MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Music & the Arts

January 29, 2026 • 11:07 am 0

Tracing the Wheel of Time, Thomas Adès Leads the NY Philharmonic

Thomas Adès conducting the New York Philharmonic, with soprano Anna Dennis; photo credit: Chris Lee

Last week’s New York Philharmonic program under Thomas Adès, anchored in the newly expanded version of his America: A Prophecy, was one of the most thought-provoking, unusual, and compelling programs I’ve encountered in ages. My review for Musical America (sorry for the paywall):


NEW YORK—Thomas Adès was 28 when the New York Philharmonic first programmed his music on a major subscription concert. America: A Prophecy was commissioned as part of a series marking the threshold of a new millennium and received its premiere in November 1999 under Kurt Masur. At last week’s concerts, a new, expanded version of America anchored the program, this time with Adès himself on the podium. …

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Filed under: Charles Ives, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Musical America, New York Philharmonic, review, Saariaho, Thomas Adès

November 2, 2025 • 5:22 pm 1

Hongni Wu: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Hongni Wu; photo: Ed Choo

Here’s my profile of mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for November:


When Hongni Wu bounded across the stage as Cherubino in Santa Fe Opera’s Marriage of Figaro last summer, she seemed to compress a teenager’s swirl of conflicted emotions into a single breath. …

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Filed under: Musical America, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, singers

October 1, 2025 • 3:32 pm Comments Off on Emma Wernig: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Emma Wernig: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Here’s my profile of violist Emma Wernig, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for October:

In many chamber settings, the viola tends to blend into the texture—which made Emma Wernig’s playing all the more striking when I first encountered her last August on opening weekend at Tippet Rise. “Chamber music is my window into everything,” she says. “It’s the foundation of my solo work, my orchestral playing, everything…”

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Filed under: Musical America

August 8, 2025 • 11:29 am 1

Perfect Timing: ‘Figaro’ in Santa Fe

Liv Redpath as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at Santa Fe Opera; image: Bronwen Sharp

My Musical America review of Laurent Pelly’s Nozze at Santa Fe Opera:
SANTA FE—The plot of The Marriage of Figaro can feel like a dizzying maze of deceptions and deferred revelations—its intricate turns threatening to overwhelm the human stakes. But in Santa Fe Opera’s ingeniously paced production, directed by Laurent Pelly, every complication slips neatly into place with the precision of a fine timepiece, allowing the machinery of the plot to bring the messy human entanglements that drive the drama into…

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Filed under: Mozart, Musical America, review, Santa Fe Opera

June 18, 2025 • 1:22 pm 2

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s San Francisco Farewell

Esa-Pekka Salonen with San Francisco Symphony; photo (c)Brandon Patoc

I was fortunate to have a chance to make it to Esa-Pekka Salonen’s very final performance of his San Francisco Symphony tenure – a program of Mahler 2.

Here’s my review for Musical America:

SFS-June 2025-Salonen’s Powerful FarewellDownload

Filed under: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Musical America, review, San Francisco Symphony

October 4, 2024 • 11:16 am Comments Off on “The Handmaid’s Tale” at San Francisco Opera

“The Handmaid’s Tale” at San Francisco Opera

Lindsay Ammann as Serena Joy (l) and Irene Roberts as Offred (r) in The Handmaid’s Tale at San Francisco Opera; photo (c) Cory Weaver

Some thoughts for Musical America on San Francisco Opera’s fall production of The Handmaid’s Tale:

SAN FRANCISCO—It was at the turn of the millennium that composer Poul Ruders and librettist Paul Bentley adapted The Handmaid’s Tale into an opera. These days, however, their version of the dystopian novel Margaret Atwood published in 1985 seems ominously closer to an opera ripped from the headlines than a cautionary tale …

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Filed under: Musical America, new opera, review, San Francisco Opera

August 12, 2024 • 11:24 am Comments Off on “The Righteous” at Santa Fe Opera

“The Righteous” at Santa Fe Opera

Michael Mayes (David), Brenton Ryan (CM), and Greer Grimsley (Paul) in The Righteous; photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

I reviewed Santa Fe Opera’s The Righteous for Musical America. The latest in the company’s distinguished history of commissions, The Righteous is an ambitious collaboration between composer Gregory Spears and poet-librettist Tracy K. Smith. The opera unfolds across the span of the Reagan era and features a large cast to tell the story of a charismatic Southwestern preacher who gets elected as state governor:

MusicalAmerica – At Santa Fe_ New Opera Depicts an Ugly Era & Hits Close to HomeDownload
The Righteous Ensemble, photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

Filed under: American opera, Musical America, new music, review, Santa Fe Opera

June 24, 2024 • 11:29 am Comments Off on The Pain and Insight of Saariaho’s “Innocence”

The Pain and Insight of Saariaho’s “Innocence”

Here’s my review for Musical America of the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s final opera, Innocence, which was presented by San Francisco Opera this month:

Innocence at San Francisco Opera-review-June 2024Download

Filed under: Musical America, review, Saariaho, San Francisco Opera

April 26, 2024 • 11:33 am Comments Off on “El Niño” Arrives at the Met: Fresh and in Full Flower

“El Niño” Arrives at the Met: Fresh and in Full Flower

Julia Bullock and Davóne Tines in a scene from John
Adams’s El Niño. Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera

My Musical America review of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of John Adams’s El Niño has now been posted:

NEW YORK—At the end of El Niño’s opening chorus, during the transition to the Annunciation scene, the orchestra begins to vibrate in steadily intensifying waves of ecstatic energy—a moment of sonic transfiguration that is one of the signatures of the composer John Adams. …

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Filed under: directors, John Adams, Metropolitan Opera, Musical America, review

November 1, 2023 • 11:14 pm Comments Off on New Artist of the Month: Jonas Frølund

New Artist of the Month: Jonas Frølund

I wrote about the young Danish clarinetist Jonas Frølund for Musical America:

The layered musical personality that emerges from Jonas Frølund’s debut portrait album,Solo Alone and More, is cause enough to sit up and take notice. That it consists almost entirely of solo clarinet playing by a newcomer who only completed his training last year (at the Paris Conservatoire) makes the achievement genuinely astonishing….

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Filed under: clarinet, Musical America, New Artist of the Month

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