Music
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Breaking Through at Pasadena Playhouse
World Premiere Musical
By: - Nov 06th, 2015The world premiere of “Breaking Through”, a musical with a book by Kirsten Guenther and music and lyrics by Cliff Downs and Katie Kahanovitz, is now on stage at The Pasadena Playhouse under the direction of Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps.
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Christine Brewer and Paul Jacobs at Alice Tully Hall
Lusty Prayers Presented by the White Light Festival
By: - Nov 02nd, 2015Paul Jacobs, head of the organ department at the Juilliard School, and a magnificent performer invited Christine Brewer, the huge-voiced soprano of great delicacy, to join him in concert. Their alliance is for the ages.
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William Christie Conducts at Lincoln Center
Handel's Theodora is Heavenly in White Light Festival
By: - Nov 01st, 2015William Christie's Les Arts Forissants performances in New York are eagerly anticipated. Theodora, a late oratorio of Handel, delivered in spades. Listeners got the music, the story, the orchestra and chorus and magnificent individual singers.
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Van Zweden at New York Philharmonic
Inon Barnatan Joins the Magic-Making
By: - Oct 30th, 2015While listeners do not always agree with Jaap van Zewden's take on the classics, everyone is thrilled to listen. Taking the music in long arcs, permitting interpretation by individual artists in the orchestra and accompanying soloists, van Zweden is a passionate and generous music-maker. The New York Philharmonic was alive with the sound of music.
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Muddy Waters
Got His Mojo Working
By: - Oct 28th, 2015Young British rockers Stones, Yardbirds, Clapton, Beck lapped up Muddy's licks on those iconic Chess Records. Copped his tunes some morphed from Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues. Always a thrill when he came to town and held court.
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Gil Shaham and David Michalek Translate Bach
Extraordinary Music and Visuals at Zankel Hall
By: - Oct 26th, 2015Having attended William Kentridge’s illustration of Schubert’s Winterriese cycle sung by Mathias Goerne, the first image projected for the video accompaniment of Solos for Violin by Bach came as a shock. A small baby, lying on his back, seems to be listening to the Bach, as Gil Shaham begins to play the first Sonata. A revelation followed.
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The BSO Plays Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff
Ice Cracks and Violins Dance at Carnegie Hall
By: - Oct 24th, 2015For the third evening of their triptych at Carnegie Hall, conductor Andris Nelsons presented the Russians at their bipolar best: dark battles and wild dances. Nelsons introduced himself at Tanglewood two years ago with a performance of the Symphonic Dances. He and the Boston Symphony exceeded themselves at Carnegie.
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Goerke as Elektra at Carnegie Hall
Nelsons Conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
By: - Oct 21st, 2015In 2014 Nelsons conducted Strauss' Salome at Carnegie. What a reprise Elektra is. Experience at Bayreuth may give the Maestro the ability to bring out the Wagner in Strauss, and then go far beyond to the condensed emotional pitch of Strauss and to his sheer beauty. Christine Goerke, fresh from her triumph in Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, gave a performance for the ages.
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Christine Goerke as Elektra at the BSO
Boston Audience Bonkers Over Performance
By: - Oct 20th, 2015Strauss's early operatic masterpiece follows its Greek model closely to reveal the neurosis at the heart of modern life. Andris Nelsons led a white-hot BSO performance of a lurid, fin-de-siecle masterpiece. The cast, led by Christine Goerke, Jane Henschel and Gun-Brit Barkmin, was stellar.
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Mark Padmore, Tenor and Kristian Bezuidenhout
White Light Festival Presents An Evanescent, Everlasting Schubert
By: - Oct 18th, 2015Lincoln Center's innovative White Light Festival offered a delicious treat in their presentation of the Winterreise Song Cycle. Tenor Mark Padmore and Kristian Bezuidenhout on a fortepiano led us through a journey as the protagonist of the Muller poems trudges through his own. The fortepiano was used by Schubert and has a light touch, and a softer sound, with fewer overtones than a piano forte. For this performance, the singer and pianist were very much a partnership of equals.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc with Live Music
Donald Greig Devises a Score Presented at the Miller Theatre
By: - Oct 17th, 2015Silent films of the 1920s began when the theatre lights dimmed and a conductor marched down the aisle He raised his baton, the curtains opened. On flashed the film accompanied by the orchestra. At the Miller Theatre, five singers entered the stage and as the film started, they sang.
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No Beast So Fierce Adapts Richard III
Chicago's Oracle Productions
By: - Oct 14th, 2015The number of characters played by the cast of eight has by necessity been reduced to 14 from the 35 to 40 in Shakespeare's version. Cramming all of Richard III into 90 minutes means eliminating some nuances and character motivations.
