Charmian, and Gerald Finley as Antony
I wrote about John Adams’s latest opera for Musical America:
Filed under: John Adams, review, San Francisco Opera
September 30, 2022 • 4:28 pm Comments Off on John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra at San Francisco Opera
John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra at San Francisco Opera
Charmian, and Gerald Finley as Antony
September 9, 2022 • 8:21 am 1
John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra, the latest opera by John Adams, is receiving its world premiere this month at San Francisco Opera. Tomorrow is opening night and the start of the company’s centennial season.
Here’s a preview I wrote for Opera Now‘s September issue, in which the composer discusses his decision to set Shakespeare’s love tragedy.
[San Francisco Opera will livestream the performance of 18 September at 2pm PST. Tickets are $27.50.
PLEASE PURCHASE YOUR LIVESTREAM TICKET AT LEAST 60 MINUTES PRIOR TO CURTAIN.]
Filed under: John Adams, San Francisco Opera, Shakespeare
June 23, 2022 • 3:27 pm 1
Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? Comes to San Francisco Symphony
Quite looking forward to tonight’s San Francisco Symphony concert, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, which brings John Adams’s most-recent piano concerto to Davies Hall. Vikingur Ólafsson is the soloist, and on the basis of this morning’s open rehearsal, this should be a performance to remember.
We had a good one in January with the Seattle Symphony and Jeremy Denk, Adams himself guest conducting.
The rest of the program includes a beautiful work by the late Steven Stucky, Radical Light (also an SFS premiere), and Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony.
Filed under: Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, San Francisco Symphony
February 15, 2022 • 8:53 am Comments Off on Happy Birthday, John Adams!
Happy Birthday, John Adams!
A spirited toast to the matchless John Coolidge Adams, who celebrates his 75th birthday today. This is an especially busy year for the composer: San Francisco Opera will launch its centenary season in September with the world premiere of Adams’s latest opera, Antony and Cleopatra.
Filed under: John Adams, music news
January 19, 2022 • 3:08 pm Comments Off on San Francisco Opera’s 100th Anniversary Season
San Francisco Opera’s 100th Anniversary Season
So it’s now official: San Francisco Opera will launch its centennial season with the world premiere of a new John Adams opera: Antony and Cleopatra, set to the composer’s own libretto culled from Shakespeare’s tragedy and various classical sources (Virgil, Plutarch, etc.). Music Director Eun Sun Kim will conduct the production directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer; the cast will be led by Julia Bullock and Gerald Finley as the lovers, with Paul Appleby, as the young Caesar, Octavius, Alfred Walker as Antony’s confidante Enobarbus, and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as Octavia (Octavius’ sister and the wife of Antony).
But there’s much more that promises to make this an extraordinary season, with a return to eight mainstage offerings. SFO will present the local premiere of El último sueño de Frida y Diego by Gabriela Lena Frank, an SFO co-commission that will receive its first performances at San Diego Opera in October 2022 before coming to the War Memorial Opera House in June 2023.
There will be new SFO productions of La Traviata directed by Opera San José’s incoming general director Shawna Lucey, Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice featuring countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński in a new production by Matthew Ozawa, and Madame Butterfly directed by Amon Miyamoto and starring Karah Son and Michael Fabiano.
Two operas that received their American premieres in the 1950s are also being featured: Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and the Richard Strauss masterpiece Die Frau ohne Schatten in a David Hockney production. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is also part of the lineup, in the Bay Area premiere of the Robert Carsen production. On 16 June 2023, there will additionally be a gala 100th Anniversary Concert.
Complete press release here.
Bookmark sfopera.com/100 for the latest news and updates.
Filed under: John Adams, music news, San Francisco Opera, Uncategorized
December 27, 2021 • 9:55 am 1
John Adams Returns to Seattle
Here’s my latest Seattle Times story, about John Adams as composer and conductor:
Seattle Symphony audiences have another reason to be proud of their band…
Filed under: John Adams, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
August 11, 2020 • 9:06 pm Comments Off on John Adams: Live Score Reading and Chat
John Adams: Live Score Reading and Chat
This Thursday at 3pm EST, join John Adams and conductor David Robertson for a real-time discussion of Doctor Atomic Symphony. They’ll give a close reading of the score, using a recording by the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Adams himself. This is part of the live-score chat series hosted by Boosey & Hawkes.
Filed under: John Adams
February 15, 2020 • 10:38 am Comments Off on Happy Birthday, John Adams
Happy Birthday, John Adams
A very happy birthday to John Coolidge Adams, who turns 73 today. The clip above, City Noir, is one of the pieces on the program when Adams guest conducts the Seattle Symphony in April. He’ll also present Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes, his brilliant new piano concerto, with Jeremy Denk as the fiendish soloist.
(I haven’t noticed yet whether Sony Classical has sent out a message celebrating “the composer of Become Ocean.”)
Filed under: John Adams
September 27, 2019 • 7:21 am Comments Off on New from John Adams: I Still Dance
New from John Adams: I Still Dance
John Adams’s latest composition was recently given its world premiere by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Here’s my program note introducing I Still Dance:
The unique creative exchange between John Adams and the San Francisco Symphony spans four decades and represents one of the most significant success stories in the collaboration among contemporary American composers, orchestras, and audiences.
Filed under: John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas, program notes, San Francisco Symphony
December 6, 2018 • 2:42 pm Comments Off on John Adams on the Yin and Yang of His Musical Life
John Adams on the Yin and Yang of His Musical Life
My story for the Juilliard Journal on John Adams as he returns to conduct the Juilliard Orchestra next week at Alice Tully Hall. Program details here.
“What does it take to move us from our customary place?” John Adams asked in his commencement speech to the Juilliard class of 2011. “That is what we want when we confront a work of art, whether it’s a completely new creation or an impassioned performance of a masterwork from the past.” The acclaimed composer returns to Juilliard December 10—this time to conduct the Juilliard Orchestra in a program that pairs the Brahms Fourth Symphony with two 21st-century pieces: Ciel d’hiver by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and Adams’ own Doctor Atomic Symphony.
Filed under: Brahms, conductors, John Adams
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 