Susan Hall
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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Rembrandt at the Frick Front Page
The Artist's Divine Encounter
By: - Jul 08th, 2017It’s often said that in some museums you go from a masterpiece to something less in a step. The Frick, mainly the inspiration of the daughter of the steel magnate from Pittsburgh who dueled with Andrew Carnegie, each work that hangs on the walls of the Frick home in New York is perfection.
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Measure for Measure Front Page
Theatre for a New Audience
By: - Jul 07th, 2017Measure for Measure is a romantic comedy, ending with the lusty union of a Duke and a prospective nun with other nuptials pending. Yet it is an odd romantic comedy, propelled by the Sermon on the Mount. Director Simon Corwin and his team make the message contemporary. Man's darker side often conflicts with society's laws. The play comes as close to being timeless as any of the Bard’s works.
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One Act Play Marathon Front Page
36th Marathon at Ensemble Studio Theatre
By: - Jun 30th, 2017What a pleasure it is to see good new plays well-produced. The EnsembleTheatre has done this year after year for 36 seasons and they don't go stale.
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Francisco Nunez and Young Concert Singers Front Page
Bringing La Systema to Carnegie Hall
By: - Jun 27th, 2017Building new audiences can be natural if you can get young people to sing, prepare them for concert performance and invite their families to attend. Francisco Nunes, the composer and conductor, does this with his Young People's Choir. They were joined by like groups from other cities to perform music created for them. The evening was a smash hit.
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Onegin at American Ballet Theatre Front Page
David Hallberg Returns
By: - Jun 25th, 2017Coming to the American Ballet Theatre’s production of Onegin from a music and opera background, and a literary one as well, the advantages of dance are immediately apparent. This telling of the Onegin story is moving and beautiful to behold.
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The BSO Season at Tanglewood Music
Promises to Deliver
By: - Jun 25th, 2017Whisper the name "Tanglewood" and you will tickle the conscience of the novice classical music-goer, and fire the memories of those who have walked its grassy paths and visited the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Located on a sprawling estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, this is the Cadillac of summer festivals, offering symphonies, chamber music and opera to a throng of devotees who make the pilgrimage again and again.
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OperaRox Concludes NY Opera Fest Front Page
New Works at National Opera Center
By: - Jun 25th, 2017OperaRox, a passionate and persuasive group that is promoting new compositions for the human voice, presented the final program in the New York Opera Fest 2017. Clearly this is not the last word for opera.
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On Site Opera Premiers Milhaud Front Page
Guilty Mother at The Garage
By: - Jun 23rd, 2017Kenneth Cole has created a huge space for events, gatherings, parties, and yes, operas. Located far west in Mid Manhattan, On Site Opera chose it for their American premier production of Darius Milhaud's The Guilty Mother.
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Wu Man and Shanghai Quartet Front Page
Make Music Not War at Park Avenue Armory
By: - Jun 22nd, 2017The Shanghai Quartet is an internationally acclaimed chamber group which bridges the sensibilities of East and West. Focusing in their program on folk music, you could close your eyes and sometimes imagine Ferde Grofé and Aaron Copland. Bach crops up as a reference.
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Alan Gilbert Leads Concerts in the Parks Front Page
Exits in Fireworks
By: - Jun 19th, 2017Alan Gilbert gave his final New York concerts as music director of the New York Philharmonic this week, leading the annual Concerts in the Parks series in four boroughs. Wednesday's concert on the Great Lawn of Central Park was blessed with magnificent weather: clear skies and 80 degrees. Perfect.
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LoftOpera at the Muse in Brooklyn Front Page
Pergolesi's Beloved Stabat Mater
By: - Jun 18th, 2017LoftOpera is committed to bringing opera to new, young audiences in welcoming performances which can be greeted with joy by both the artists and the audience. Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, one of the world's most beloved musical settings of a 13th century Christian poem, was actualized in a Brooklyn warehouse. The audience was moved and entranced.
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Angels in America Opera Front Page
Composer Péter Eötvös Creates a Work for the Ages
By: - Jun 15th, 2017Composer Péter Eötvös took a monumental American work, Angels in America, and abstracted its spirit as an opera for the ages. Hallucinatory and death-directed, the opera version mixes spoken and played note language to convey both the anguish and rage of the victims of AIDS.
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Alan Gilbert Exits in a Blaze of Glory Front Page
Departs New York Philharmonic
By: - Jun 11th, 2017When it comes to the exit of Alan Gilbert from the post of Music Director after only eight years, the New York Philharmonic has put on its bravest face. This week’s season-ending series of concerts, (promoted as “A Concert for Unity”) have featured starry opening acts for America’s oldest orchestra.
