capacity audience to the last performance of the RSNO's current season. Among his comments before beginning the concert, took a moment to express gratitude for the orchestra's hugely impressive statistical performance (as previously noted... more> |
 Opera Review: ENO's new production of Tosca English National Opera's last attempt to stage Puccini's Tosca was a rather gloomy production by none other than David McVicar back in 2002, and it hasn't been seen much since. So this new staging by Catherine Malfitano – the soprano who famously performed the role in a live telecast around the world filmed in the original Rome locations indicated... more>
|  Opera Review: La Fille du regiment returns to Covent Garden with Florez and Dessay This performance of Donizetti's Opéra Comique, La Fille du Régiment, was the first revival of the production at the Royal Opera House since it opened to great acclaim in 2007. However, by virtue of the fact that it is a co-production with the Vienna State Opera... more> |
 Concert Review: I Fagiolini at the Lufthanasa Festival For over twenty years now I Fagiolini have occupied a distinctive niche in the world of early music. A gap that few had perceived—of performances as engaging dramatically as musically—has become amply filled by the creative and unusual concerts staged by Robert Hollingworth and his group... more>
|  Concert Review: Baroque Fever, La Serenissima, and Robert Hollingworth at the Lufthansa Festival In the afternoon we were treated to an exceptionally high quality performance and, at the same time, to fascinating entertainment by Baroque Fever, that is by Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike, Slovakian violinist Peter Spissky, English... more> |
 Interview: Rising star Jane Archibald on the Met's Hamlet On March 15, 2010, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City premiered a new production of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet. This much talked about production was keenly anticipated, since it was the first time Thomas' adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy was given at the Met in well over a century. The mercurial English... more>
|  Opera Review: ETO's A Midsummer Night's Dream James Conway created this production of Britten’s only Shakespeare opera in the spring of 2004 and I saw it at the time: it made a vivid impression. Six years later I can only say that it has matured magnificently into a convincing, thoughtful, clever piece of music theatre that brings... more> |
 CD Review: Leonard Bernstein's On the Town and the rarity The Revuers As much as I admire West Side Story (1957), Leonard Bernstein's much earlier On the Town of 1944 has always been closer to my heart. Written in the latter stages of the Second World War, it deals with three soldiers on ‘shore leave' for a day, and their adventures... more>
|  Opera Review: Jaho, Pirgu and Hvorostovsky in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House Now creeping towards its twentieth birthday, Richard Eyre's 1994 production of La Traviata has been a reliable fixture of recent seasons, playing host to some stellar performances. This season, the stars are fairly evenly distributed between two casts... more> |
 Concert Review: Matthias Goerne and Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Schubert from Brussels Despite his estimable reputation and his admirable choice of repertoire, I've always been left just a little cold by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The pianist has an unmatched facility for technical, specifically mensural, precision, as displayed in canonical (often debut) recordings of... more>
|  Concert Review: Vadim Repin and the LSO in MacMillan, Stravinsky, and Debussy The relationship between the London Symphony Orchestra and James MacMillan dates back over both a number of years and commissions. This concert, with the world premiere of MacMillan's Violin Concerto, was the culmination of the 2009/10 season's artist portrait.... more> |
 Opera News: Glyndebourne Festival announces the Summer 2011 programme The 2011 Festival opens with a David McVicar production of Meistersinger conducted by Glyndebourne's Music Director, Vladimir Jurowski. The second new production will be Handel's Rinaldo, directed by Robert Carsen and conducted by Ottavio Dantone... more>
|  Opera Review: ETO performs Donizetti's Don Pasquale William Oldroyd's production of Donizetti's late and perfectly constructed comic masterpiece Don Pasquale is now well into its ETO tour and must be judged as properly run-in, with rough edges smoothed off. This being the case, it was surprising on its opening night at Snape Maltings to find so much about the evening that was... more> |
 Concert Review: Ensemble Modern perform works by Reich and Goebbels in Berlin You have to admire the amount of interest Reich has managed to generate in his work by the general public – though I'm sure that admiration would only grudgingly be granted by some. Reich is still divisive: bringing up his name among composers you may well be laughed at. Simple and repetitive maybe, but certainly... more>
|  Interview: Rising tenor Saimir Pirgu joins fellow Albanian Ermonela Jaho for Covent Garden's Traviata Every time The Royal Opera revives its Richard Eyre production of Verdi's La traviata, it's quite an event. Last time saw the return of the original director to lead Renee Fleming through a radical revision of his initial ideas... more> |
 Opera Review: Cavalli's Il Giasone at the Royal Academy of Music The Venetian composer Francesco Cavalli was a colleague and friend – and earlier possibly also a student – of Monteverdi. This may explain why some of the love duets for Giasone and Medea in Cavalli's Il Giasone may remind audiences of those for Nero and Poppea in Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea... more>
|  Feature: Scottish Opera's exciting 5:15 Project previewed Sourcing new repertoire is a problem commonly shared by opera houses in Britain as elsewhere in the world. Scottish Opera has had its successes along the way—James MacMillan's Inez de Castro springs readily to mind—though its quest... more> |
