Music
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Babel from the White Lights Festival
Cacaphony of Words, Dance and Music
By: - Oct 28th, 2016The impact of the Tower of Babel is immediately felt in the silence of the Rose Theater. Watching steel frames in the shapes of cubes and rectangles built up and toppled on stage, seeing people trapped by them and also liberated graphically, drives home our divided world and the need for human unification. These structures both divide and unite. There is hope.
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Mark Morris Dance at Mostly Mozart
Morris Paints Notes in Dance
By: - Aug 27th, 2016Mark Morris is billed as a musician, and has, in fact, been music director of the Ojai Festival. He is clearly a musicians’ musician and knows as much about music as most professionals. His main gig is choreography. He insists on using live ‘bands,’ in this case, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra. Morris channels Mozart's notes in surprising and apt movements.
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New York Theatre Workshop's Hadestown
To Hell and Highwater with Anaïs Mitchell
By: - Jul 02nd, 2016A brilliant new take on the Orpheus myth by Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice was the basis of the first opera written in 1600. It has intrigued artists ever since, from Monteverdi to Christoph Willibald Gluck to Jacques Offenbach. Dramatists too have found the tale impossible to resist, Thomas Pynchon, Salmon Rushie and Tennessee William among them. This may be the first time the audience sits in purgatory.
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Elektra is Galvanic
Murder and Revenge without Intermission at the MET
By: - Apr 23rd, 2016A remarkable non-stop performance by Nina Stemme – who never leaves the stage in this 110-minute production – sets the tone for a magnificent interpretation of Strauss’ devastating opera.
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Alexandre Tharaud Performs Bach
A Crypt Session at the Church of the Intercession
By: - Apr 05th, 2016Alexandre Tharaud is more than a musician's musician. His heart-rending performance of the Bach Goldberg variations put him at the same pinnacle of pianists as the Bach work is for music afficiandos. In a concert series performed in an intimate acoustic marvel, the crypt of the Church of the Intercession in upper Manhattan, Tharaud delivered a mesmerizing take on this crown jewel of compositions.
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Paul Appleby, the Natural, at Carnegie
A Master of Language and Meaning
By: - Mar 17th, 2016Paul Appleby has rocketed to the top of the music world. This modest, charming man has a voice for the ages and communicates in many languages with an easy skill. At Zankel Hall in New York he sang about the infinite varieties of love as expressed by Schumann, Wolf, Berlioz and Villa Lobos. Matthew Aucoin's Merrill Songs were premiered. This irresistible master tenor speaks to the heart.
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Tanglewood Update, new popular artists added to venue
June will be rocking at Tanglewood.
By: - Mar 01st, 2016Tanglewood is appealing to all age categories with the addition of popular artists, Earth, Wind & Fire, Jackson Browne, Train and the B52's.
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Boston Symphony Shakespeare Festival
Three Concert Program Features Vocal Music, New Works
By: - Feb 17th, 2016Acknowledging the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the BSO programmed music by some of the greats based on his works. Music director Andris Nelsons brought his lively intelligence to the enterprise, in which a new work based on Ophelia's words by the Dane Hans Abrahamsen was the stand-out hit.
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The Cleveland Orchestra Graces Carnegie Hall
Mitsuko Uchida Plays and Leads
By: - Feb 15th, 2016Mitsuko Uchida plays and conducts Mozart with the Cleveland Symphony. Will she continue in a new career as a conductor? In Munich, the Bayerische State Opera is often conducted by Oksana Lyniv. Gemma New is at the New Jersey Symphony, and Mirga Gražinyt-Tyla is the new music director of the Birmingham Symphony. Women are coming to the podium.
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Son House
Prechin the Blues
By: - Feb 12th, 2016A man of God in his twenties Delta man Son House succumbed to the Devil's music. During the Folk Revival I saw him perform at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival.
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What's New at the Metropolitan Opera
Sondra Radvanovky Crowned Queen of Opera
By: - Feb 08th, 2016It seems just yesterday that Placido Domingo marched into General Manager Peter Gelb’s office and told him that he must keep the great soprano Sondra Radvanovsky on the Metropolitan Opera roster. Gelb could not say no. And so we have this season Donizetti’s Queens with Radvanovsky singing Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Elizabeth.
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Orpheus at Carnegie Hall
Pianist Buniatishvili Makes Mozart an Erotic Experience
By: - Jan 31st, 2016Orpheus’ performers clearly come to an agreement before they come onto stage, leaderless. This form gives the music a chance to implode and explode in the hands of gifted individuals coming together.
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Jaap Van Zweden New Music Director of the NY Phil
An Electrifying Conductor Arrives
By: - Jan 27th, 2016On January 27, 2016, New York Philharmonic Chairman Oscar S. Schafer and President Matthew VanBesien announced that conductor Jaap van Zweden will become the Orchestra’s next Music Director, beginning in 2018–19. It will be the orchestra’s 177th season. Mr. van Zweden will serve as Music Director Designate in the 2017–18 season.
