Susan Hall
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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Francesca Zambello to Washington National Opera Music
Exciting News for Opera Lovers
By: - Sep 13th, 2012Francesco Zambello has made her mark at Glimmerglass, Chicago and San Francisco. Now she takes over the artistic direction of the Washington National Opera.. “Cesca is both a brilliant director and a highly effective administrator,†said WNO Board Chairman Jacqueline B. Mars. “Her stature in the international opera community enhances the company and I have great confidence that she will take WNO in a positive direction.â€
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Peter Gelb: Wagner's Nightmare Opinion
PBS uses the Public Airwaves to Pump The Met
By: - Sep 08th, 2012Peter Gelb takes every opportunity to manipulate the media. Not surprising when productions in the house are often so poor. This is the second time in a year he has used purportedly public media to in one case cut a negative comment and in another present a distorted picture of what's up at the Met.
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Poulenc Honored by Dell'Arte Opera Music
A Magnficent Performance of Dialogues of the Carmelites
By: - Aug 25th, 2012Small is just right for one of the most important operas of the 20th century. Conducted by Christopher Fecteau, the bells, organ and singing violins all provided musical perfume. The clarinet was particularly beautiful. Thickening of texture employed by the composer is matched by the emotional compacting of three great talents in creating the story of Blanche de la Force.
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Leon Botstein Mounts Saint Saens' Henry VIII Music
Ellie Dehn as Catherine Wins at Bard
By: - Aug 21st, 2012This delicious opera not often produced starts slowly and leaves us hanging. Leon Botstein, the great educator in the US today, has taken up its cause. We are fortunate to have him teaching us opera.
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No Andris Nelsons for the BSO? Music
Globe Reports Contract Extension
By: - Aug 19th, 2012Andris Nelson, who some think is on the short list for the music director position as the Boston Symphony, has extended his contract with the Birmingham Symphony.
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International Contemporary Ensemble at Lincoln Center Music
Messiaen's Blackbirds Dance at Mostly Mozart
By: - Aug 12th, 2012Awash in beautiful sounds, often mirroring nature, the music performed by the young International Contemporary Ensemble sang at Alice Tully Hall. Jonathan Harvey's Birdsong premiered.
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Vicky Vodrey's Thank You Notes Theatre
Forbidden Mix at Mid-Manhattan International Theater Festival
By: - Jul 31st, 2012Vicky Vodrey is well worth a look in this production. She combines wit and feeling in a raucous take on the effect of the afterlife on the living. This is a romp through letter after letter the now-dead Angela has left behind to direct her funeral. A million dollars is at stake here.
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Bard Summerscape Mounts Chabrier's King Music
Leon Botstein Conducts the American Symphony Orchestra
By: - Jul 29th, 2012Leon Botstein gives us unusual and rare operas in wonderful productions year after year. Although The King In Spite of Himself by Emmanuel Chabrier has languished over the years, it was greeted with wild enthusiasm when it was first produced in Paris. One critic wrote, "...it is exquisite. Impossible to pick out the best numbers for each one is better than the one before."
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Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montechhi at Caramoor Music
Will Crutchfield Does it Again
By: - Jul 23rd, 2012Summer after summer the Caramoor International Music Festival brings us delicious bel canto operas, marvelously produced. It was an enchanting musical evening, with some extraordinarily beautiful moments, lines and clouds of bel canto tone.
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Ewa Podles Mesmerizes at Caramoor Music
The World's Great Contralto is Perfect in Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia
By: - Jul 08th, 2012The event of the summer is Ewa Podles arrival at Caramoor to sing Rossini under the able baton of Will Crutchfield and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.
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Wolftrap Snares Don Giovanni Music
Tomer Zvulun Stages a High Tech Opera
By: - Jun 30th, 2012The perfect opera is still perfect, but also very currrent. Facebook, phone fotos, and Victoria's Secret all play roles in this terrific, intense production.
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The Hunchback Variations at 59East59 Theaters Music
Chicago's Theater Oobleck Creates a Masterpiece
By: - Jun 25th, 2012This delightful chamber opera, both funny and moving in its absurdity, is playing in New York after a triumphant world premier in Chicago.
