February 11, 2022 • 11:20 am Comments Off on George Crumb: An Appreciation
Reflecting on George Crumb for Musical America:
The American composer George Crumb, whose innovative, theatrically charged soundscapes explored a new kind of musical poetry, has died after a long and far-reaching career. He was 92.
Filed under: American music, George Crumb, music news, Musical America
February 10, 2022 • 9:53 am Comments Off on George Walker at Seattle Symphony
Thinking of the brilliant composer George Walker today, who passed away almost four years ago at the age of 96. Tonight’s Seattle Symphony program pairs music by Walker with Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Walker will be represented by his Lyric for Strings and Folksongs for Orchestra.
On the podium, in another welcome return, is Asher Fisch, who has been absent far too long. He was principal guest conductor of Seattle Opera from 2007 to 2013.
Here’s the story I wrote about George Walker for the New York Times before the pandemic. Many thanks to Frank Schramm, whose marvelous photos were indispensable to this piece.
SEATTLE — Last fall, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery began to display, among its recent acquisitions, a photograph of the composer George Walker. It shows him close up, his right index finger and thumb bearing down on a pencil with the precision of a surgeon, at work on the manuscript score of his Sinfonia No. 5….
Filed under: George Walker, Mahler, Seattle Symphony
February 8, 2022 • 12:34 pm Comments Off on Seattle Opera Announces Its New Season
Seattle Opera today announced the program for its 2022-23 season. Of special note are the world premiere of A Thousand Splendid Suns, an opera by composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kisakos based on Khaled Hosseini’s novel and the return of Wagner (for the first time since 2016) with Tristan und Isolde staged by Argentinian director Marcelo Lombardero, with conductor Jordan de Souza. Mary Elizabeth Williams will sing Isolde to Stefan Vinke’s Tristan, and Amber Wagner makes her Seattle Opera debut as Brangäne.
The rest of the season will include a concert version of Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Delilah conducted by Ludovic Morlot and starring soprano J’Nai Bridges, as well as full productions of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love (the Stephen Lawless staging) and Verdi’s La traviata directed by Francesca Zambello.
“Next season is a reminder of all that live opera can be,” says General Director Christina Scheppelmann. “After an extended period of restrictions, we are thrilled to offer an expansive vision of the operatic universe that encompasses a remarkable breadth of stories and operatic styles. Music is a window to the world, and we cannot wait to show that in full force once again.”
Overview of the 2022-23 season
Filed under: music news, Seattle Opera
February 6, 2022 • 12:04 pm Comments Off on RIP George Crumb (1929-2022)
Sad news via Bridge Records of the passing of George Crumb, who reportedly passed away today, 6 February 2022, at his home in Media, Pennsylvania. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer was 92 years old. My appreciation for Musical America is here.
Filed under: American music, music news
January 31, 2022 • 5:40 pm Comments Off on Creating Contexts: Reimagining the Art of the Recital
Here’s my new story for Stanford Live magazine on three remarkable singers who will each be appearing over the next two months: Gerald Finley, Davóne Tines, and Jakub Józef Orliński:
The voice is not only the oldest of all musical instruments—some evolutionary models even hold that singing predates the development of spoken language. Yet the contexts in which this ancient form of communication is presented can change dramatically, reflecting the ever-shifting priorities and realities of the present moment….
Filed under: programming innovation, singers, Stanford Live
January 25, 2022 • 2:03 pm Comments Off on SOUNDbox, the New Series at Nonsequitur
Here’s my Seattle Times story on a new Nonsequitur series that’s about to launch at the Chapel Performance Space:
Experimental music. Contemporary classical and post-classical. Free improvisation. Electroacoustic. Sound installation. Avant-garde … There’s a bewildering babel of labels used to try to classify artists who are defiantly unclassifiable….
Filed under: Nonsequitur, Seattle Times
January 23, 2022 • 10:06 am Comments Off on Juilliard’s Focus 2022: The Making of an American Music, 1899-1948
Tonight is the opening program in Juilliard’s weeklong Focus 2022 Festival, which will tackle the theme The Making of an American Music, 1899-1948. And all events will be livestreamed through Juilliard LIVE on the school’s website.
I had the privilege of editing the program book and can attest that these carefully curated programs are well worth your attention. From the recent New York Times article on Focus and its founder and director, the remarkable Joel Sachs: “’It blossomed into a kind of monster,’ Sachs said, chuckling. “The program book is 88 pages. But it’s a really interesting period.'” [link to program book]
Filed under: American music, Joel Sachs, Juilliard
January 21, 2022 • 10:11 am Comments Off on Winter Festival
This weekend marks the start of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s two-weekend Winter Festival.
And see the video above for a lecture by Michael Kannen, cellist, founding member of the Brentano String Quartet, and Professor of Chamber Music at the Peabody Institute, about the piano quintets of Antonin Dvořák, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Cesar Franck — all featured this winter.
Filed under: Seattle Chamber Music Society
January 19, 2022 • 3:08 pm Comments Off on 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
January 15, 2022 • 11:44 am 1
The first actual in-depth reporting on the disaster that has befallen the Seattle Symphony with Thomas Dausgaard’s sudden departure has just been published at Post Alley.
The formidable Doug McLennan brings powerful journalistic chops to a dismayingly complex story that appears to involve a toxic work environment. Many questions are left unanswered — not least because of the stonewalling he reports, which itself would seem to reinforce the picture painted of an institution out of balance.
I would also add that this story fails to give proper credit to Dausgaard’s predecessor, Ludovic Morlot. He played an undeniably important role in developing the orchestra’s current level of artistic excellence.
I rather like the use of “repotia” here — the same rhetorical device Shakespeare uses in “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…”: “Again though, when a new leader comes in, culture inevitably changes, and there’s almost always turnover among staff.”
So sad that the fallout from all of this will inevitably affect these amazing musicians for some time to come — just as we’re coming out of the pandemic…
Filed under: music news, Seattle Symphony, Thomas Dausgaard
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