Music
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The Passion of Joan of Arc with Live Music
Donald Greig Devises a Score Presented at the Miller Theatre
By: - Oct 17th, 2015Silent films of the 1920s began when the theatre lights dimmed and a conductor marched down the aisle He raised his baton, the curtains opened. On flashed the film accompanied by the orchestra. At the Miller Theatre, five singers entered the stage and as the film started, they sang.
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No Beast So Fierce Adapts Richard III
Chicago's Oracle Productions
By: - Oct 14th, 2015The number of characters played by the cast of eight has by necessity been reduced to 14 from the 35 to 40 in Shakespeare's version. Cramming all of Richard III into 90 minutes means eliminating some nuances and character motivations.
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Nezet Seguin, Musician of the Year, Conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra
Lofting a Trifecta at Carnegie Hall
By: - Oct 14th, 2015The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin is well served by Carnegie Hall. Carnegie announced that this concert would be recorded and later available worldwide. Watch for it. An extraordinary evening of music-making was offered. It would be disingenuous not to mention succession at the Metropolitan Opera. When James Levine cancelled conducting an important production of one of 'his' operas, Nézet-Séguin's name was the first to emerge as the new music director.
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BLO's "La Boheme" Reset in '68 Paris
Period Change Does Not Diminish an Iconic Opera
By: - Oct 09th, 2015We always love bohemians - or at least we used to - but most of us wouldn't want to live the lives of poverty and disease they endured for our entire lives. The classic story of the poet Rodolfo and the doomed seamstress Mimi has jerked tears from audiences since its premiere in 1896. The BLO's production hit all the necessary points without reaching the highest peaks.
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Hibla Gerzmava Seduces at Carnegie Hall
The Soprano from Abkhazia
By: - Oct 09th, 2015Hibla Gerzmava floats notes as though they made an effortless journey from her heart into the surrounding Hall in which she performs. Glamorous and a consummate actress, all the focus is on the gorgeous music that she lofts. It was a special evening at Carnegie Hall in which we got a taste of her perfection as Desdemona in Otello.
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Dizzy
Grroving High with a Bahai
By: - Oct 08th, 2015I named by parakeet Dizzy Gillespie. Hanging with iconic hipster in a cruise of Boston Harbor with arts elder Elma Lewis.
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Laurie Anderson's Habeas Corpus
Project with Mohammed El Gharani in New York
By: - Oct 05th, 2015As globalization brings us closer together, frequent reminders of the horrors we perpetrate on each other are invaluable. A young man who was 14 when he was arrested, tortured and locked up in Guantanamo Bay reminds us that no one is exempt. Laurie Anderson offers an ineffably moving picture in collaboration with Saudi-born Mohammed El Gharani. The installation was recently on view at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.
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In Your Arms at Old Globe
World Premiere of Musical in San Diego
By: - Oct 03rd, 2015“In Your Arms” is the brain-child of brilliant choreographer/director Christopher Gattelli and Broadway producer Jennifer Manocherian. It is having its world premiere at Old Globe in San Diego.
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Tennessee Williams Cabaret
Armando Arrocha and Colette Simple
By: - Sep 30th, 2015During the recent Provinctetown Tennessee Williams Festival we attended two performances of cabaret, based on works of Williams at the Crown and Anchor. The two experiences comprised a study in contrast with the best and worst of the tenth annual festival.
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Metropolitan Opera Season Opens
Aleksandrs Antonenko a Brilliant Otello
By: - Sep 21st, 2015Otello is one of the greatest operas of Giuseppe Verdi. In the 2011 season, Riccardo Muti mounted a concert performance which was almost universally heralded as the event of the season. Singing the title role under the Maestro was Aleksandrs Antonenko, who delivered a performance of technical perfection and rich emotion. Antonenko has not forgotten the lessons he learned from Muti, and has, in fact, built on them. His performance at the Metropolitan Opera is wrenching.
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Andy, the Popera by Heath Allen and Dan Visconti
Opera Philadelphia and The Bearded Ladies Collaborate
By: - Sep 19th, 2015Why not create opera in a warehouse like Andy Warhol's Factory? Take an over-the-top cast of characters familiar to opera goers, mash up classic and pop music, and fly? Why not? That's just what Opera Philadelphia and an intriguing cabaret group The Bearded Ladies have done. It is a wonderful opera.
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Let's Have Fun with the YPhil
A Concert for Peace at Skirball
By: - Sep 18th, 2015The International Youth Philharmonic Orchestra was founded to celebrate the universality of music. They note: Every person on the planet is a note in a greater symphony, telling his or her story of joy, sadness or peace. Notes may link together, turning into melodies and songs that are powerful and strong. The YPhil is a symbol of the voice of the world fraternity.
