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  • A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim

    Produced by 42nd Street Moon at Gateway Theatre

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 09th, 2021

    Although Sondheim’s music and themes often have sharp edges, “A Little Night Music,” which is based on Ingmar Bergman’s film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” is written predominately in waltz time and is highly melodic.

  • Composer Marcus Shelby's Harriet's Spirit

    Produced by Opera Parallèle and Bayview Opera House

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 15th, 2021

    Commissioned by Opera Parallèle as part of their Hands-On-Opera program, a series of operas for youth, “Harriet’s Spirit,” is performed appropriately at the Bayview Opera House, which operates as the hub of the San Francisco African American Arts and Culture District.  The production energizes and provides a beacon of hope for the communities that its story represents.

  • Dido and Aeneas Composed by Henry Purcell

    Produced by Opera San José

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 15th, 2021

    Rarely has an esteemed opera endured the ignominy of its birth as “Dido and Aeneas.”  Although its composer, Henry Purcell, would reign as the preeminent producer of serious British music from his death in 1695 until the 20th century, his only pure opera borrowed slavishly from a crypto-opera, John Blow’s “Venus and Adonis,” that has not even remained in the canon.

  • Bob Dylan Archive

    Opens in Tulsa on May 10, 2022,

    By: Dylan - Nov 16th, 2021

    In revealing the existence of the Bob Dylan Archive to the public in 2016, Ben Sisario wrote in The New York Times, "It is clear that the archives are deeper and more vast than even most Dylan experts could imagine, promising untold insight into the songwriter's work." The three-story façade of the Bob Dylan Center will face downtown Tulsa's hugely popular public gathering space, Guthrie Green, and will depict a rare 1965 image of Dylan, donated to the center by renowned photographer Jerry Schatzberg.  

  • The Butterfly Process

    Boston Lyric Opera Fires the Canon

    By: BLO - Nov 17th, 2021

    Madama Butterfly inspires a deep look at its historical context through a contemporary lens. Internal and public discussions are part of the project dubbed The Butterfly Process by Boston Lyric Opera.

  • The Band's Visit at the Bushnell

    Tony Winner in 2018

    By: Karen Isaacs - Nov 19th, 2021

    The Band’s Visit is almost a chamber musical; limited cast, no big dance numbers, no flashy sets or projections. It tells a simple story, but one that slowly creeps up on you and, if you let it, packs an emotional wallop. It’s based on a 2007 Israeli film that won critical acclaim and success.

  • Così Fan Tutte

    At San Francisco Opera

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 26th, 2021

    “Così Fan Tutte” was the last of three collaborations by perhaps the strongest composition team in opera history.  Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte had previously written “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni.”  Acknowledging the significance of this unplanned trilogy, San Francisco Opera is presenting them all over a three-season period. 

  • Ted Rosenthal Trio at Gateways Inn in Lenox

    With Guest vocalist Karrin Allyson

    By: Berkshire Jazz - Dec 01st, 2021

    The Ted Rosenthal Trio with special guest vocalist Karrin Allyson will perform their Wonderland holiday show in a one-time event this Sunday, December 5 in Lenox, Mass. Performing jazz versions of holiday favorites and more, they will be appearing at the Gateways Inn in two shows, at 5 and 7pm.  

  • Jeremy Denk Performs The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach is Still Full of Joy at 300

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 06th, 2021

    Jeremy Denk performed “The Old Testament of Keyboard Music,”  Bach’ s Well Tempered Clavier (WTC) , at the 92nd Street Y in New York. The artist selects works to which he can bring new insights. Bach, he sensed, was trapped by the Glenn Gould performances in the mid-20th century. Audiences found the neuroses Gould implanted in Bach suitable for the century’s mood. They also appreciated the humming he added to the piano notes. Other performers flatten the work to sound more like a harpsichord, sewiwgmachine style.

  • TON Orchestra at the Metropolitan Museum

    The Piano Explored

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 10th, 2021

    It comes as no surprise that the oldest piano in the world, created in 1720 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, is now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An earlier instrument was recorded in the inventory of the Medici family in 1700, but the Met’s piano is the oldest to survive today.  It has hammers and dampers, two keyboards, and a range of four octaves, C–c”’ The instrument was on view for concertgoers, who enjoyed a talk by Leon Botstein om the development of the instrument. He focused on Beethoven's response to more notes with a wider dynamic range, The Orchestra Now performed the Emperor Concerto, Shai Wosner at the modern Steinway and Leon Botstein conducting.

  • Pianist Inna Faliks Finds Kindred Spirits

    The Schmanns, Beethoven and Ravel Explored

    By: SUsan Hall - Dec 13th, 2021

    Inna Faliks is a superb concert pianist, who also heads the piano studies department at the University of California, Los Angeles.  Her recordings are devoted to revealing kindred spirits. Husband and wife, Robert and Clara Schumann, are offered together in The Schumann Project. Their entwined influence is suggested. Her interpretations of Beethoven will be presented as part of a Barge Concert in New York on December 16.

