How do composers famous in their younger days for radicalism look to the future of their art and reputation as they reach their 80th birthday? Paris in the past few days has been witness to hints of how a baton change might occur for two eminent seniors of music, Frenchman Pierre Boulez and German Hans Werner Henze.
Paris in raptures over two modern masters
[Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Apr 05]
Time is looking more fondly on the work of these radical composers, writes Roger Covell.
How do composers famous in their younger days for radicalism look to the future of their art and reputation as they reach their 80th birthday? Paris in the past few days has been witness to hints of how a baton change might occur for two eminent seniors of music, Frenchman Pierre Boulez and German Hans Werner Henze.
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Scene from Faust (Photo: The Metropolitan Opera)
We Have a Faust!
BY JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun, 25 Apr 05]
"Habemus Papam!" rang the cry from Rome last week. ("We have a pope!") Well, I cry, "Habemus 'Faustus'! "We have a new "Faust" at the Metropolitan Opera, the sixth production in the company's history. (And remember, the Met began life, in 1883, with "Faust.") Directed by Andrei Serban, a Romanian-born professor at Columbia, it is rip-roaring, a killer. Boo-birds sang at Thursday night's debut, but when don't they? The Met has a production that will last, and please. Besides which, Gounod's opera was treated to a first-rate performance, on this opening night.
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Saintly & Otherwise
BY FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun 25 Apr 05]
The Temple of Dendur was transformed into the Temple of Athena on Friday evening as the all male a cappella choir Chanticleer presented a program of works entitled "Women Saintly and Otherwise." The power and scope of religion as well as the history and future of Catholic Europe are much in the news these days, and so this program of portraits both sacred and profane, which encompassed music from the 15th through the 21st centuries, seemed especially relevant. As a musical whole, the evening offered, shall I say, an unusual experience.
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Feminine mystique, in masculine harmony
BY MARION LIGNANA ROSENBERG [Newsday, 25 Apr 05]
In Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," the henpecked cock Chauntecleer talks out of both sides of his beak, declaring that woman is man's ruin and also his "joy" and "bliss."
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