Of Rosenkavaliers on DVD, the classics tend to be lovingly detailed productions, going back to the film of Herbert von Karajan leading an exemplary cast, with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s iconic Marschallin.
Category: Reviews
Die Walk¸re at the Met
The Metropolitan Opera audience loves its Wagner, and the management for the last several decades has, alas, made sure we arenít spoiled: itís a rare season that gets more than two production revivals of Wagner, and some years there have been none.
Lamentazioni per la Settimana Santa
Despite an unsurprising degree of conservatism in liturgical music, devotional life in Rome often found ways of taking advantage of modern musical style.
Deborah Voigt in Concert with the San Francisco Symphony
With her performance of the ìFour Last Songs,î ably partnered by Michael Tilson Thomas and his San Francisco Symphony, Deborah Voigt emphatically confirmed her place as one of the glories of the current roster of Strauss interpreters.
John Adams’ Doctor Atomic in Chicago
John Adams, whose opera Nixon in China set the bar for post-minimalism in the lyric theatre, has once again scored a success with his latest work.
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.