Overtaken by cello thoughts….
Filed under: cello
May 19, 2016 • 11:06 pm Comments Off on Gluck’s Revolution: Orphée in Seattle
Gluck’s Revolution: Orphée in Seattle
photo: tenor Aaron Sheehan, who sings the role of Orphée (credit: Kevin Day)
Here’s my story for The Seattle Times on the new production of Gluck’s French version of his epochal Orpheus opera, which Stephen Stubbs and Pacific MusicWorks are performing this weekend.
In May of 1774, 15 years before the French Revolution, the 18-year-old Marie Antoinette ascended the throne as queen of France. Less than a month before that, German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, her former music teacher — and the son of a gamekeeper — made his debut in Paris with his opera “Iphigénie en Aulide.”
Filed under: directors, Gluck, Pacific MusicWorks, Seattle Times, Stephen Stubbs
May 19, 2016 • 7:42 pm Comments Off on Cellissimo
Cellissimo
It’s been an exhilarating week at the Piatigorsky Cello Festival in Los Angeles. I’ll have a report for Musical America next week.
Filed under: cello, festivals, photography
May 16, 2016 • 7:00 am 2
The Shining: A Chilling Artistic Triumph
photo (c) Ken Howard
My review of the new opera The Shining, by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, is now live on Musical America (behind a paywall):
St. PAUL—It seems fitting that the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, where Minnesota Opera makes its home, is located just a mile-and-a-half from the F. Scott Fitzgerald House, where … »Read
Filed under: Mark Campbell, new opera, review
May 15, 2016 • 4:50 am Comments Off on The Agony and the Ecstasy: Byron Schenkman & Friends
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Byron Schenkman & Friends
My preview of the final Byron Schenkman & Friends concert of the season has now been posted by The Seattle Times:
When great artists are struggling, that pain sometimes comes through in their work — but not always. Take Beethoven and Schubert, who produced some of their loftiest music during periods of intense suffering.
Filed under: Beethoven, preview, Schubert, Seattle Times
May 13, 2016 • 5:30 am Comments Off on Mystery Mass: Seattle Pro Musica celebrates Bach’s enigmatic masterpiece in B minor
Mystery Mass: Seattle Pro Musica celebrates Bach’s enigmatic masterpiece in B minor
Here’s my Seattle Times story on Karen Thomas and Seattle Pro Musica’s preparation for the Bach Mass in B minor, their concluding program of the season (this weekend):
Many classical-music fans consider Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor as the ultimate peak of Western choral music — but the composer never heard it performed in its entirety.
Filed under: Bach, choral music, preview, Seattle Times
May 9, 2016 • 8:20 am 1
Flying Dutchman at Seattle Opera
© Philip Newton
My review of Wagner’s Dutchman at Seattle Opera has been posted on Bachtrack:
Though the legend of a seaman doomed to sail forever was already hackneyed by the time he took it up, it was through his idiosyncratic treatment of this material that Richard Wagner first found his authentic voice. “Do you fear a song, a picture?” sings the heroine Senta in her first confrontation with Erik, her hapless suitor.
But Wagner was well aware of the dangerous potential art possesses when the goal is no longer escapist entertainment. So is director Christopher Alden, whose production (originally created for Canadian Opera Company two decades ago) mirrors the young composer’s sense of thrilling new horizons beyond routine and convention.
Filed under: directors, review, Seattle Opera, Wagner
May 6, 2016 • 2:17 pm Comments Off on 20 Years Ago Today
20 Years Ago Today
I’m in a bit of shock realizing today marks the official debut of my professional career writing about music. Exactly 20 years ago, I published my first review as a freelance critic for the Washington Post (link below).
It wouldn’t have happened without the incredibly generous mentoring of Tim Page, who agreed to give a complete unknown this chance.
Tim remains one of my dearest friends. It all started with his encouragement.
Meanwhile, I hope I’ve made at least a modicum of progress in my writing since then.
Takács Quartet: Not for the Timid
Filed under: Bartók, chamber music, review, Washington Post
May 5, 2016 • 10:09 pm Comments Off on Hell, Paradise, and Parody
Hell, Paradise, and Parody
Getting in the mood for Seattle Opera’s upcoming Dutchman production.
The Flying Dutchman by Albert Pinkham Ryder (c. 1896)
Here’s a piece I wrote for San Francisco Opera’s new production of The Flying Dutchman – a look into Wagner’s attraction to the source material he used for his breakthrough opera:
“…[T]he faithful woman hurls herself into the sea and the curse on the Flying Dutchman is lifted, he is redeemed, and we see the ghostly ship sinking to the bottom of the sea. The moral of this piece, for women, is that they should beware of marrying a Flying Dutchman; and we men should draw from it the lesson that women, at best, will be our undoing.”
It might not be unreasonable to assume this quotation comes from a critic hostile to Wagner. Or perhaps it represents a merry ribbing of the unintended absurdities that never seem far from the surface in his operas, a la Anna Russell? (“The scene…
View original post 1,250 more words
Filed under: Uncategorized
