Music
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Qian Yi Transforming in Paradise Interrupted
Lincoln Center Festival Opens
By: - Jul 14th, 2016Composer Huang Ruo talks about dimensionalism. You don't have to understand what the term means to get totally caught up in new dimensions in his opera Paradise Interrupted which opens the Lincoln Center Festival. Ruo's music, and Jennifer Ma's libretto based on the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden are enmeshed in The Peony Pavilion, a truncated version of the 16th century Chinese Opera. The original lasted 22 hours and has been performed by Qian Yi, a force of nature who weaves the song of the central character in the new opera.
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Seth MacFarlane Man Of All Seasons
Enjoying the Humor
By: - Jul 13th, 2016Seth MacFarlane is known for his several tv projects, including the 14th year of the syndicated program, Funny Guy, as well as his skill in writing the movie, 'Ted.' What we didn't know was that he is a professionally trained singer, who could have had a second career if the first didn't work out.
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Tanglewood Opens 2016 Season
Jacques Lacombe Conducts with Soloist Joshua Bell
By: - Jul 09th, 2016After three weeks of pop concerts drawing an audience of some 100,000 opening night of official Tanglewood 2016 seemed more like mid season.
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James Taylor at Tanglewood
His 25th Appearance.
By: - Jul 06th, 2016Since 1974, James Taylor, known as 'JT' performed some 25 times at Tanglewood. He is obviously the most revered popular artist performer to grace the grounds of this historic music center.
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Mavis Staples Rocked While Dylan Rolled
Unique Tanglewood Appearance
By: - Jul 05th, 2016Bob Dylan brought his current act, the 'Never Ending Tour' to Tanglewood. His opening act was Mavis Staples, formally one of the Staples Singers.
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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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Garrison Keillor's Big Night
Final Tanglewood Event and Broadcast
By: - Jun 30th, 2016After 17 seasons at Tanglewood, Garrison Keillor retires from 'Prairie Home Companion.'
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New York City Opera's Boffo Return
Catán's Florencia Brilliantly Produced
By: - Jun 27th, 2016Florencia en el Amazonas is exactly the kind of opera and production New York City Opera should mount. Now producing in a suitably-sized house, the revived opera company has mounted a wonderfully satisfying opera.
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Bounce, the Basketball Opera
Live Basketball, Live Singers, Infectious Drama
By: - Jun 26th, 2016Artists committed to the continuing attraction of opera as a form that draws an audience are experimenting. A workshop of Bounce, an opera conceived by Grete Holby and her Ardea Arts in conjunction with the University of Kentucky, is performed in a park in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. With dribbles as drumming and heros like Flight and Future, the future of opera itself is secured.
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Chris Botti at Tanglewood
Three Ring Circus
By: - Jun 25th, 2016When he plays it straight Chris Botti is among the elite trumpet players of his generation. There is no question of his musicianship. But at times his performance at Tanglewood was way to Vegas. It seemed more Wayne Newton than Miles Davis. This jarred with hearing a superb rhythm section which was cut loose only occasionally.
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Brian Wilson Plays 'Pet Sounds'
50 Years After Its Release
By: - Jun 20th, 2016Fifty years after the release of 'Pet Sounds', Brian Wilson and his band played the album in its entirety. The music sizzled during a scorching afternoon at Tanglewood.
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Dollywood Comes to Tanglewood
Dolly Parton Debuts at Tanglewood
By: - Jun 19th, 2016Dolly Parton brought her act to Koussevitzky Hall on June 17th. And what an act it was.
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Brian Wilson plays Pet Sounds at Tanglewood on Sunday, June 19th
The 50th Anniversary
By: - Jun 15th, 2016Brian Wilson will perform for the first time at Koussevitzky Hall on the grounds of Tanglewood on Sunday, June 19th at 2:30pm
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What's Next for Hamilton Winners
From Broadway Sensation to Years on the Road
By: - Jun 14th, 2016At about $150 each my pal and BFA contributor, Jack Lyons, managed to get a few "cheap seats" for the Broadway smash Hamilton. We even got to go back stage and chat with now Tony winner Leslie Odom, Jr. Back in November I asked him "what's next." It was a bit premature but all of the original contracts expire this summer. Its creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has already announced plans to leave. The show will continue indefinitly on Broadway while several touring companies are launched.
