Music
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No Love Songs
Goodspeed’s Terris Theatre in Chester
By: - Oct 19th, 2024During the 80 minutes or so, we hear 11 songs. Most are duets between the two characters – Jessie and Lana. Jessie and Lana are fictionalized versions of Falconer and Wilde and their story. From the first meeting, when Lana goes to a bar and meets the older Jessie through a courtship of sorts, the birth of their son, and Jessie’s departure on a US tour with a band, where they are the backup/opening act.
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Henze's Prince of Homburg in Frankfurt
Important Composer Gets a Perfect Production
By: - Oct 22nd, 2024Contemporary composers scramble for relevant subject matter. Opera companies overlook repertoire which is excellent and seldom staged. As the 100th anniversary of Hans Werner Hene's birth approaches in 2026, his work, produced in timeless fashion, offers fresh opportunities. Frankfurt Oper shows the way.
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Tristan & Isolde
San Francisco Opera's Fine Production of Wagner
By: - Oct 25th, 2024When composing this opera, Richard Wagner was obsessed with love fanned by his infatuation for the married poet Mathilde Wesendonck and death driven by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The two existential forces are melded in the opera's thematic thrust "liebestod" (love-death), which is also the dominant leitmotif in the music. While the orchestral score soars, the dramatic action is grounded, yet it remains a pioneer of modern music.
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Frederick Douglass Comes to Hudson Hall
Anthony Knight Jr. Combines Negro Spirituals with Douglass' Text
By: - Oct 25th, 2024Hudson Hall in the Hudson Hall Opera House will present No Cowards in Our Band, an intertwined stage piece that combines nine spirituals with the reciting of original text by Frederick Douglass. In this drama, an aging and contemplative Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). considers the social, economic, and political ramifications of slavery and the Civil War and their impact on the future of the United States.
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Jersey Boys
ACT-CT in Ridgefield,
By: - Oct 29th, 2024The book – the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice is one of the things that sets it above many jukebox shows. Each of the original members of the group narrates a part of the story. This allows for different perspectives on the group’s history and personalities.
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The Matchbook Magic Flute
Mary Zimmerman's Adaptation of Mozart's Masterpiece
By: - Nov 03rd, 2024Aided by bird catcher Papageno, Prince Tamino sets out to rescue abducted Pamina, whom he has fallen in love with based only on a portrait. His quest faces the challenge of three trials and the threat of the Queen of the Night, mother of Pamina.
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Ghost Quartet
A Spooky Look into the Afterlife Through Song
By: - Nov 05th, 2024Oakland Theater Project presents Dave Malloy's 23 dramatic vignettes about love, loss, whiskey, and the afterlife built into a song cycle. Calling on all manner of musical idioms, but with the constant of a mournful cello, it engages both musically and dramatically.
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David Lang's Little Match Girl Returns
Annual Holiday Event at the Crypt
By: - Nov 16th, 2024David Lang's Pulitzer Prize-winning Passion opera The Little Match Girl will be performed in its original form with four artists both singing and playing instruments at the Crypt in New York.
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Berlin Philharmonic Rocks Carnegie Hall
Kirill Petrenko Brings Fresh Ear to Music
By: - Nov 20th, 2024The Berlin Philharmonic completed a three-day visit to Carnegie Hall in New York. The world’s greatest orchestra and its greatest conductor, Kirill Petrenko, did not disappoint. The programming combined an anniversary (the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner), with fresh visits to favorites like Anton Dvorak’s 7th Symphony and a Violin Concerto by the film composer Erich Korngold.
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Hamilton Hip-Hops on Broadway
Game Changing Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015Hamilton, the hip-hop opera by Lin-Manuel Miranda is the most refreshing, titubating, brilliant and exciting musical to grace Broadway in decades. It follows his earlier, award winning "In the Heights." Now in his mid thirties Miranda is an immense talent to be reckoned with for years to come. He is a force for change in American culture. This hit show is sure to run for years on Broadway followed by a national tour and tons of regional productions. Hamilton is the greatest invention since sliced bread.
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The Arts in Cuba
Music for Breakfast and Studio Visits
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015While in Cienfuegos, we had some interesting musical entertainment. After walking around the square, we climbed several flights of stairs to hear a special concert by the Choir of Cienfuegos, a chorus of about 24 local men and women, who performed a concert of Cuban and international songs and show tunes. One of them, incongruously, was the American folk song, “Shenandoah.”
