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 ...
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 ...