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Tanglewood Opens With Dolly Parton
Jolene in the Berkshires on June 17
By: - Jun 11th, 2016Legendary country star, Dolly Parton, makes her Tanglewood debut on June 17th at 7pm in the Koussevitzky Music Shed.
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Former WBCN DJ Mark Parenteau at 66
Last Years Marred by Scandal and Illness
By: - Jun 09th, 2016During a golden age when WBCN was the Rock of Boston Mark Perenteau was a larger than life presence. A mega watt presence was the catalyst for both fame and fortune as well as scandal and demise. He died from complications following surgery at 66.
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Hershey Felder Gives Us Irving Berlin
Felder a Masterful Man for All Seasons
By: - Jun 08th, 2016Hershey Felder has made a career of creating the great musicians of the past three centuries. His Irving Berlin is touching, witty and very American.
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Helmut Lachenmann's The Little Match Girl
Cutting Edge Opera at Spoleto Festival in Charleston
By: - Jun 07th, 2016Cramped into nose bleed seats it was excruciating to endure the experimental opera The Little Match Girl by Helmut Lachenmann. It was a presentation of the prestigious annual Spoleto Festival USA which is currently enjoying its 40th season in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Alan Gilbert Untempered at the Met Museum
Pekka Kuusisto and Alan Gilbert Groove on Ligeti
By: - Jun 05th, 2016Pekka Kuusisto took on the challenging Ligeti violin concerto with gusto, humor, and a quiet modesty. This was an unusual, and unusually effective combination of qualities, especially in view of the pick he took to the violin to make it into a guitar, and his beautiful whistling. David Fulmer conducted like a poet of music. John Zorn in the audience appreciated the performance of his work by the Mivos Quartet. It was another brilliant program put on by Alan Gilbert, who credits cellist Jay Chambers with suggesting Ligeti and his influence.
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Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest
Opera at Lincoln Center's Great Performers
By: - Jun 04th, 2016It's observed that great operas are often based on weak plays. Not so the new opera by Gerald Barry. While Barry cut about two-thirds of Oscar Wilde's perfect play, the spirit remains. The result is more like composers taking up Beaumarchais than Johm Luther Long..
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Annual Piccolo Spoleto Festival
Fever Was Red Hot in Charleston
By: - Jun 03rd, 2016Piccolo Spoleto Festival is officially the outreach arm of Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. This year marks the fortieth anniversary of Spoleto Festival USA, and thirty-eighth year of Piccolo Spoleto.
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Yannick Nézet-Séguin Appointed by Met Opera
Questions Remain about Gelb's Control
By: - Jun 02nd, 2016Nézet-Séguin, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra where he will continue, assumes the role at the Met Opera in the 2020-21 season. He is a wonderful conductor of opera. What remains to be seen is Peter Gelb's role as "artistic director" of the opera company. Many first-rate conductors have not accepted the role because Gelb has insisted on control. The Board may not allow Gelb to continue to assert himself in artistic matters.
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Marsalis Marches and Gilbert Honors with Brahms
A Dirge for Kurt Mazur
By: - May 31st, 2016The annual New York Philharmonic concert at St. John the Divine in New York was started a quarter century ago just as Kurt Mazur took the helm of the orchestra. The conductor was honored today in a wonderful New Orleans Funeral March led down the long aisle of the Cathedral by Wynton Marsalis and also a performance of Brahms' Second Symphony led by Alan Gilbert.
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Robertson Leads Majestic NYPHil
Alan Baer, Tuba, Superb in John Wiliams
By: - May 29th, 2016Music of all genres and spirits is overflowing the halls of David Geffen Hall and embracing the citizens of New York. Gustav Holst's The Planets brought amateur astronomers to Lincoln Center's Plaza for a viewing of Jupiter and its moons after we had heard the composer's interpretation. Wow!
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The Met Orchestra at Carnegie
Christine Goerke Is the Go-To Soprano
By: - May 26th, 2016James Levine is gloriously winding down his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera. The man who brought us the full Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera may have aged, but he is blossoming still and the stage of Carnegie Hall is the perfect venue to display his monumental talents.
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