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Tanglewood 2016
Tickets on Sale January 24
By: - Nov 20th, 2015Highlights of the 2016 Tanglewood season include BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leading Boston Symphony Orchestra in Acts 1 & 2 of Verdi’s Aida with Kristine Opolais in the title role (8/20); Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (7/29); Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (7/30); and music from Prokofiev’s Romeo And Juliet (8/21), plus music of Berlioz, Corigliano, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, and Tsontakis, as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra’s annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert (7/31), an All-Brahms Program pairing the Symphony No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Paul Lewis as soloist.
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Susan Hall
Phantoms of the Opera
By: - Sep 07th, 2015During a holiday visit to New York critic Susan Hall treated me to nose bleed seats at the Met for Aida.
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La Jolla Playhouse Goes Gonzo
By: - Sep 28th, 2023The world premiere of The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, is presented by the La Jolla Playhouse. Fifteen years in the making, the musical envisions Hunter’s life from childhood to his tragic death. The book is by Joe Iconis and Gregory S. Moss, music and lyrics by Iconis, and choreography by Jon Rua.
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Madama Butterfly for Boston Lyric Opera
Eradicating Yellowface Tradition
By: - Jun 26th, 2023Chinese American artist, advocate and director Phil Chan, whose book Final Bow for Yellowface altered the conversation about Asian representation on ballet stages around the country, turns his attention to opera this September, when he directs a new, Asian American take on "Madama Butterfly" for Boston Lyric Opera (BLO).
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Young Concert Artists Announces Winners
Annual Competition Winners Live Streaming
By: - Nov 14th, 2022Four First Prize Winners have been announced following the Finals of the 2022 Young Concert Artists International Auditions:
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Hubbard Hall Presents Còig
Returns from Nova Scotia
By: - Nov 11th, 2022“We all come from sort of a traditional background, but then we have different influences that we’re interested in,” explains fiddler and singer Rachel Davis. “Chrissy (Crowley, fiddler) likes to dive into a lot of world music, Darren (mandolin, guitar, banjo, etc.) comes from a kind of Irish theme from playing around a lot. More of the traditional Cape Breton stuff is really what I love, plus all the folk songs, so it’s an interesting mix.”
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Gordon Getty Premiers a New Opera in New York
New York City Opera and Festival Napa Valley Co-Present
By: - Mar 03rd, 2022The opera by Gordon Getty, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, had its New York premiere as an opera reimagined for film. Co-presented by New York City Opera (NYCO) and Festival Napa Valley, Getty’s fourth opera is based on the popular 1934 novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips and other stories by James Hilton.
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Al Perry Was a Cool Head at WBCN
As Station Manager He Kept the Lid On
By: - Nov 23rd, 2021During the wild and crazy days of WBCN, which is now celebrated with a movie and book, Al Perry functioned as the adult in the room. As station manager he kept the lid on. Respected and loved by those who knew and worked with him Al passed on November 6.
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Cuban Pianist and Composer Harold López-Nussa
New England and NY Tour Dates
By: - Oct 25th, 2021On his vibrant and spirited third recording for Mack Avenue Records, Havana-based pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa sets out to capture that stirring sensation with an exhilarating marriage of jazz and Cuban pop music. On a global tour there are dates for Florence (near Northampton), Boston and NY.
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Sir Simon Rattle in Ademek World Premiere
Mezzo Magdalena Kožená Searches for the Divine
By: - Mar 11th, 2021Sir Simon Rattle has taken out German citizenship to be closer to his children. It is also said he is exiting Britain and the cultural consequences of Brexit. Rattle will succeed Mariss Jansons as the chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerische Rundfunks. Recently he conducted the orchestra in a world premiere of Ondrej Adámek's "Where Are You?"
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Jazz Pianist Chick Corea at 79
From Chelsea to the Berkshires
By: - Feb 12th, 2021The jazz pianist, Chick Corea, has died at 79 not long after the diagnosis of a rare cancer. His impact and influence was enormous with a career that included almost 90 albums for which he was awarded 23 Grammys as well as three Latin Grammys. He grew up in Chelsea a blue collar Boston neighborhood. We last heard him in the Berkshires at Tanglewood in 2016.
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Virtual Works & Process from the Guggenheim
Social Distancing Dance and Music
By: - Jun 14th, 2020Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions financially supports artists and nurtures their creative process during these challenging times. Works & Process at the Guggenheim is granting over $150,000 for artists to create new works while observing social distancing. New works will be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (@worksandprocess) every Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm.
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Tanglewood Cancelled
Special Programming This Summer
By: - May 15th, 2020Tanglewood is cancelled for live performances but will continue on line.
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Classical Music for Fun
Tom and Jerry and a Roller Coaster
By: - May 10th, 2020If you need a bit of levity, try opening the music below!
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