Music
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Dallas Presents Women in Classical Music Symposium
Kim Noltemy CEO of the Dallas Symphony
By: - Nov 10th, 2023Kim Noltemy, the Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, joined the Dallas Symphony Association (DSA) in January 2018. (She had worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 21 years). One of her first initiatives was a symposium for Women in Classical Music. Noltemy moved fast and the first conference was held in 2019
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Boston Bel Canto Opera
Interview With Bradley Pennington
By: - Nov 13th, 2023In 1993, Bradley Pennington, already an accomplished musician and teacher, formed the Boston Bel Canto Opera making it a much-welcomed addition to Greater Boston’s cultural arts community. Its aim — then and now -- is to bring the absolute finest in operatic performances to its audiences.
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Four Plays From Broadway And Beyond
Premieres and Revivals
By: - Nov 15th, 2023These were seen by the reviewer on a trip to NYC for the American Theatre Critics Association conference. Each of the four is worth seeing with history and music being common threads. Supported by excerpts of period music, "Spies" tells the true story of a 17th century friar who was charged with preventing what would become the 30 Years War. The dark "Watch" uses operatic form and modern dance to tell a story related to the real-life mass murders in a Charleston church with a black congregation and a Pittsburgh synagogue. "Wholesale" is a heavily adapted revival of the 1962 musical that launched Barbra Streisand's career. "Love" tells the story of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos in sung-through immersive disco fashion!
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Omar
Giddens and Abels' Pulitzer Prize Winning Opera
By: - Nov 17th, 2023In this fact-based story, a Muslim scholar is captured and enslaved in South Carolina. After various travails, he is purchased by a relatively humane master who encourages his writing and religious thinking, even while arguing that he prays to a false God, believing the Muslim Allah to be different from the Christian God.
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Musing on Women in Classical Music
Kim Noltemy CEO of the Dallas Symphony, 21 years at the BSO
By: - Nov 19th, 2023The Women in Classical Music Symposium in Dallas was not acrimonious. No one whined. Instead, the spirit was exploratory. There was some feeling that 'what you heard here should stay here' in Dallas. This was odd because many of the problems that were raised and then discussed were common to men and women across the color and gender spectrum.
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The Elixir of Love
Donizetti's Frothy Comedy at San Francisco Opera
By: - Nov 21st, 2023Poor Nemorino is in love with his employer, Adina, but she has other things in mind. Along comes Dr. Dulcamara, an itinerant snake oil salesman, who has just the love potion that will make Nemorino irresistible to Adina. Of course, it's really red wine. Frivolity ensues and all live happily ever after.
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Guys and Dolls
World of Damon Runyon, Music and Lyrics of Frank Loesser
By: - Nov 25th, 2023The musical gives a peek into the marginalized world of gamblers and performers around Broadway during the Depression. While running floating craps games as a profession, Nathan Detroit has eluded marriage to nightclub singer, Adelaide, for 14 years. Out-of-towner Sky Masterson is an occasional participant in Nathan's games. Needing $1,000, Nathan bets the bet-on-anything Sky that he can't induce a certain woman to go to Havana (Cuba!) with him for dinner. That woman happens to be Sarah, a uniformed member of the Times Square Save-a-Soul Mission, so Nathan feels comfortable with his bet. Well.....
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Rhiannon Giidens Broadends the Silk Road
In San Diego The Trancontinental Railroad arrive
By: - Nov 28th, 2023The Transcontinental Railroad connected the Eastern and Western United States the same way that the Silk Road of Asia connected the Orient to Europe. Upon completion of the railroad, goods that would take six months to travel by boat around the Horn from the West to East Coast now were transported across the country in days. Most importantly, ideas and culture were transported. This crisscrossing changed the United States and made it the superpower it is today.
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Dragon Lady
Enrapturing Tales About a Philippine Family Unlike Yours
By: - Nov 30th, 2023Who would have thought that a solo performance about a family on the seedy edge of society as told by one of its descendants would captivate a theater audience? Sara Porkalob writes, tells, and sings stories of surviving entertainingly and with consummate magnetism and conviction.
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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
A Lighthearted Look at the Obsessiveness of Middle School Geeks
By: - Dec 04th, 2023We meet a diverse group of young teens bound by a common skill – spelling - and a common goal – winning. Spelling excellence is a grinding and lonely pursuit. All who compete in this Bee are nerds, but each in their own way, and each is motivated by a different set of circumstances. The audience will recall kids they’ve known and enjoy a light-hearted and entertaining look at growing up.
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Unsilent Night by Phil Kline
North Adams and New York are Both Treated to His Special Holiday Event
By: - Dec 04th, 2023Phil Kline created a magical holiday event thirty years ago. This year, Unsilent Night in North Adams, MA was presented by MCLA Gallery 51/MOSAIC, nbCC, North Adams Chamber, Anna Farrington, Andrew Fitch, Isabelle Holmes & Todd Reynolds In collaboration with LumiNAMA Holiday Lights Walk.
