Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
Why, you may ask yourself, have I not heard this opera before? Good question. George Bizet, the composer, is practically a household word, even though his only product you may be able bring to mind is “Carmen,” this season’s LA ...
David E. MorenoPalo Alto,
Taylor Mac just hit the San Francisco Bay Area like a category five hurricane; surprising seasoned thespians, consummate drag queens, strung out performance artists, elite Stanford students, and, baby boomer culture vultures. Who could resist the shear force of Mac’s ...
Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
The battle lines are drawn. On the one side there are the opera snobs who label “Carmen” as that “chestnut.” On the other, there are the thousands who fill halls when “Carmen” plays. The beautiful and melodic score, and the ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
It has been a quarter of a century since Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass collaborated together and composed "Passages" - a superb fusion of traditional Indian and Western music, separated into six parts. Today, it is Shankar's devoted daughter ...
Monteverdi's Vespers with Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion
Mary NguyenLondon,
For Monday night, this was a special occasion on many accounts for the BBC Proms. It was the debut for award-winning French early music ensemble Pygmalion and their artistic director Raphaël Pichon. The 32-year-old violinist, countertenor and conductor had dreamed ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
As a BBC Proms regular, Nicola Benedetti had the Royal Albert Hall’s attention all to herself when she performed to a packed auditorium on Tuesday night’s Proms 6. It was her time to shine with Shostakovich’s No. 1 Violin Concerto, ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
Welcome to the BBC Proms 2017. Marking their 90th anniversary, the Proms continues to pursue Henry Wood’s founding principles and present classical music to the widest possible audience with celebrated international artists, orchestras and conductors. The annual summer festival has ...
Michael McDonaghSan Francisco,
President Trump proudly extolled the virtues of western civilization in a speech he gave in Warsaw, Poland, in 2017, but colonization, which is one of its biggest and sometimes most virulent by-products continues to drive it, as ...
Michael Wade SimpsonSanta Fe,
“Die Fledermaus” is a waltzy, party of an oper(etta). “The Golden Cockerel,” less familiar, is based on a Russian fable, and features a Tsar in a fat suit and a vision of Donald Trump. Both productions, at Santa Fe Opera’s ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
Káťa Kabanová is a romantic tribute to Leoš Janáček’s young lover Kamila Stösslová. The Czech composer never failed to portray high emotions in his score writings, and his opera, Káťa Kabanová, is arguably the composer at the height of his ...
