ìHer fioritura is priceless, breathtaking, and effortless.î
Category: Reviews
A New Hansel und Gretel at the Met
Wagnerís all-conquering chic made apocalyptic music-dramas drawn from folklore the ideal of the nationalistic era; every serious opera composer of the time felt obliged to attempt something in that line.
ìOne Foot in Eden Still, I Standî: Choral Music by Nicholas Maw.
The English composer Nicholas Maw has been a major voice since the 1960’s, with a wide range of works that include the 2002 opera, “Sophieís Choice,” a violin concerto for Joshua Bell (1993), and the monumentally-scaled orchestral work, “Odyssey” (1972-87).
MOZART: Requiem (Neukomm ed.)
As is often the case, last works that remain incomplete at the time of a composerís death, are quick to invoke controversy and conspiracy theories.
ROUSSEAU: Le Devin du Village
This is a valuable new recording of a work that is only rarely heard, but was widely influential and wildly popular during the eighteenth century. Philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote both the libretto and the music, with mixed success.
Les …lÈmens
This disc is well worth the price for the first track alone: the opening measures of Jean-FÈry Rebelís ìCahos,î (Chaos), written in 1737 or 1738, may cause you to wonder if you accidentally left a Stockhausen or Ligeti disc in the changer.
Oppenheimer opera charts new course in music
In this country art and politics are rarely bedfellows — strange or otherwise; indeed, it’s seldom that the two meet under the same roof.
IphigÈnie en Tauride at the Met
Regarded, until the modern vogue for earlier masters, as the senior surviving grand master of opera, Gluck never quite becomes fashionable and never quite vanishes.
Prokofiev’s War and Peace at the Met
There is no middle ground in War and Peace ó or, rather, itís all middle ground, like a battlefield, and you may feel as if every soldier in Russia (and in France) has marched over you.
Cinderella and her Cinderfella
Once upon a time, we used to only dream about a stellar pairing like Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu has fielded for their current offering on display: “La Cenerentola.”