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Paul Zindel Returns to Broadway Theatre
The Longview Theater Revives the Reardon Family
By: - Jun 24th, 2012Playwright Zindel grew up in Staten Island. His father left home early. Zindel wrote often and movingly about the consequences of his departure. And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little is a lively take on what happened.
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Twelfth Night Enchants in Boulder Theatre
Colorado Shakespeare Festival Dissects Apollo and Dionysius
By: - Jun 22nd, 2012Twelfth Night is perfect summer fare, even though it refers to the last day of Epiphany. Religion disappears into the Colorado clouds.
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Buntport Theater Roasts Beef Theatre
Censorship Knocked Out in Denver
By: - Jun 19th, 2012Buntport, a company just a decade old, has produced original drama of the highest order in its brief history. They also conduct marginal discussions on subjects of no interest on the Third Tuesday of each month.
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Farce at the Festival Playhouse in Colorado Theatre
Michael and Susan Parker's Witty, Fun Play
By: - Jun 11th, 2012Farce is difficult to write and to perform. Playwrights Michael and Susan Parker have perfected the contemporary farce. A delightful production of their work was mounted outside Denver.
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Fruhbeck de Burgos Conducts the New York Philharmonic Music
Avery Fisher Hall Barely Contains Monumental Cantatas
By: - Jun 03rd, 2012The color and force of two monuments of twentieth century choral music were performed with drama and grand production by the New York Philharmonic, Orfeon Pamplones and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
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Nina Stemme Debuts at Carnegie Hall in Salome Music
The Cleveland Orchestra Gives a Sumptuous Performance
By: - May 27th, 2012Nina Stemme, a great Wagner and Strauss soprano, thrills Carnegie Hall with her singing as the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Most delivers the gorgeous score.
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The Collegiate Chorale at St. Bartholomew's in New York Music
Contemporary Voices Rise to the Dome
By: - May 23rd, 2012Chorales often anchored in the Bible moved, arrested and even amused as they were performed in New York by the great Collegiate Chorale.
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Peter Gelb and the Met Get More Bad News Music
76 Year Old Opera News Stops Reviewing
By: - May 22nd, 2012In response to ever more devastating criticism Pater Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, is struggling to spin damage control with the media. For the past 76 years, Opera News, circulation 100,000, has enjoyed a close relationship with the Met. It has now announced that it will no longer review the Met and will focus its coverage on other companies.
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Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society's Grand Finale Music
Why the CMS is More Valuable than Facebook
By: - May 20th, 2012Your friends are live performers and their instruments playing music, new and ages-old, rocking the wonderful wooden walls to make sounds you can't get canned. Chamber music is all about instruments conversing with each other and you, in the world's universal language. The CMS can teaches us how to do this.
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James Merrill on The Ring Opinion
One of America's Finest Poets Reminds Us of Golden Days
By: - May 15th, 2012The Ring is a defining experience for opera goers and other passionate members of the public. My brother and his wonderful poet wife pointed out this James Merrill poem to me.
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New York City Opera Triumphs with Orpheus Music
Rachel Taichman's Production is Perfect
By: - May 13th, 2012The score for Telemann's Orpheus was finally found in 1978, 250 years after its premier in the Goosemarket Opera of Hamburg. Taichman gives it a delightful new twist.
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Billy Budd, The Makropulos Case and Sex at the Met Music
Janacek and Britten Deliver the Real Goods Without Help
By: - May 12th, 2012Since General Manager Gelb arrived at the Met, every production features a diva in a nightgown. Carmen is the exception, and she symbolizes sex. Productions that precede regnum Gelb were able to be sexy just because they were created to be sexy.
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Karita Mattila in Janacek's Makropulos Case Music
Metropolitan Opera Offers the Elixir of Life
By: - May 09th, 2012Janacek considered The Makropulos Case one of his finest operas. After fighting for the rights, composition went smoothly. With his 70th birthday approaching, he may well have been thinking about extended life. Surely in Europe after World War I, in which 6,000,000 young men had died, the subject of life was at the front of many minds. An elixir to add a few centuries?
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