Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
“Tosca” … it is Puccini … what’s not to like? True, and it is probably his best opera. But LAOpera’s current production is a “Tosca” to love, not simply like. With glorious voices that are every bit a match for ...
Bay Area premiere of Philip Glass' Symphony No. 11 (2016)
Michael McDonaghPalo Alto,
Virgil Thomson used to say that the French played Brahms better than the Germans, and maybe the Austrians play Americans better than Americans. This seemed to be the case when the brilliant American conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has been ...
LiveConnections pairs a Cuban percussionist and a New York-based string quartet.
Lewis WhittingtonPhiladelphia,
LiveConnections is a magnet music/arts collective that crosses musical boundaries and brings together artists from different genres for their concert series and continued community engagement. On February 25 at World Café Live in Philadelphia, they presented the stellar Harlem ...
Patricia Racette stars in this LA Opera Production.
Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
Whether your orientation is religious or secular, if your culture is western the name Salome probably conjures up images of seduction and grisly obsession. She is depicted in the bible. She is seen frequently in European painting. The gruesome image ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
The ENO has revived an original Jonathan Miller production that took flight in 1982 – it received rave reviews regarding its unique and authentic stage work. Back in 1982, Miller’s innovation came from shifting Verdi’s original 19th century Italian Renaissance ...
A reappraisal of a Mike Leigh production after a 2015 review.
Mary NguyenLondon,
Returning after two years is Mike Leigh’s inimitable production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, which is notably stronger in direction and performance compared to its first outing. It didn’t make the cut for some critics who complained ...
Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
Opera folks have their quibbles. There are those who want a classic staging, just as audiences would have seen at the times the operas were written. The fewer liberties, the better. And then there are those who believe resetting the ...
On tour for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Michael McDonaghSan Francisco,
The first time I saw Lebanese-French pianist-composer Rami Khalife and Syrian clarinetist-composer Kinan Azmeh play together was in 2006 at La Pena in Berkeley where I had a revelation. Music is first and foremost sound and everything we think about ...
Mary NguyenLondon,
This week is another tasteful and satisfying evening out at the ENO. It is also the second time the ENO has presented a revival work, following The Pearl Fishers that went down a treat in New York's Met opera house ...
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 ...