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Opera at the Lyric in Chicago
Daughter of the Regiment, Perfect. Jenufa, Not So
By: - Dec 06th, 2023In the lobby of the Lyric Opera House in Chicago, you hear griping about management. Yet it is hard to imagine what people are talking about when you watch and hear the fall production of Gaetano Donizetti’s "Daughter of the Regiment. " A perfect production.
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Einstein at Princeton
Opera Seen Through Domestic Prism
By: - Dec 08th, 2023In a compact manner, the libretto demonstrates the idealism of Einstein contrasted with the pragmatism of the women around him, while the story line covers political and social commentary; God and existence; the enormity of the creation of the atomic bomb; and more. Light touches and excerpts from other composers brighten the proceedings.
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Victoria Bond's Illuminations
Byzantine Chants at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
By: - Dec 11th, 2023Victoria Bond is a composer who has experimented with many styles. Over the years she has worked with Dr. Paul Barnes, a pianist and Greek Orthodox chanter, developing Illuminations on Byzantine Chant. Barnes had hoped to capture the wide emotional range and spiritual message of Orthodox Christianity, Bond is captivated by this mystical world.
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Dreamgirls at Goodspeed
Musical Inspired by The Supremes
By: - Dec 14th, 2023Dreamgirls features a predictable show biz story about the career of a successful entertainer, in this case, a girl singing group, first called the Dreamettes. It is also the story of a ruthless young man (Curtis) who will control, lie, manipulate, and cheat to achieve his aims. When he hurts or destroys someone, his response “It’s business.”
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The English Concert at Carnegie Hall
Watching a Female Leader Triumph
By: - Dec 17th, 2023The English Concert led by Harry Bickett performs an annual Baroque opera, semi-staged at Carnegie Hall. These performances are highly anticipated, for good reason. This year's was no exception.
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January at the BSO
Andris Nelsons Conducts
By: - Dec 29th, 2023The new year begins with Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons conducting the orchestra in two blockbuster programs that spotlight the BSO’s enduring creative partnerships and major recording projects. Both programs will first be performed in Boston: works by Maurice Ravel, Tania León, and Igor Stravinsky with acclaimed pianist Seong-Jin Cho on January 11–13, followed by a concert version of the landmark 1934 Dmitri Shostakovich opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on January 25 and 27. Performances of the two complete programs will be repeated at New York’s Carnegie Hall on January 29 and 30, respectively.
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Maestro Misses its Mark
Bradley Cooper Needed a Director
By: - Jan 02nd, 2024The film Maestro reminds us that classical music can be accessible to a wide audience. This is not because the film makes the music accessible. In fact, Bradley Cooper conducting is a bad joke. You wonder what Yannick Nezet-Seguin, credited with teaching the actor to conduct, was doing.
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New England Conservatory Jazz Studies
Winter/Spring Season
By: - Jan 05th, 2024Highlights include residency with new Jazz Studies co-chair Anna Webber; concert of music by David Bowie; celebrations of Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Wayne Shorter, Mahalia Jackson, and Chris Connor; and a special appearance by the NEC Jazz Orchestra at Cambridge's Regattabar
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Huang Ruo's Angel Island
A Timely Contemporary Opera on Immigration
By: - Jan 07th, 2024Huang Ruo, who searches for the Asian American voice and translates it for an audience of Asian Americans and all other Americans too, will present the New York premiere of his vocal theater work, Angel Island, at the Harvey Theater at BAM on January 11, 12 and 13. It is part of the Protopype Festival, now celebrating its 11th anniversary.
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Beth Morrison Champions Contemporary Composers
Prototype Festival Launched for 11th Season
By: - Jan 15th, 2024Beth Morrison is an important leader in the development of new opera with new alliances and venues. She is a force that the future of classical music depends on. The Prototype Festival she created is now in its 11th season in New York.
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Legally Blonde - The Musical
Authenticity Overcomes Pampered Privilege
By: - Jan 15th, 2024Elle, a shallow but genuine and smart fashionista obsessed with the color pink, is dumped by her status seeking boyfriend who is off to Harvard Law School. Surprisingly (and true, except the law school was Stanford in real life), Elle insinuates an acceptance as well. Her presence provides humorous contrast to the staid environment.
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The Golden Cockerel at Komische Oper, Berlin
Der Goldene Hahn by N. Rimsky-Korsakov
By: - Jan 31st, 2024Barrie Kosky, former director at the Komische Oper, Berlin, directed Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera "Der Goldene Hahn" (The Golden Cockerel) at the Schiller Theater, the temporary house of the Komische Oper during its renovation.
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Seiji Ozawa at 88
Former Music Director Laureate of BSO
By: - Feb 09th, 2024With great sorrow, the Boston Symphony Orchestra announces the death of its beloved Music Director Laureate, Seiji Ozawa. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s longest-serving conductor, holding the title of Music Director for 29 years (1973–2002), Maestro Ozawa died February 6, 2024, in Tokyo. He was 88 years old.
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Rhapsody in Blue 100th
Link to Berkshire Jazz Performance
By: - Feb 12th, 2024Berkshires Jazz got a jump on the centennial phenomenon last April, presenting the remarkable pianist Ted Rosenthal with the equally remarkable advanced strings ensemble from Kids 4 Harmony.
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