Susan Hall
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Cendrillon with Joyce DiDonato Front Page
End of the Season Treat at the Metropolitan Opera
By: - Apr 22nd, 2018Cendrillon is Massenet's fourteenth opera, written at the apex of his popularity as the last acknowledged master of the French romantic style. As conducted here by Bertrand de Billy, its score has the weight of fairy cake, high in sugary melodies and whipped by conductor Bertrand de Billy into an airy soufflé of sound. It's hard to believe it, but this run marked the Metropolitan Opera debut for an enchanting work.
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Julia Bullock Rocks at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Singing Schubert and Nina Simone
By: - Apr 21st, 2018Julia Bullock swept onto the stage in a long green dress whose full skirt was filled with white flowers reminiscent of the gardenias Billie Holiday always wore in her hair. After Schubert, Samuel Barber and Gabriel Faure, we dug into Holiday, Alberta Hunter and Nina Simone with the singer.
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Manhattan School of Music's Snow Maiden Front Page
An Opera Comes Out of the Deep Freeze
By: - Apr 21st, 2018Nikolai Rimksy-Korsakov is one of the most important opera composers of 19th century Russia. A member of the "Mighty Handful", he revised works by Mussorgsky, taught Stravinsky and was a master of orchestration and melody. However, outside of a few concert works, the bulk of his music, most notably a long catalogue of operas, receives little attention. This made it all the more interesting that the Manhattan School of Music's Senior Opera Theater decided to mount The Snow Maiden, an enchanting fairy tale opera and the composer's personal favorite.
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Music of Weimar Presented by Aspect Front Page
Bach, Mendelssohn and Liszt
By: - Apr 20th, 2018Aspect presents music in a new concert format, as engaging as it is thought-provoking. In a program at the Italian Academy at Columbia University, Stephen Johnson, a BBC broadcaster, spoke about Weimar, Germany as a cradle of musical talent. Listening to Bach, Mendelssohn and Liszt, there is no question about the talent. Each of these composers had formative experiences in Weimar.
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New York City Opera's Love of Three Kings Front Page
Montemezzi's Potboiler at the Rose Theater
By: - Apr 15th, 2018The new New York City Opera extends our horizons. Italo Montemezzi's highly successful Love of Three Kings is presented in its noir depth at the Rose Theater of Lincoln Center.
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YoYo Ma Joins BSO at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Strauss Concludes New York Visit
By: - Apr 15th, 2018The Boston Symphony Orchestra played its third and final Carnegie Hall concert on Friday night. This venerable orchestra has found its passion and spark again under the baton of music director Andris Nelsons. As an ensemble, it is moving forward in a bold and forthright manner. And yet, some of its past tendencies appeared in this concert, resulting in a curious evening of variable quality.
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King Lear Strips at BAM Front Page
Crowning Performance by Antony Sher
By: - Apr 15th, 2018In Antony Sher's take on the role, Lear divests himself of authority as well as land. Faced now with relationships which reveal the true characters of not only his daughters, but his friends, his allies and a wise, poetic fool he meets along the way, Lear is stripped to his essence.
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Boston Symphony Brings Tristan to Carnegie Hall Front Page
Nelsons Conducts Act II
By: - Apr 13th, 2018It might be his good looks. It might be his magnetic stage presence. It might be his voice. Or it might be his rash of cancellations at the Metropolitan Opera in the last few seasons. Either way, tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who hasn't sung Wagner on a New York stage since 2013, has a fan following. They were out in force at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night to hear him sing
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Andris Nelsons and BSO at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Piano
By: - Apr 12th, 2018The Boston Symphony Orchestra is flourishing under the leadership of music director Andris Nelsons. Ensemble and music director arrived at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night for the first of three concerts this week, fulfilling their yearly obligation to visit that historic stage and offering New Yorkers a sample of the interesting new directions pursued by this brave and ambitious conductor.
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American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Jazz Rhythms and Dreams
By: - Apr 07th, 2018One of the founders of the American Composer’s Orchestra played jazz piano in nightclubs after he left his day job on Wall Street. The ACO performed five works, three of which came from composers who work in the jazz idiom. This was a thoroughly enjoyable program of new work.
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Esa-Pekka Salonen Conducts the NY Philharmonic Front Page
New Work and Old Powerfully Performed
By: - Apr 07th, 2018The New York Philharmonic is back on its home stage of David Geffen Hall, after an extensive tour that saw the orchestra visit multiple Asian countries in March. This week's program, seen Thursday night features a rare podium appearance from composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the premiere of a new work Metacosmos by the young composer and Kravis Prize recipient Anna Thorvaldsdottir.
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Mozart in the Jungle Cancelled Front Page
Amazon Bows Out of the Classical Music Series
By: - Apr 07th, 2018The popular and award-winning series Mozart in the Jungle has played its last concert. Today, Amazon.com announced that the series, a dramatic sitcom set in New York City that chronicled the backbiting, infighting and backstabbing of the classical music business, will not be renewed for a fifth season.
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Twist's Symphonie Fantastique at HERE Front Page
O'Riley's Liszt and Anniversaries Galore
By: - Apr 06th, 2018It's Berlioz. It's puppets. It's a supershow. The twentieth anniversary production of Basil Twist's remarkable Symphonie Fantastique is at the ever enterprising and surprising HERE in New York. Christopher O'Riley performs Liszt's piano transcription of Berlioz's love letter/nightmare. Twist performs his magic in an aquarium filled with 1,000 gallons of water.
