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 […]
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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 New York, Opera, 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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Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Quasthoff, Bass-Baritone MAHLER | Kindertotenlieder & Symphony No. 1 Last night began the Staatskapelle Berlin’s much-anticipated, ten-part Mahler symphonic and song cycle at Carnegie Hall. Three Maestros ‘B’ are here involved or invoked: conducted alternatingly by Boulez and Barenboim (the Staatskapelle’s General […]
Also filed in New York
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Tagged barenboim, berlin, bernstein, boulez, Carnegie Hall, kindertotenlieder, lieder, mahler, mahler 1st, mahler first, quasthoff, staatskapelle berlin, Torsten Schönfeld
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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, New York, Opera
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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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Monday, March 9, 2009 at 8 PM CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, dir. Pierre Boulez Pre-concert talk by Ara Guzelimian, Provost & Dean, The Juilliard School. JANÁČEK | Sinfonietta SZYMANOWSKI | Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35. Soloist: Frank Peter Zimmermann STRAVINSKY | Pulcinella (complete). Soloists: Roxana Constantinescu (mezzo-soprano), Nicholas Phan (tenor), Kyle Ketelsen (bass-baritone) The Janáček […]
Also filed in Dance, New York
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Tagged ballet, boulez, Carnegie Hall, chicago symphony orchestra, Dance, douglas dunn, janacek, pulcinella, stravinsky, szymanowski, violin, violinists, zimmermann
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8 PM Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Zubin Mehta Hugo Wolf | Italian Serenade Joseph Marx | Lieder: “Hat Dich die Liebe berührt,” “Selige Nacht,” “Zigeuner,” “Barcarole.” Soloist: Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano. Franz Schubert | Symphony No. 9, “Great” Encores: Johann Strauss Jr. | “Tritsch-Tratsch” Polka, Op. 214 & “Unter Donner […]
Also filed in New York
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Tagged bruckner, mahler, mehta, orchestras, reviews, schubert, strauss, symphonies, vienna, vienna philharmonic, vpo
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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.
[A still from Земля] Chinese National Symphony Orchestra at Boston’s Symphony Hall. Kiarostami’s A Taste of Cherry and Dovzhenko’s Земля [Earth] at the Harvard Film Archive. Labor and land preoccupy both; and in each, a visual symphony of tractors. One is reminded of Russian cinema’s obsession with the sun-baked, dirt-caked, beard-bristling face — eyes always […]
Also filed in Asiana, Film, Labor
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Tagged dovzhenko, earth, faces, harvard film archive, kiarostami, land, orchestras, russia, symphonies, taste of cherry
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Last night: Boston Baroque performing Cherubini’s long-neglected Requiem in C minor, paired with Beethoven’s Eroica. The Sanctus sounded just like the one from Bach’s Mass in B Minor, while the Lacrimosa was lifted straight from the same section in Mozart’s Requiem. The pre-concert lecture by NEC musicologist Helen Greenwald acknowledged other echoes but perplexingly not […]
Fidelio at the Met. Karita Mattila sang Leonore’s role gorgeously, and she was impressively spry as Fidelio, too, scampering around the stage with boyish aplomb, scooting up and down ladders, bearing groceries. Apart from the limpid quartet in the opening act and the arpeggiated vocal mountaineering of the ‘Abscheulicher!’ duet in the final act, it […]
Also filed in Film, Love, Opera, Philosophy
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Tagged alex ross, beethoven, ben heppner, brattle theatre, claire denis, drama, fidelio, florestan, french films, harvard film archive, heldentenors, james levine, karita mattila, leftism, leonore, peter watkins, richard margison, the left, theatre, zizek
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