By Seth Colter Walls [Newsweek, 15 March 2010]
The story of Franz Schreker flips classical music’s greatest cliché on its head. Instead of toiling in obscurity during his life and gaining fame only after death, the Austrian was a star as a young composer—before he was all but erased from history. In 1919, the influential critic Paul Bekker wrote that Schreker was the only operatic author with a claim to Wagner’s exalted legacy.
By Francis Carlin [Financial Times, 9 March 2010]
Das Rheingold has been a long wait. The Paris Opera has not seen a full Ring cycle since 1957. Now, Nicolas Joel has embarked on a new cycle over two seasons with a first, very mixed, result.
NY Times ArtsBeat [9 March 2010]
Today on ArtsBeat three New York Times critics — Anthony Tommasini, chief classical music critic; Roberta Smith, art critic; and Dwight Garner, book critic — are discussing the music, the art and the literary threads of “The Nose.” Daniel J. Wakin, classical music reporter for The Times, is moderating.You can read the previous posts here.
By Becca Mitchell [TC Daily Planet, 8 March 2010]
There’s no denying La Bohème is one of the world’s most famous operas. Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera is staged frequently across the globe and was the inspiration for the Tony-winning musical Rent, which ran for more than 12 years on Broadway and was just staged in an acclaimed Minneapolis production. One could argue it’s the love story at the center of the piece that’s contributed the most to the opera’s lasting resonance. And on that level, if not on all levels, the current Minnesota Opera production delivers.
By Allan Kozinn [NY Times, 8 March 2010]
Philip Langridge, an English tenor who was renowned for roles by Benjamin Britten and was an eloquent interpreter of Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Janacek and Stravinsky, died in England on Friday. He was 70 and lived near Guildford, southwest of London.
By Andrew Clark [Financial Times,7 March 2010]
The good news first: having lost the indisposed Plácido Domingo for the entire run, the Royal Opera found a passable replacement for the role of Bajazet, the imprisoned king in Handel’s most serious opera.
By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 2 March 2010]
She was learned and sexually liberated, a product of the 18th century but a role model for our time - “a great man whose only fault was being a woman”, according to Voltaire, her sometime lover. History has tended to place Emilie du Châtelet (1706-49) in Voltaire’s shadow, but she stole the limelight at Monday’s premiere of a new opera by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
By Catherine Hickley [Bloomberg, 10 February 2010]
Peter Alward, the former head of EMI Group Ltd.’s classical music division, will take over the scandal-ridden Salzburg Easter Festival as soon as next week, the Austrian weekly magazine News reported.
By Mort Levine [San Jose Mercury, 10 February 2010]
If you sit back and simply take in the “heavenly frivolities” of Mozart’s masterpiece, “The Marriage of Figaro,” with its rapid fire array of eminently memorable melodies, you might well miss the undercurrent of sexual tension and class resentment between nobles and those who serve them.
By Francis Carlin [Financial Times, 9 February 2010]
Come in all dirty men in macs from Geneva and neighbouring cantons. Olivier Py’s new Lulu comes with a health warning that the film used in the staging might shock sensitive souls; children under 16 are advised to stay away.
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