  • Conrad Tao at the 92nd Street Y

    Melody in Sound Clouds

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 21st, 2021

    Conrad Tao is a special pianist. He is a master of technique and so much more. He performs as a listener, always hearing the harmonics of a note he strikes (or even plucks). In his own compositions and in his interpretation of the work of others, he calls our attention to the richness of a tone,  colored by many notes, in geometric order above the note struck.

  • Inna Faliks at The Barge

    Generational Response Moves Beautiful Music to the Present

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 22nd, 2021

    A new work by George Meyer and commissions by Inna Falik are performed in New York. This program took place on The Barge, one of New York’s most charming venues.  You rock on the boat as you watch perfumers reflected in the boat’s windows.  Boats pass by outside, traveling up and down the East River. The Wall Street skyline shimmers in the background. A welcome way to end a difficult year.  Live music. 

  • Jazz in the Berkshires

    What Are You Doing for New Years

    By: Berkshire Jazz - Dec 30th, 2021

    This very special concert features the amazing flutist Andrea Brachfeld with Insight: Bill O’Connell, piano; Harvie S, bass; and Jason Tiemann, drums

  • Music for Abandoned Amusement Parks

    Uncanny Masterpiece by East Boston's Sal Baglio

    By: Frank Conte - Jan 01st, 2022

    In an uncanny masterpiece musician Sal Baglio, in Music for Abandoned Amusement Parks, captures the ambiance of colorful East Boston. Journalist Frank Conte is the venerable chronicler of the hood.

  • Lincoln Center's Flying Over Sunset.

    Musical About Early Acid Trips

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jan 08th, 2022

    In the late ‘50s-early ‘60s, LSD (before Dr. Timothy Leary) was a trendy drug used by both psychiatrists and other to help individuals explore their past and their subconscious. Among the well-known people who experimented with the drug was actor Cary Grant, novelist Aldous Huxley and playwright/journalist/diplomat Clare Boothe Luce.

  • Igor Levit at Carnegie Hall

    An Invitation to Listen

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 14th, 2022

    Igor Levit performed Beethoven, Fred Hersch, Wagner and Liszt in a compelling musical evening at Carnegie Hall in New York. The Hall, vaccinated and boosted, was packed for the occasion.

  • The Band’s Visit

    Touring Company in San Francisco

    By: Victor Cordell - Jan 14th, 2022

    The biggest star of The Band's Visit is the music.  Lyrics in the sung songs are witty and divulging, and the accompanying music is pleasant throughout, with eclectic influences from American pop to klezmer to bossanova.  Some of the stylings are a little rough, which at first may suggest poor casting, but on further consideration, less than perfect renditions work well.  After all, the characters represented are not singers, they are working class.

  • Renee Fleming, Uma Thurman, Emerson Quartet at Carnegie Hall

    Weaving Kevin Puts, Philip Glass, Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 23rd, 2022

    Tom Stoppard prefers rock and pop, but he contributes mightily to a musical monologue written with Andre Previn and sung and spoken by Renee Fleming and Uma Thurman with the splendid Emerson Quartet and Simone Dinnerstein.

  • New York City Opera's World Premiere

    Joins with National Yiddish Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 30th, 2022

    Garden of the Finzi-Continis, a novel and a movie, inspire Ricky Ian Gordo's new opera. A lush production at the Museum of Jewish Heritage shows us NYCO alive and well.

  • Terence Blanchard's Champion at Boston Lyric Opera

    Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe to Perform

    By: BLO - Feb 03rd, 2022

    Stephanie Blythe makes her role debut as the welcoming and supportive bar owner Kathy Hagen in Champion. A renowned opera singer and recitalist, Blythe is among the most highly respected artists of her generation.

  • Close Encounters With Music

    Folk and Baroque in Great Barrington

    By: Close - Feb 04th, 2022

    Folk and Baroque—Performed Live at Historic Saint James Place in Downtown Great Barrington, MA, February 26, 2021 at 6 PM  

  • Lynn Nottage Turns to Opera at Lincoln Center Theater

    Intimate Apparel with Score by Ricky Ian Gordon

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 06th, 2022

    Lynn Nottage’s brilliant play Intimate Apparel has been incubating as an opera since 2007 when Ricky Ian Gordon was commissioned to write the music by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. Nottage speaks of development meetings with Peter Gelb of the Met and Andre Bishop of LTC,  each tugging for their own interests.

  • World Premiere Opera in Washington

    Four A List Composer/librettist Teams Contribute

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 07th, 2022

    Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum offered a preview of a world premiere opera developed by Washington National Opera. Written in Stone will be staged at the Kennedy Center from March 5 to March 25. It will be a must-see production.

  • Lynn Nottage at Lincoln Center Theater

    Intimate Apparel with a Score by Ricky Ian Gordon

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 09th, 2022

    Lynn Nottage’s brilliant play Intimate Apparel has been incubating as an opera since 2007 when Ricky Ian Gordon was commissioned to write the music by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. Nottage speaks of development meetings with Peter Gelb of the Met and Andre Bishop of LCT, each tugging for their own interests. 

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