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Iranian Women Composers at National Sawdust Front Page
Cultural Hybrids Performed
By: - Apr 04th, 2018Nine Iranian born women composers presented their work in the inaugural concert of their new organization, Iranian Women Composers Association. Is there anything that characterizes this music as Iranian contemporary classical as distinguished from contemporary classical music? Tuning often gives a middle Eastern feel, with harmonies of the region. Classical forms are used. Sometimes the work is an impression. Romantic notes and counterpoint are abundant.
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Luisa Miller at the Metropolitan Opera Front Page
Mixing Old and New
By: - Apr 03rd, 2018The Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2001 production of Luisa Miller looks backwards and forwards at once. It features Placido Domingo singing the latest in a line of Verdi baritone roles that the aging tenor has used to extend his already distinguished career. (It was also supposed to re-unite the singer with James Levine, but the conductor's firing due to repeated accusations of sexual misconduct by multiple parties spoiled that happy event.) It looks forward in that its two leads, Piotr Beczala and Sondra Yoncheva, represent the cutting edge of a new generation of opera singers that are having their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
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Old Stock at 59E59 Theaters Front Page
Mixing Klezmer and the Bible
By: - Apr 01st, 2018A big box sits on the stage at 59E59 Theaters before the show begins. Has an Amazon drone has delivered it before the audience is admitted? Curtain time and the door of the box swings open to reveal a band, playing their hearts out in familiar klezmer style, impassioned and soulful. A sign reads, Halifax, Nova Scotia. A boat load of immigrants has landed, with all the hopes of a new life threaded into the notes of song.
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Shooter by Sam Graber Front Page
Katrin Hilbe Directs at TheaterLab in New York.
By: - Mar 31st, 2018Shooter, a new play by Sam Graber is on stage at TheaterLab in New York. Perhaps it takes a woman like director Katrin Hilbe to mount this for maximum effect. On the face of it, the play is about a young man who plots to take out as many school students as possible with his assault rifle.
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Petrenko Conducts Rosenkavlier at Carnegie Front Page
First-Rate Singers Honor Strauss
By: - Mar 30th, 2018Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier is his most beloved opera. Strauss fused rigorous compositional technique, catchy waltzes and superb vocal writing to a charming, sentimental libretto by his longtime collaborator Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. On Thursday night, the Bayerische Staatsoper brought this opera to the stage of Carnegie Hall under the baton of its boss Kirill Petrenko. This was the opera company's first concert performance at the New York venue in its long history.
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Yerma at the Park Avenue Armory Front Page
Billy Piper Transfixes as Yerma Today
By: - Mar 30th, 2018Yerma inspired by Frederico Garcia Lorca, written and directed by Simon Stone, is produced in a glass house poised in the middle of the Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory. It is a transfixing work. Billie Piper’s Olivier-winning performance is justly celebrated. All the cast members contribute to the wrenching drama.
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Kirill Petrenko at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Bayerisches Orchester Performs Brahms and Tchaikovsky
By: - Mar 29th, 2018Brahms and Tchaikovsky would have been thrilled to hear their music interpreted by Kirill Petrenko, making his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Petrenko selected two difficult pieces by the composers, pieces that have gone out of fashion in the concert hall. He makes a compelling case for both of them.
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Prurience at the Guggenheim Museum Front Page
A Pseudo Porn Therapy Session
By: - Mar 28th, 2018Prurience. Maybe we should linger on the title of a docu-play running at the Wright Restaurant in the Guggenheim Museum. A group consisting of planted actors with written roles and an audience who have bought tickets expecting to participate in a porn addiction recovery session, are directed by the work’s creator, Christopher Green. This gentle psychodrama had a sold out run on London’s South Bend. The idea is a hoot.
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Rinaldo Presented by The English Concert Front Page
A Parade of Singing Stars at Carnegie Hall
By: - Mar 27th, 2018The arrival of The English Concert at Carnegie Hall is an event that creates excitement in New York. This year, since many people have been induced to listen to Baroque music sung by the world’s most exciting countertenor on Broadway in Farinelli and the King, interest is heightened. Carnegie Hall was packed.
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The little Opera Company's Piramo and Tisbe Front Page
Hasse Is a Hot Composer Again
By: - Mar 26th, 2018The superb little Opera company has mounted Hasse’s Piramo and Tisbe, based on the tale told in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Book IV. It resembles Romeo and Juliet. Two young people, who in this case live in adjoining homes in Babylon, fall in love through the wall that separates them, but are driven apart by warring parents. All does not end well. Yet in the process of telling the story, glorious music abounds.
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Brahms Requiem at St. Thomas Church Front Page
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys
By: - Mar 24th, 2018Saint Thomas Church was one of the first buildings constructed with an acoustical architect's guidance. Wallace Sabine, who also gave acoustical advice for the building of Symphony Hall in Boston, guided in New York. Concern then was for the human voice delivering sermons. Listening to Bruckner and Brahms, just the right reverberation is clear.
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Dido of Idaho at Ensemble Studio Theatre Front Page
Abby Rosebrock Mourns Aeneas
By: - Mar 22nd, 2018Dido's Lament is a beautiful aria. it suffuses Abby Rosebrock's new play and is not helpful. Nora, a contemporary Dido, is drowning in love, alcohol and mother-angst. Rosebrock drives her tale with often witty and amusing dialogue.
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