Michael McDonaghSan Francisco,
It's never good to live in the past, but sometimes we have to, even though as our latest catch phrase would have it " it is what it is. " These are some of the thoughts which came to ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
This is the third time I've seen Penny Woolcock's visually stunning production of The Pearl Fishers at the London Coliseum, and I still haven't got tired of it. English National Opera has brought its original showing of Bizet's less successful ...
Featuring pianists Anton Batagov, Sarah Cahill, Aaron Diehl, Philip Glass, and Jenny Lin
Michael McDonaghSan Francisco,
Composer-performers were all the rage in nineteenth century Europe. Liszt wowed big crowds with his miraculous technique, and so did Chopin, but the less flashy piano concert tours of Brahms and Clara Schumann were big draws plus their bread and ...
Michael McDonaghBerkeley,
An out of town visitor always excites interest, even envy, and Philharmonia's music director and Finnish-born conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's return visit to his former California turf certainly did, and with three programs, including two by former Angeleno Igor Stravinsky ...
Lewis WhittingtonPhiladelphia,
Andre Barbe’s set and costume designs for Opera Philadelphia’s current production of Puccini’s Turandot are so spectacular, that they keep giving during the entire time. The detailing and cultural template recalls the golden age of Hollywood and the impact threaten ...
Nicholas MarloweLondon,
After a rollercoaster year of budget cuts and high-profile walkouts, English National Opera's 2016-17 season opens with this much-heralded new "Don Giovanni" from fêted director Richard Jones.
Oddly enough, given Jones's 25-year association with the company, this is ...
Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
Here is my conundrum: (1) I am not crazy about performances that last three full hours; (2) I want to be emotionally pulled in; and (3) if dancers are going to be on stage for most of an opera the ...
Lewis WhittingtonPhiladelphia,
JAZZ 100 was the Kimmel Center’s kick-off to their season’s jazz programming with the all-star line-up of players on the Merriam Theater stage in tribute to the centenary celebration of Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Mongo Santamaria- ...
Janos GerebenSan Francisco,
The superbly melodic operas of Gaetano Donizetti represent a triumph of the human spirit over extreme adversities. Long before syphilis and bipolar disorder drove him into an insane asylum and then early death at age 51 in 1848, he had ...
An Effort to Turn Chinese Classic Into Western Opera
Janos GerebenSan Francisco,
Ethnic support for opera in multi-ethnic San Francisco is a subject worth scholarly research, which is certainly not being offered here. These are only a few broad observations, leading to a point to be made soon.
Italians ...
