Thirty-odd concerts since September between Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Missed a handful of the best offerings: Thomas Adès’s brilliantly programmed Carnegie recital, Muti’s Met conducting debut with Attila (how I heart Ildar Abdrazakov—ever since seeing his 2004 Met debut as Masetto), Lulu at the Met with Marlies Peterson who rules that role. And no […]
Also filed in Asiana, Music, New York
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Tagged abdrazakov, berg, bruckner, chopin, cleveland orchestra, lulu, masur, ny philharmonic, philadelphia orchestra, yundi, yundi li
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Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 8 PM Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. Pierre Boulez Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage RAVEL | Le Tombeau de Couperin DALBAVIE | Flute Concerto (Mathieu Dufour, flute) BARTÓK | Bluebeard’s Castle (Michelle DeYoung, mezzo; Falk Struckmann, bass-baritone) To carry Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle to its bloodcurdling pitch without recourse to hysterics is […]
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 7:30 PM Conductor: Edo de Waart Production: Nathaniel Merrill Stage Director: Robin Guarino Main Cast: Renée Fleming (Marschallin), Susan Graham (Octavian), Kristinn Sigmundsson (Baron Ochs), Christine Schäfer (Sophie), Eric Cutler (Italian tenor). The first twenty people or so who make it into line for the Met’s $20 […]
Also filed in Love, Music, New York, Philosophy
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Tagged death, der rosenkavalier, dyad, dyads, hoffmannsthal, hugo von hoffmannsthal, libretto, Love, marschallin, met, met opera, metropolitan opera, mortality, ochs, octavian, Opera, philosophy of love, renee fleming, richard strauss, romantic, rosenkavalier, strauss, susan graham, tempus fugit
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
[Anita Rachvelishvili before her admirers] If I were to reduce to a single word Anita Rachvelishvili’s La Scala debut yesterday as Carmen (the HD simulcast of which I saw at Symphony Space), it might be “sovereignty.” She reigned supreme. This Carmen was the center around which all else could only hope to hold and the […]
Also filed in Film, Love, Music
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Tagged 2009, anita rachvelishvili, barenboim, bizet, carmen, december 7, erwin schrott, georges bizet, georgia, georgian, hd, jonas kaufmann, la scala, live broadcast, netrebko, rachvelishvili, simulcast, symphony space
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
[the trash collectors] Leoš Janáček, From the House of the Dead [Z mrtvého domu] Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 8PM Production: Patrice Chéreau Associate Director: Thierry Thieu Niang Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen Main Cast: Willard White (Alexandr Gorjančikov), Eric Stoklossa (Aljeja) Stefan Margita (Filka Morozov) How to make a narrative of so relentless yet monotonous, time-ravaging and […]
Also filed in Labor, Literature, Love, Music, New York, Politics
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Tagged aljeja, dostoevsky, eric stoklossa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, from the house of the dead, Gorjančikov, janacek, Leoš Janáček, met opera, metropolitan opera, notes from the house of the dead, opera review, Patrice Chéreau, prison operas, prisons in opera, review, reviews, willard white, Z mrtvého domu
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[program for the New York premiere of Mahler’s 7th, from the Carnegie Hall archives] Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Hampson, Baritone MAHLER | Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Symphony No. 7 I will never know the Seventh well enough, but strongly suspect that Barenboim could know it […]
Also filed in Music, New York
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Tagged barenboim, boulez, mahler, orchestras, review, reviews, song of the night, staatskapelle berlin, symphonies, Thomas Hampson
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A compelling essay in the May issue of Opera News by the Washington Post‘s Philip Kennicott persuasively addresses the vexing question of Mahler’s vital yet fraught relationship to opera: […] Opera-lovers tend to think of song and symphony as the rudiments of opera, as if opera were the natural apotheosis of two lesser forms. But […]
Also filed in Music
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Tagged barenboim, berlin, boulez, kennicott, lieder, lincoln center, mahler, michelle deyoung, nyt, oestreich, orchestras, parsifal, reviews, staatskapelle berlin, symphonies, the ring, tommasini, wagner
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Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Pierre Boulez Westminster Symphonic Choir, dir. Eberhard Friedrich Soloists: Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), Dorothea Röschmann (soprano) MAHLER | Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection’ For me, as for many Mahler devotees I’ve known or known of (and not only the fabled Gilbert Kaplan, for whom it was a […]
Also filed in Music, New York, Philosophy
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Tagged abbado, adorno, boulez, cellos, classical music, klemperer, mahler, michelle deyoung, Opera, orchestras, reviews, simon rattle, staatskapelle berlin, symphonies, symphony, tannhäuser, wagner
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Madame Butterfly in HD [rebroadcast of the live March 7 Met performance] March 17, 2009, Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center Metropolitan Opera Conductor: Patrick Summers Production: Anthony Minghella Cast: Patricia Racette (Cio-Cio San), Marcello Giordani (Pinkerton), Maria Zifchak (Suzuki), Dwayne Croft (Sharpless) The drama was taut, the gorgeousness detailed. The staging: imaginative, often exquisite, […]
Also filed in Asiana, Film, Love, Music, New York
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Tagged cho-cho san, hd, lincoln center, madame butterly, marcello giordani, minghella, Opera, patricia racette, pinkerton, puccini, puppetry, puppets, reviews, theatre, walter reade
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
December 25, 2007, Munich Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Nationaltheater: the perfect sweet-treat after the gorgings of Weihnachten. My first time back to this gorgeous opera house since a very white-box Dieter Dorn staging of Le Nozze di Figaro some eight years ago.