(Photo Credit: Kevin Yatarola) On August 4, 2019, the Budapest Festival Orchestra brought their talents to David Geffen Hall for an exciting program of works by Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. Joining conductor Ivan Fischer and the orchestra was Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique, making her debut performance with the Mostly Mozart Festival in spectacular fashion. First, Haydn Starting the evening’s {…}
(Photo: Alan Neilson) Bologna’s Palazzo Fava is running an exhibition entitled, “Vivaldi: My Life, My Music,” which might lead some to conclude that this a presentation by the composer himself, and they would not be entirely wrong. For sure, Vivaldi, has long since departed this world, but the exhibition has resurrected him as a guide, employed to takes us through {…}
(Credit: Kevin Yatarola) On July 30, 2019, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival took to the Kaplan Penthouse for a concert lit by candlelight, as part of their “A Little Night Music” concert series. This episode featured soprano Susanna Phillips, accompanied by pianist Myra Huang, the latter making her debut with the Mostly Mozart Festival. The evening’s program consisted of songs {…}
(Credit: Hilary Scott) Let’s start stating – to me – the obvious. The cast that Tanglewood put together for its first complete performance of a Wagner opera could not reasonably be improved upon. Every voice was stunning in its own way. Every character from the hoary mythos was carefully and movingly delineated. The staging of this opera was simple yet {…}
Asmik Grigorian started her summer festival season with a marvelous homecoming event in Vilnius. To say that this concert was long-awaited is a massive understatement. It would be sold out twice even if she had another recital days or weeks early — Asmik Grigorian is an absolute favorite of the local audience. But this concert happened after a long pause {…}
When it comes to presenting a unique experience, Austria’s Bregenz Festival already has a head start: their “floating” stage on Lake Constance is an astonishing setting for operatic performances, which take place immediately after a breathtaking sunset over the opposite shore. The playing area of Bregenz’s stage extends to the lake itself (drowning seems to be the leading cause of {…}
(Photo: Dražen Sokčević) For many opera houses, the idea of staging Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” sends bean-counters in the Finance Department into spasms of Klytämnestra-like apoplexy. Their concern is not the need for five expensive A-list “Don Carlos” soloists or the cost of a colossal “Boris Godunov” chorus, but the logistics of enlisting 111 musicians to play 120 instruments. The financially astute composer {…}
(Credit: Louise Leblanc) Premiering in 1843 prior to Richard Wagner’s 30th birthday, “Der Fliegende Holländer” was the successful outcome of a frustrating period in the life of the young composer. At the bitter end of his tenure as musical director of a theater in Riga, Wagner left for Paris with his wife. After an illegal crossing into Prussia followed by {…}
(Credit: A Bofill) “Luisa Miller,” which premiered in 1849, marks the inflection point from the early Verdi style, strongly influenced by the formal structure of the Bel-canto operas, to the mature Verdi who looked for a dramatic communion between the text, the vocal line, the music, and the characters. We can even appreciate an evolution within the opera, where the {…}