Stephen Paulus provided the musical world, and particularly the choral world, with music both provocative and pleasing through a combination of lyricism and a modern-Romantic tonal palette.
Month: September 2015
Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice
Orpheus — that Greek hero whose songs could enchant both deities and beasts, whose lyre has become a metaphor for the power of music itself, and whose journey to the Underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice, kick-started the art of opera in Mantua in 1607 — has been travelling far and wide around the UK in 2015.
Vaughan Williams and Holst Double Bill
One is a quasi-verbatim rendering of J.M. Synge’s bleak tale of a Donegal
family’s fateful dependency on and submission to the deathly power of the
sea.
Iestyn Davies at Wigmore Hall
Is there anything that countertenor Iestyn Davies cannot do with his voice?
Hibla Gerzmava to Debut at Carnegie Hall
The name of Hibla Gerzmava has been famous in the opera world since 1994,
when at age 24 the Abkhazian-Russian soprano won the Grand Prix at Tchaikovsky
International Competition, entering its history as the first and only vocalist
to have been awarded the highest prize.
Prom 75: The Dream of Gerontius
BBC Proms Youth Choir shines in a performance notable for its magical transparency
Prom 67: Bernstein — Stage and Screen
The John Wilson Orchestra have been annual summer visitors to the Royal Albert Hall since their Proms debut in 2009 and, with their seductive blend of technical precision, buoyant glitziness and relaxed insouciance, their concerts have become a hugely anticipated fixture and a sure highlight of the Promenade season.
A Chat with Tenor RenÈ Barbera
American tenor RenÈ Barbera is fast making a name for himself as one of the
top bel canto singers in opera houses around the world.
Prom 65: Alice Coote sings Handel
Disappointing staging mars Alice Coote’s vibrant if wayward musical performance
For Odyssey Opera, No Operatic Challenge is Too Great
For a company founded in 2013, Odyssey Opera has an astounding track record. To take on Korngold’s Die tote Stadt is ambitious enough, but to do so within only a year of the company’s founding seems almost single-minded.