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If You Think You Hate Charles Ives On His Birthday
Not that I’m referring to anyone in particular who might have mourned the anniversary of Ive’s birth today on social media. But if you don’t do quarter-tones and all those other “intellectual” aspects...
View ArticleA Star Trek Version of The Magic Flute?
I guess I can keep an open mind. A Borg Queen of the Night is plausible. Neelix makes a GREAT Papageno. But Seven of Nine as Pamina? Can’t see it.
View ArticleHappy 70th Placido Domingo
Radio stations will be blasting Domingo in Italian opera and Wagner today. But there’s a role I rather like him in that gets much less play: Herman* in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. Aka Pique...
View ArticleMartha Graham in Appalachian Spring
From Peter Glushanok’s 1958 film version for WQED Pittsburgh. Dancers are Martha Graham as The Bride, Stuart Hodes as The Husbandman, Bertram Ross as The Revivalist, Matt Turney as The Pioneer Woman...
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12 Operas NOT to Attend on Valentine’s Day
The Queen of Spades for VALENTINE’S DAY? The Met thought it was a nice program in 2004, as I discovered during a recent rebroadcast on their Sirius channel. But what kind of romantic evening is that?...
View ArticleFriday Links
An 8-year-old piano student takes on Anthony Tommasini's Top 10 Composers. His wonderful letter (with hand-drawn portaits intended to be Schumann and Tchaikovsky) lists the kid's "greatest" list, plus...
View ArticleClassical Beach Reading: Robert Levine's "Weep, Shudder, Die"
If there is one quote from Weep, Shudder, Die: A Guide to Loving Opera that sums up Robert Levine’s case for opera as popular entertainment it’s this: Opera is all around us — hundreds of hours’...
View ArticleWhy Isn't Inventing Instruments Considered Normal Anymore?
In a Slate concert review, J. Bryan Lowder (yes, a musican ) examines one answer to the age-old question “how do we keep classical music new?” For composer Sean Friar, the new answer is “used auto...
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Stephen Sondheim Trashes Diane Paulus "Upgrade" of 'Porgy and Bess'
Chad Batka for The New York TimesFrom left, the director Diane Paulus with the actors Phillip Boykin and Audra McDonald at a rehearsal for “Porgy and Bess” at the American Repertory Theater.via...
View ArticleJoyce Hatto Piano Fraud, Wrapped Up Nicely by The New Yorker
It’s been out for the better part of the month, so this post is hardly news. But only yesterday did I get around to reading and hearing Mark Singer’s excellent article and podcast on the Joyce Hatto...
View ArticleIs Rachmaninov a Waste of Time?
I recently read, generally with pleasure, Alfred Brendel’s book Me of All People. In passing, I’d like to remark that Brendel’s book Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts and Music Sounded Out are among...
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Copenhagen's "Ring": Why "Eurotrash" Isn't the Whole Story
Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Regietheater Bomb. I’m always up for a Ring with Viking suits, if there are any left today. It works fine – better than fine – because it’s wholly...
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Mahler: 15 Questions
1. Does Waldmaerchen belong in performances of Das Klagende Lied? 2. The conductor Otto Klemperer calls the Finale of the First Symphony weak. Is it? 3. Is the Second Symphony especially indebted to...
View ArticleSchoenberg Conducting Mahler 2nd
Via Norman Lebrecht:, Arnold Schoenberg conducting the second movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 2.
View ArticleDirector Patrice Chereau Dead at 68
The French director Patrice Chereau, famed for his 1976 production of Wagner's Ring Cycle for the Bayreuth Festival, has died of lung cancer at 68. Chereau directed for the theater, film and opera and...
View ArticleDeryck Cooke’s historic analysis of Mahler 10
Via Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc blog, Deryck Cooke discusses his performing edition of the 10th Symphony, left unfinished by Mahler and completed by Cooke.It's almost two hours of discussion and...
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Revealed: The 8 Operas That Changed the World
Tristan & Isolde by Rogelio de Egusquiza Barring another epic blast of #Chiberia weather, an intrepid bunch of "Gleacher Creatures" will gather at Chicago's Graham School tomorrow (January 7) for...
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Tributes to Claudio Abbado
The great, great conductor Claudio Abbado died yesterday at the age of 80.Chicago audiences will remember him as the CSO's principle guest conductor in the 80s. A tireless nurturer of young musicians,...
View ArticlePicks for Beethoven's 9th
It's Week 2 for the Late Beethoven class, and coverage begins of his Symphony No. 9. For those of you on iPads, there is an app called Beethoven's 9th symphony. This is from Touch Press, makers of the...
View ArticleNotes on the Spring semester's Tuesday class: Italian opera from The Barber...
This course is intended to be complementary to "Verdi and Puccini", and in order to minimize any duplication of the current course, I have made several minor adjustments to the published...
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