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Fresh Grass Festival 2015
September 18-20 at MASS MoCA
By: - Sep 14th, 2015Non-stop bluegrass related music will take over North Adams Massachusetts this upcoming weekend. The Fresh Grass 2015 version invades the Berkshires for what should be a wonderful music oriented weekend.
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Old Blue Eyes
Singer for the Dons
By: - Sep 11th, 2015By the time Sinatra played the Music Hall in Boston there wasn't much left of The Voice. But he had the chops to sell a song long after the pipes had rusted. Up close and personal I had choice seats in a special section of New England mafia royalty.
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Woodstock
Back Stage Perks
By: - Sep 08th, 2015Ditching the car with Joey and Amber we hiked to Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York. There were a half million sitting through mud and rain at Woodstock. The fences came down but I had press credentials. We made our way back stage.
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Connick Romps at Tanglewood
Rips the Roof Off the Shed Ending Season
By: - Sep 05th, 2015The last time Harry Connick, Jr. performed at Tanglewood there was a monsoon. Last night was a picture perfect evening as Connick and his nine piece band tore the roof off of the shed in a barn burner to close out the season during Labor Day weekend.
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Harry Connick, Jr. at Tanglewood
Returns to Berkshires Septrember 4
By: - Sep 03rd, 2015After a two year hiatus, Harry Connick, Jr returns to the stage at Tanglewood for a much anticipated Labor Day show on Friday evening, September 4th. Connick is a crowd favorite that hails from the 'Crescent City' (New Orleans).
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NY Fringe 2015: Ideas Not Theories
Boston's Reynaliz Herrera Finds the Beat Everywhere
By: - Aug 23rd, 2015In nooks and crannies all over New York, talent is busting out in the 19th New York International Fringe Festival. Herrera is a percussionist who finds the beat wherever she is. In her entrancing concept of a kid in a warehouse music factory, buckets and bikes found lying on the floor offer opportunities for novel and instant sounds. They are even better than chocolate.
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Cirque de la Symphonie at Tanglewood
Three Rings for Pops
By: - Aug 23rd, 2015The circus came to town joining the Pops for perhaps the most fun and entertaining evening of summer at Tanglewood.
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Mostly Mozart Presents Emerging Talent
Cape Cod Chamber Music, Met Opera Baritone Plus Bard Pianist
By: - Aug 18th, 2015Mostly Mozart. adding a soupçon of musical interest for its audiences and a splendid opportunity for rising young talent to perform in important venues, offers a concert pre-concert, in which you might even hear Emmanuel Ax. Avery FIsher Hall, configured for the Festival, is an acoustically satisfying, intimate experience.
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Tanglewood Update
BSO Departs Early to Launch European Tour
By: - Aug 18th, 2015By all accounts from the audience to musicians and critics the BSO has never sounded better than under its young artistic director Andris Nelsons. The BSO has departed Tanglewood earlier than usual to start a European tour on August 22 through September 5. The BSO opens its fall season in October.
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Hubbard Hall Opera Theater
Takes Verdi’s Rigoletto by Storm
By: - Aug 18th, 2015Verdi's Rigoletto is a tragic masterpiece and one of the top ten most performed operas in the world. It can exist on a grand scale, but at Hubbard Hall you will witness the human side of this production. The audience can feel the moving power that sometimes is only delivered in the most intimate of spaces as an exquisite pianissimo whisper.
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George Benjamin Conducts ICE at Lincoln Center
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Ligeti's Favorite, is Stunning
By: - Aug 16th, 2015Mostly Mozart is committed to pushing the envelope. In engaging George Benjamin as composer-in-residence they have had him on hand for stage and full productions of his two operas. He has also conducted the work of other composers whose influence he imbibed. Claire Chase and the International Contemporary Ensemble show their stuff in two pieces by composers who influenced Benjamin and in Benjamin's chamber opera Into the Little Hill.
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Mostly Mozart Premier's Benjamin's Written on Skin
Gory and Beautiful, the Opera Succeeds Bartok and Berg
By: - Aug 13th, 2015After its smashing success at Aix-en-Provence, Written on Skin has been produced in London and Berlin and other European cities. Now it arrives in New York with 60 percent of the original cast, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra which originally performed under the composer. Alan Gilbert takes the podium and brings forth an at once daring and lovely performance.
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El Exigente Botstein Brings Mexico to Bard
Revueltas, Chavez and de Falla Staged
By: - Aug 10th, 2015Leon Botstein calls our attention to the music and art of Mexico. Mexico is under-represented in symphony halls across the world. Botstein, who heads Bard and extraordinary music programs, is introducing extensive important Mexican compositions of the last century. While Carlos Chavez is less well known than Silvestre Revueltas, he was the center of Mexico's music life during his lifetime and is its lynchpin.
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