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Nezet Seguin, Musician of the Year, Conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra
Lofting a Trifecta at Carnegie Hall
By: - Oct 14th, 2015The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin is well served by Carnegie Hall. Carnegie announced that this concert would be recorded and later available worldwide. Watch for it. An extraordinary evening of music-making was offered. It would be disingenuous not to mention succession at the Metropolitan Opera. When James Levine cancelled conducting an important production of one of 'his' operas, Nézet-Séguin's name was the first to emerge as the new music director.
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BLO's "La Boheme" Reset in '68 Paris
Period Change Does Not Diminish an Iconic Opera
By: - Oct 09th, 2015We always love bohemians - or at least we used to - but most of us wouldn't want to live the lives of poverty and disease they endured for our entire lives. The classic story of the poet Rodolfo and the doomed seamstress Mimi has jerked tears from audiences since its premiere in 1896. The BLO's production hit all the necessary points without reaching the highest peaks.
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Hibla Gerzmava Seduces at Carnegie Hall
The Soprano from Abkhazia
By: - Oct 09th, 2015Hibla Gerzmava floats notes as though they made an effortless journey from her heart into the surrounding Hall in which she performs. Glamorous and a consummate actress, all the focus is on the gorgeous music that she lofts. It was a special evening at Carnegie Hall in which we got a taste of her perfection as Desdemona in Otello.
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Dizzy
Grroving High with a Bahai
By: - Oct 08th, 2015I named by parakeet Dizzy Gillespie. Hanging with iconic hipster in a cruise of Boston Harbor with arts elder Elma Lewis.
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Laurie Anderson's Habeas Corpus
Project with Mohammed El Gharani in New York
By: - Oct 05th, 2015As globalization brings us closer together, frequent reminders of the horrors we perpetrate on each other are invaluable. A young man who was 14 when he was arrested, tortured and locked up in Guantanamo Bay reminds us that no one is exempt. Laurie Anderson offers an ineffably moving picture in collaboration with Saudi-born Mohammed El Gharani. The installation was recently on view at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.
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In Your Arms at Old Globe
World Premiere of Musical in San Diego
By: - Oct 03rd, 2015“In Your Arms” is the brain-child of brilliant choreographer/director Christopher Gattelli and Broadway producer Jennifer Manocherian. It is having its world premiere at Old Globe in San Diego.
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Tennessee Williams Cabaret
Armando Arrocha and Colette Simple
By: - Sep 30th, 2015During the recent Provinctetown Tennessee Williams Festival we attended two performances of cabaret, based on works of Williams at the Crown and Anchor. The two experiences comprised a study in contrast with the best and worst of the tenth annual festival.
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Metropolitan Opera Season Opens
Aleksandrs Antonenko a Brilliant Otello
By: - Sep 21st, 2015Otello is one of the greatest operas of Giuseppe Verdi. In the 2011 season, Riccardo Muti mounted a concert performance which was almost universally heralded as the event of the season. Singing the title role under the Maestro was Aleksandrs Antonenko, who delivered a performance of technical perfection and rich emotion. Antonenko has not forgotten the lessons he learned from Muti, and has, in fact, built on them. His performance at the Metropolitan Opera is wrenching.
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Andy, the Popera by Heath Allen and Dan Visconti
Opera Philadelphia and The Bearded Ladies Collaborate
By: - Sep 19th, 2015Why not create opera in a warehouse like Andy Warhol's Factory? Take an over-the-top cast of characters familiar to opera goers, mash up classic and pop music, and fly? Why not? That's just what Opera Philadelphia and an intriguing cabaret group The Bearded Ladies have done. It is a wonderful opera.
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Let's Have Fun with the YPhil
A Concert for Peace at Skirball
By: - Sep 18th, 2015The International Youth Philharmonic Orchestra was founded to celebrate the universality of music. They note: Every person on the planet is a note in a greater symphony, telling his or her story of joy, sadness or peace. Notes may link together, turning into melodies and songs that are powerful and strong. The YPhil is a symbol of the voice of the world fraternity.
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Fresh Grass Festival 2015
September 18-20 at MASS MoCA
By: - Sep 14th, 2015Non-stop bluegrass related music will take over North Adams Massachusetts this upcoming weekend. The Fresh Grass 2015 version invades the Berkshires for what should be a wonderful music oriented weekend.
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Old Blue Eyes
Singer for the Dons
By: - Sep 11th, 2015By the time Sinatra played the Music Hall in Boston there wasn't much left of The Voice. But he had the chops to sell a song long after the pipes had rusted. Up close and personal I had choice seats in a special section of New England mafia royalty.
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Woodstock
Back Stage Perks
By: - Sep 08th, 2015Ditching the car with Joey and Amber we hiked to Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York. There were a half million sitting through mud and rain at Woodstock. The fences came down but I had press credentials. We made our way back stage.
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