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Mark Goldenberg and Eric Skye's Artifact
New CD of Organic Music
By: - Jan 24th, 2016Artifact is one of those recordings that warrants repeated listening. Each time I listen to the CD, there is something new to marvel at, especially the organic, full and clean masterful guitar tones. Add the masterful song writing with actual melodies that stick out in each song and you have an album that stands out and sticks in one's brain.
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Stephanie Blythe: Sing America!
Carnegie Hall Hosts Amateur Singers Braving a Blizzard
By: - Jan 24th, 2016The human voice is an instrument we all carry. Fewer than five percent of people are tone deaf and some experts consider the condition correctable. We all can experience the joy of singing together. Live singing is like nothing else under the sun. Stephanie Blythe makes the case with joy and conviction at a Carnegie Hall concert.
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Tanglewood 2016 An Overview
Tickets go on sale on January 24th
By: - Jan 23rd, 2016Tickets for the 2016 Tanglewood go on sale Sunday, January 24th. A diverse schedule of entertainers for the June 19th-September 1st season includes the return of Tanglewood conductor Seiji Ozawa, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and local favorite,James Taylor.
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Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues
Master Class at the Weill Recital Hall
By: - Jan 23rd, 2016Marilyn Horne is a wonderful, detailed teacher and it is a privilege to be in her presence. Clearly the singers in her master class were able to incorporate her apt suggestions. Is revelation the reason audiences respond to a great master class? With Horne, the answer is yes.
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Hamilton on PBS
Making of a Musical Masterpiece
By: - Jan 18th, 2016HAMILTON’S AMERICA is produced by Academy Award® and Emmy®-Winning producers RadicalMedia (What Happened Miss Simone?, Keith Richards: Under The Influence, In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams for PBS). The documentary combines interviews with experts and prominent personalities, new footage of the production in New York, and cast-led expeditions to DC, Philadelphia and New York.
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Welser-Möst Conducts Cleveland Orchestra
Pain and Joy at Carnegie Hall
By: - Jan 18th, 2016The Cleveland Orchestra shone in the new and the recent as they gave bells and chimes to Ophelia's descent to madness and drummed up Shostakovich's fury at Stalin's regime.
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Poppea is Crowned in Germany
Delightful Opera as Monteverdi is Staged
By: - Jan 15th, 2016How do smaller houses solve budget issues? Imaginatively in Pforzheim. The curtain which at first appears to be a rich taffeta, drawn back with ropes, decorated with ribbons and bows is painted on a moveable backdrop. Regal is presented with non-imperial efficiency. The costumes, when they are worn, are delightful. Arnalta looks a bit like a nun in stark black in white, in contrast to the brilliant orange feathers of Ottavia. When she ascends with her mistress at the opera’s end, she strips and dresses as the lady-in-waiting of the Empress. This strip is a fun and amusing touch.
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Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival
2016 Headliners Smokey Robinson and Chick Corea
By: - Jan 12th, 2016The 39th annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, one of the world’s longest-running major jazz events, will be held on Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). This year’s festival will feature headliner Smokey Robinson; Chick Corea Trilogy; Joey Alexander; Steps Ahead Reunion; Pieces of a Dream; Pat Martino Organ Trio plus Horns; and Christian Scott, among many others.
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Die Fledermaus at the Bavarian State Opera
Frothy, Beautiful Strauss in High Spirits
By: - Jan 11th, 2016Opera is so engaging when it is done with perfect casting, conducting, and singing. The opera in Munich is sold out every night. No audience problems when the productions are first-rate. It is hard to believe that Strauss resisted opera until his wife and a Viennese theatre director conspired to set some of his music as songs. Strauss himself was bowled over. Fledermaus is his third operetta. Fledermaus tempts the listener with sweet melody, bouncy rhythms, and thrilling scoring. The music hints at the mistaken identity, gala ball, and humorous plot twists that are to come.
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Bowie's Lazarus: Departing This World with Music
A Final Work by David Bowie and Edna Walsh
By: - Jan 11th, 2016The review of the musical "Lazarus" by David Bowie and Edna Walsh, directed by Ivo van Hove was in the works long before the announcement of Bowie's passing. The author, critic Edward Rubin, has opted to treat this as a note added to the review rather than lead as an obituary. The point is to cover as fresh and current the work of a great genius and unique artist of his generation. Tickets to the off Broadway production sold out almost immediately.
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Jazz Singers at Library of Congress
Exhibition on View in D.C.
By: - Jan 07th, 2016An exhibition opening next month at the Library of Congress will offer perspectives on the art of vocal jazz, featuring singers and song stylists from the 1920s to the present. "Jazz Singers" will open on Thursday, Feb. 11, in the Performing Arts Reading Room Foyer on the first level of the Library’s James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.
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2015 in the Arts
Hiphopera, Tap, Berkshires and Beyond
By: - Jan 02nd, 2016In some of the most exciting and insightful productions and performances of the year there was a notable cross pollination and invention as vernacular street cultures and indigenous art forms conflated into high art. Classic works were not just revived but reinvented from the insight out. The best works of 2016 raised the bar through risk taking and challenging audiences. These rare experiences tend to make the majority of what we experience ordinary and enervating. In an era signified by ubiquitous standing ovations what is truly worthy of special recognition?
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