Music
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Principles of Uncertainty at BAM
John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman
By: - Sep 29th, 2017John Heginbotham of DH Dance wanted to work with Maira Kalman after he read her books. They walked together, drank coffee, talked and decided they'd like to do something. They had no idea what. Jacob's Pillow premiered the result in August. Now it is playing at BAM in Brooklyn.
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Composer Librettists Development Program
Lawrence Edelson Celebrates Opera
By: - Sep 28th, 2017American Lyric Theater was founded in 2005. Lawrence Edelson, a tenor and stage director, wondered how best to develop national operas. When opera was first introduced to the US was intentionally European and elitist. That formula no longer works. New works are springing up all over the country, and the ALT and its composer librettist programs has trained and launched the careers of many of this generations' composers and librettists. At the heart of their program is a kind of master's degree in opera. It is based on mentorship, which subtly differs from teaching.
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Food For Thought
Dar Williams Talks About Her New Book
By: - Sep 27th, 2017Dar Williams talks about her new book, 'What I Found in a Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musician's Guide to Rebuilding America's Communities One Coffee Shop, Dog Run and Open-Mike Night at a Time.' BBQ, Bourbon and beer are on the menu at Hancock Shaker Village.
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In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Hip Hop Musical in Rochester
By: - Sep 26th, 2017On opening night, everyone in the theater – from old, expected attendees to first-time youngsters – seemed involved and excited throughout. We are looking at a neighborhood — a single block of New York’s Washington Heights – and we simultaneously observe separate families, shops, households.
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Blank Out by Michel Van Der Aa
Miah Persson and Roderick Williams Excel
By: - Sep 26th, 2017Under the canopy formed by the dome of the Drill Hall in the Park Avenue Armory, Michel Van der Aa’s brilliant chamber opera, Blank Out, unfolds. In this gargantuan space, we seemed small and so did elements of the opera.
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On Site Opera Focuses on Dinosaurs
Natural History Museum Setting
By: - Sep 24th, 2017If you are asked what’s the most exciting character you can think of and answer is 'dinosaurs', it’s just a short leap to the creation of an opera about them if you want a audience that says opera, next, then make an opera about dinosaurs. On Site Opera has done just this.
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Van Zweden Intrigues with Glass and Mahler
New NY Philharmonic Conductor a Marvel
By: - Sep 24th, 2017Jaap Van Sweden, the music director designate of the New York Philharmonic has swept the city up in his magic. Katia & Marielle Labèque performed a Philip Glass duo piano concerto under his baton. They have often performed Glass. The acoustics of Geffen Hall caused problems in this piece and the Mahler that followed. Yet the new conductor made clear his chemistry with his orchestra and the audience.
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Jaap Van Zweden at NY Philharmonic
Another Openin', Another Maestro
By: - Sep 20th, 2017The changing of the guard at any major symphony orchestra is a long and complicated challenge. For the New York Philharmonic, who are in the process of installing the Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden as its new music director, that took another turn on Tueday night. Van Zweden is not quite "here" yet. He will start his first official season with the orchestra in 2018.
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New York Philharmonic Opens Its Season
Jaap Van Zweden at the Helm
By: - Sep 19th, 2017The New York Philharmonic throws open its doors with a concert they are dubbing the Gala of 106 All-Stars. The program is unusual and heavy for an opening night: Gustav Mahler's burly five-movement Symphony No. 5. The real star of the show will be on the podium: Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden who is one year away from beginning his tenure as the orchestra's newest Music Director.
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War Stories from Opera Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art Provides Dramatic Setting
By: - Sep 18th, 2017Inaugurating your season with a festival is setting the entertainment bar a notch higher. One after another as this festival week unfolds, dramas of high intensity, great variety set in unusual locations proceed to both jar and move. It is a mind-blowing experience.
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Sondra Radvanovsky at Opera Philadelphia
Celeste Radvanovsky Forma Divina
By: - Sep 18th, 2017Sondra Radvanovsky is a sublime dramatic singing artist. She has never performed in Philadelphia, and a packed Perlman Theater greeted her arrival. She did not disappoint. Dressed in a smashing deep blue strapless gown and bedecked in juicy rhinestones she sang her heart out. She explained that she was going to show us who she was..
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Star Wars Begins at New York Philharmonic
A Splendid Start to the Series
By: - Sep 18th, 2017There would be no Star Wars without the music of John Williams. On Friday night, the composer's stirring opening music sent hairs standing on end as the New York Philharmonic gave its second performance of the complete orchestral score of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Their task: accompanying George Lucas' 1997 remastered "Special Edition" of the beloved 1977 science fiction classic.