 Concert Review: Violinist Renaud Capuçon and the Berliner Philharmoniker in Ligeti, Liszt and Bartok Last week the Berlin Philharmoniker gave what was by
all accounts an outstanding concert in Oxford, commemorating the first of May as the date of their first ever concert. It is an anniversary event they practice every year in a different city in Europe, this year being helmed by Daniel Barenboim for a concert... more>
|  CD Review: Works by Jean-Luc Hervé on L'Algarade Jean-Luc Hervé is among the generation of French composers to have come of age after the spectral 'moment' in French composition. Though by no means universally popular with audiences and ensembles – even within the field of contemporary music – the spectral school has undoubtedly had an ... more> |
 Concert Review: Rising Star Yossif Ivanov and Orchestre National de Belgique in Samuel Barber, and Tchaikovsky The Orchestre National de Belgique's concert at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts had something of the feel of a Flemish carnival. Yossif Ivanov starred in Samuel Barber's Concerto, the concert opened with an overture from Antwerp composer Luc van Hove, and the crowd featured... more>
|  Concert Review: New music from Erkki-Sven Tüür, and Sibelius 3 from Edinburgh One week later—same hall, same orchestra… but half the audience? What gives? Was it the conductor? Was it the repertoire? Was it end-of-the-month paypacket blues? They are mysterious creatures, audiences. Maybe it was someone's idea of a joke to schedule this Ligeti... more> |
 Opera Review: Massenet's Don Quichotte with Marc Minkowski in Brussels Massenet's work, in fact, bears only an indirect relation to Cervantes' novel. Here, Dulcinée not only appears, but takes a central role as inspiration behind the knight's exploits, and as mischievous central presence in her own right. Across just under... more>
|  Concert Review: Ian Bostridge and the RSNO in Britten's War Requiem Somehow Britten was able to inscribe this solidarity into his score. Goodwill has attended it all along the way, since its first performance in 1962 at the dedication of the new Coventry Cathedral, built to replace the 14th century building destroyed by German bombs in... more> |
 Opera Preview: The Ring comes to Budapest A fatal tendency seems built in the very foundations of operahouses to suffer from periods of decay, malicious internal intrigues, slovenly administration, poor programming, and endless squabbles about who wins the coveted mitre of artistic direction... more>
|  Concert Review: Rolando Villazon sings Handel in Baden-Baden As one could take it for granted, the huge auditorium was packed to welcome Rolando Villazon back to The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, after his troubled year in 2009 when he "reluctantly" had to cancel both his appearance in Iolanta with Netrebko and only a few months later in Werther, with Garanca... more> |
 Interview: Sondra Radvanovsky talks about her Verdi Arias and future projects American-born soprano Sondra Radvanovsky (now living in Canada) has been steadily gaining currency on the international opera scene as a star of the first rank. Subsequent to her participation in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition and Winners Concert in 1995, she has... more>
|  Opera Review: Domingo and Harteros in Simon Boccanegra at La Scala Plácido Domingo's Simon Boccanegra has arrived at Teatro Alla Scala in Milan. After debuting as the Doge in Berlin in 2009 and at the Met in New York earlier this year, the Spanish singer is currently singing the title role of Verdi's opera in a series of performances in Milan... more> |
 Concert Review: A shocking account of Liszt from Brussels The Belgian National Orchestra's concert this week at Brussels main centre for the arts, the BOZAR Centre, was organised by the Agnès de Hooghe Arts Management Agency in memory of its founder and namesake, who passed away in 2009. Each of the three featured artists — two conductors and the piano soloist —... more>
|  Concert Review: Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Tom Poster impress in Ligeti and Beethoven With the rival attraction of Scottish Opera's La Bohème not ten minutes' walk down the road, it is a pleasure to see the Queen's Hall groaning full—especially with a forbiddingly unfamiliar concerto on the bill. The Legends are lovely in the characteristic Dvorák manner ... more> |
 Opera Review: Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers at the Young Vic with ENO The combination of Henze's chamber opera, Fiona Shaw's staging and the venue itself make for a riveting theatrical event in this latest joint venture between the English National Opera and the Young Vic. The stage is not the usual conventional... more>
|  Opera Review: Verdi's Aida returns to Covent Garden in a new production The Royal Opera's new production of Verdi's Aida was a hotly-anticipated event, and the audience – which included Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall – was scarcely less starry than the cast. Unfortunately, though, David McVicar's staging is not the overwhelming... more> |
 News: The 2010 BBC Proms season announced In a generally solid programme, the festival is heavily front loaded. In what the festival director Roger Wright has called 'the most ambitious opening weekend ever', the first three concerts feature an unprecedented line-up of operatic and symphonic performers. The opening night... more>
|  Opera Review: Scottish Opera and Stewart Laing's La Bohème When Stuart Laing's production of Puccini's hugely popular masterpiece was first staged in 2004, the Scottish Executive had just told Scottish Opera: 'your tiny budget is frozen'. It was just before a performance of La Bohème–ten minutes before going on stage, according to contemporary... more> |
 Opera Review: Scottish Opera and Opera North joint production of The Adventures of Mr Broucek There is much to a |
