At the centenary of the birth of the conductor Herbert von Karajan various commemorations are occurring, an among them is the concise CD and DVD release by Deutsche Grammophon, with both discs bound into a booklet that includes a short prose tribute to the man illustrated with some well-chosen photographs from various parts of his career.
Month: May 2008
Punch & Judy at ENO
English National Opera’s production of Harrison Birtwistle’s ‘Punch and Judy’ is the company’s second collaboration with the Young Vic Theatre — following the premiere of Neuwirth’s ‘Lost Highway’ a few weeks earlier — and remarkably, also the second London production of this early Birtwistle work within a month, the previous one having been at the Linbury Studio Theatre, a collaboration between Music Theatre Wales and the Royal Opera.
The Collegiate Chorale: Jupiter in Argos
Over the years, one tried and true method of packing audiences in to the concerts of Robert Bassís Collegiate Chorale has been to present concert opera with impressive soloists.
French Opera highlights on Classics for Pleasure
Consumers might opt for a highlights set instead of a full recording of an opera for many reasons.
THOMSON: The Plow that Broke the Plains
Naxos’s DVD division has already released the performances on this disc of Virgil Thomson’s scores for The Plow that Broke the Plains and The River, as soundtracks for a re-release…
Ned Rorem’s Our Town
Martha Graham used to say, “In order for there to be dance, there must be something that needs to be danced.”
La Fille du RÈgiment at the Met
When the Met presented La Fille du RÈgiment for Lily Pons during World War II, she sought permission to wave the Cross of Lorraine, symbol of Charles de Gaulleís Free French, during the Salut ‡ la France in Act II.
MOZART: Don Giovanni ó Salzburg 1953
Il dissoluto punito ossia il Don Giovanni (K. 527): Dramma giocoso in two acts
Minnesota Opera makes strong case for Rusalkaís greatness
Why does one so seldom encounter Dvo?·kís Rusalka on stage?