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We Shall Not Be Moved Premieres
A Moving Hip-Opera at Opera Philadelphia
By: - Sep 17th, 2017Years of work between the Philadelphia community and Opera Philadelphia were realized in a Hip-opera by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Bill T. Jones, a maker, came in for the finishing touches.
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Opera Philadelphia Launches a Festival
Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell Strike Again
By: - Sep 17th, 2017Opera Philadelphia is the 'it' opera company in the United States. No one has been more successful in developing new opera, honing talent and developing audiences. The festival displays many facets of their work.
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Shanghai Opera at the Metropolitan Museum
Farewell My Concubine
By: - Sep 15th, 2017The Metropolitan Museum uses it galleries and collections to present events. The Shanghai Opera's production of Farewell My Concubine, based on a 3rd century BC story, fit perfectly in the Chinese Courtyard modelled on the Ming Dynasty Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets.
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'Fresh Grass' Festival Day One At Mass MoCa
Be There Or Be Square
By: - Sep 15th, 2017The Annual 'Fresh Grass' Festival of Bluegrass Music opens its doors at 5:30 pm, today, at Mass MoCa in North Adams, Massachusetts. It will be a fun filled three day weekend.
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Japan Society Presents Osada Opera
East Meets West in Four Nights of Dream
By: - Sep 14th, 2017Moto Osada’s first opera, Four Nights of Dream, is, like the composer, a cross over between East and West. Osada composed the music and libretto. The flexibility that gave him has yielded a work of exquisite sensibility.
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Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte
Produced by Opera San Jose
By: - Sep 13th, 2017Opera San Jose opened its 34th season with a handsome production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s popular opera buffa, Cosi Fan Tutte. A winsome cast of strong singers with fine acting chops yields a highly entertaining outcome.
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Star Wars Comes to New York Philharmonic
Magical Combination, Fillm and Live Music
By: - Sep 12th, 2017The reason for doing live performances of the Star Wars films goes far beyond their place in popular culture. Each of these films features a magnificent score by John Williams, the Boston-based composer who rose to national prominence with his 1975 score for Jaws.
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New York City Opera Presents Spirited Spaghetti Western
Kristin Sampson Sings The Girl Minnie
By: - Sep 08th, 2017Puccini loved to compose and after the success of La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Tosca he was looking for a new story. He wrote that these three operas already bored him. He had also had trouble with the librettists with whom he’d worked on these operas. Luigi Illica, co-librettist, even suggested that he get another composer to collaborate with him. Instead Puccini found new librettists. La Fanciulla del West is the upshot.
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Quadrophenia at Tanglewood
Pete Townsend’s Rock Opera
By: - Sep 03rd, 2017In 2015 Pete Townsend’s long time musical collaborator Rachel Fuller scored the rock opera for orchestra. They were married in February. It was performed to mostly favorable but mixed reviews with the 90-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the 80 members of the London Oriana Choir. This version was performed last night at Tanglewood with Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops. Opera tenor Alfie Boe, Townsend, and British rocker Billy Idol performed the vocals.
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Diana Ross Brought Motown to Tanglewood
A Musical Retrospective from Supremes to Disco
By: - Aug 31st, 2017Making her first Tanglewood appearance in decades the 73-year-old diva, Miss Diana Ross (as she insists on being addressed), had them dancing in the aisles. It was an evening of greatest hits her own as well as covers. With no opening act it proved to be an early evening in Lenox ending before 9 PM.
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Sting at Tanglewood
On Tour for Release of 57th and 9th
By: - Aug 30th, 2017In every sense it was a cool evening in the Shed as British rock star, Sting, brought his tour in support of the album 57th and 9th to Tanglewood. They have been on the road since last February.
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Madama Butterfly Returns to Metropolitan Opera
A Great Love Story
By: - Aug 28th, 2017It's one of the greatest love stories of the operatic canon. It's a sharp commentary on American imperialism and the uncaring treatment of "natives" by white people. It's both. It's brilliant. It's Butterfly.
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Dell'Arte's Calisto and Cunning Vixen
Two Worlds Mix and Match in Opera
By: - Aug 26th, 2017Separated by almost three hundred the years, the full productions of Dell’Arte’s annual festival both looked at how two worlds mix and match in Calisto and The Cunning Vixen. Both productions were at once delightful and moving.
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