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The Barrow Group's Expecting Isabel Front Page
Lisa Loomer Creates Theater Magic
By: - Jun 11th, 2017What's it like to create a child when sex doesn't do the job? Stripped of privacy, subjected to injection of semen into a hamster, and fending off an alcoholic parent are just part of the challenge. A hilarious treatment by talented playwright Lisa Loomer leaves us laughing and crying at once.
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Woody Sez at Irish Repertory Theatre Front Page
Actor, Singer, Writer David Lutken Stars
By: - Jun 10th, 2017Woody Sez was mounted at the American Repertory Theatre in 2012. Now the brilliant actor/singer/writer David Lutken has expanded the show by an action-packed thirty-five minutes,and deepened his take on this iconic folk singer, who speaks clearly to our times. The Irish Repertory production is spot on throughout.
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Ensemble Studio Theatre Mounts Marathon Front Page
36th Annual Event
By: - Jun 09th, 2017Joined by 100 pairs of hands from th Radio Drama Network, the Ensemble Studio Theatre presents the 36th Marathon of One Act plays. New playwrights are featured and each had a special touch as the series unfolded.
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Met Orchestra Concludes Carnegie Hall Season Front Page
How Many Ways Can You Make Songs
By: - Jun 08th, 2017It must be fun for the talented Met Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen to stretch its opera boundaries. From an early Mahler piece, once integrated into the First Symphony, to support of the dazzling Christian Tetzlaff and the quiet lullabies for children sung by Anna Sofie von Otter, the orchestra sang.
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Alan Gilbert's Valedictory Das Rheingold Front Page
Maestro Exits Over the Raindow
By: - Jun 07th, 2017The evening belonged to Mr. Gilbert, whose taut command of this orchestra over such a long and contiguous work reminded New Yorkers that his departure at the end of this season will be a terrible loss indeed.
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Gregg Kallor and the Attacca Quartet Front Page
Sheen Center Offers a Classical Music Series
By: - Jun 06th, 2017In the heart of Noho, the Sheen Center has become a hot venue for new music performed by consummate artists. Gregg Kallor premiered a Quintet honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Esa Pekka Salonen Conducts
By: - Jun 04th, 2017The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is perhaps the best orchestra now playing in New York. Because they have listened to singers for so long, they have a built in lyricism which it tops with superb musicianship. Under the baton of Esa Pekka Salonen and enhanced by the acoustics of Carnegie Hall, the orchestra made a big impact with Schumann and Mahler.
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Glory Denied on an Aircraft Carrier Front Page
Opera Upper West Presents Tom Cipullo's Opera
By: - Jun 03rd, 2017We are on the Hudson River on an aircraft carrier that was used in VIetnam. This is the setting of Tom CIpullo's wrenchingly beautiful opera, Glory Denied, which is performed below deck in the old bunk area by Opera Upper West. The setting almost matches the intensity of this opera.
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Kevin Puts Opera Preview at The Crypt Front Page
Daniela Mack and Joseph Gaines Sing An Invitation
By: - Jun 01st, 2017A preview of the Crypt Session was live streamed a 3pm on the afternoon of the concert, and immediately got 100,000 hits. Not only is the venue and the food and wine delicious in the series mounted by Unison Media, but tickets are hot as Hades.
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NY Theatre Workshop Continues the Saga Front Page
Mfonsio Udofia's Her Portmanteau
By: - May 27th, 2017Watching works in process at the New York Theatre Workshop provides special drama. The shows are mounted to perfection and the acting is superb. It must be as helpful to a young playwright crafting her work as it is engaging to audiences when theatre like the Ekpeyoung Saga begins to unfold.
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Sojourners at NY Theatre Workshop Front Page
Nine Part Nigerian Family Saga
By: - May 27th, 2017The New York Theater Workshop mounts consistently first-rate productions of interesting plays, some new and some old. Two parts of a projected nine play saga of a Nigerian family that comes to America are now playing. As we consider immigration to this country it is well to be reminded in emotional detail of our welcoming country.
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Iphigenia in Splott at 59E59 Theaters Front Page
Sophie Melville Electrifies
By: - May 18th, 2017The tale comes direct from Aulis and Euripides. Gary Owen has updated the sacrificial woman to the 21st Century, where in Wales, like many other places around the world, women are still being asked to make superhuman sacrifices. Sophie Melville's tour de force performance is superb.
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