Susan Hall
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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The New York Philharmonic in Lindberg and Beethoven Music
A Triumpant Season Ends with Something New, Something Old
By: - Jun 26th, 2010Alan Gilbert, in his inaugural season with the Philharmonic has been daring and provocative is his programming. He has also conducted traditional repertory with great flare. He has made it clear that he is going to lead his audience into the 21st century and help us get there. But not without moving us. He shares Beethoven's expressed desire in the subtitle to the Missa Solemnis: This is for the heart, not the brain.
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The New York Philharmonic Blasts Off at Avery Fisher Music
Alan Gilbert Gives Us Horns
By: - Jun 21st, 2010While onductor Gilbert declares that his penultimate program of the season is about Vienna, it was clearly all about the trumpet, in Wagner and Mozart and an end of the 20th century concerto for the trumpet by HK Gruber, a madman who deserves his own story. But this was trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger's evening, even though the composer saddled him with three horns. Saddled is a bit unfair. The audience was intimdated but the trumpterer wasn't. He even sang into his trumpet.
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The Metropolitan Opera Encore HDs Music
Local Theaters Show Opera Performances
By: - Jun 15th, 2010If you missed some of the Met's wonderful HD broadcasts over recent seasons, this is a good time to catch up. A list of dates and times follows. We have included the Met's precis for each opera and excerpts from commentary which appeared on this site.
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Stephanie Blythe Sings at Town Hall, New York Music
Performs at Tanglewood on July 9
By: - Jun 10th, 2010Free concerts in New York with A list talent can be found if you look, and one of the best venues to scour is Town Hall's. Here on Sunday, for free, lucky listeners got to hear Stephanie Blythe accompanied by Warren Jones. Blythe opens Tanglewood's season in Mahler's Second Symphony on July 9th.
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Sir Andrew Davis Conducts the New York Philharmonic Music
Susan Graham and Kent Tritle Solo Artists
By: - Jun 07th, 2010The evening's program of French music featuring Berlioz, Chausson and Saint Saens, belied conventional wisdom that the French style is cool. The early Berlioz was whipped to a frenzy, the Chausson songs were full of passion, and Saint Saens' improvisations at the end of the Third Symphony got a wild ride with organist Kent Tritle. Are we ready for a new definition?
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New York Philharmonic at St. John the Divine Music
Alan Gilbert Conducts Annual Memorial Day Concert
By: - Jun 02nd, 2010Having brought Grygory Liget's Le Grand Macabre to New York for its premier just days beforehand, the Orchestra tamed down for their annual free concert at a Cathedral. The moral of the story is that this Orchestra is never tame, particularly under its conductor Alan Gilbert, who is winding up his first season. .
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New York Philharmonic with Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre Music
Alan Gilbert Conducts as Doug Fitch Weaves His Magic
By: - Jun 01st, 2010It was a daring gambit, one that was not at all sure to capture New York. But move by move, through education and tease in equal measure, Alan Gilbert made his vision for an extended Philharmonic audience come alive. The only production which got the wildly enthusiastic response Le Grand Macabre received was the Met's "The Nose." Contemporary sounds accentuated and expanded by artful staging techniques, in this case magician Doug Fitch let loose in Avery Fisher Hall, created a bang up, popular work of high art.
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American Ballet Theater's Lady of the Camellias Dance
Premiere of John Neumeier's Choreography
By: - May 28th, 2010It's taken thirty years for the Neumeier Lady of the Camellias to arrive at the ABT, but it was worth the wait. In Neumeier's telling, we are transported by a timeless story into the emotional present by the compelling performances of Julie Kent, Roberto Bolle, Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg. Never has the sad story of a dying courtesan seemed so present. Gesture by gesture, step by step, lift by lift, we are transported to now.
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Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas at Alice Tully Hall Music
Alondra de la Parra Conducts Splendidly
By: - May 26th, 2010Just five years ago, at 24, the brilliant young Mexican conductor, Alondra de la Parra formed the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas. In an encore performance at Alice Tully Hall, she conducted the music of mostly Mexican composers in honor of Mexico's bicentennial. The Orchestra now travels to their summer home in Stowe, Vermont.
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New York Philharmonic's Le Grand Macabre Music
Alan Gilbert To Conduct New York Premier
By: - May 20th, 2010The New York Philharmonic presents performances of György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre by the composer who joined forces with Richard Strauss in the score of Space Odyssey:2001. Kudos for recent productions in London, Paris, Adelaide and Rome suggest the performances will be SRO. The work combines 15th century music, breadth of line, puppetry, adventures musical and otherwise.At Avery Fisher Hall on May 27, 28 and 29.
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Met Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall Music
Pierre Boulez Debut at 85
By: - May 18th, 2010Red flags were raised. This was one tough program. The Metropolitan Orchestra performed at the opera house on Friday evening and twice on Saturday. Yet, on Sunday, the orchestra and its octogenarian conductor, Pierre Boulez, were fresh and sharp. They performed two difficult pieces to perfection.
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Berg's Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera Music
Fabio Luisi Conducts Brilliantly
By: - May 15th, 2010Frank Wedekind who wrote the two plays Alban Berg used to create his opera, Lulu, one of the most important operas of the 20th century, traveled with the circus. The opera opens with a circus trainer introducing his animals. The last and most prized is Lulu, the subject of the opera. She is not Eve,the temptress, but rather the snake. This all happens before the curtain rises.
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The Screwtape Letters on Broadway Theatre
C.S. Lewis's Advice from the Devil Enthralls
By: - May 10th, 2010C.S. Lewis is the much beloved author of “The Narnia Chronicles†and also wrote commentary on his Christian search for a spiritual life. Among academics, he is best known as a literary critic of 16th and 17th century English works. None of his heavy duty credentials get in the way of a lively and provocative rendition of his "Screwtape Letters" put together by Max McLean and Jeffrey Fiske.
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Lend Me A Tenor on Broadway Theatre
Ken Ludwig's Play Tony Award Nominated
By: - May 05th, 2010Attention all opera impresarios. Here are the answers to all your problems. If not the answers, no problem facing you will ever seem insurmountable again. Stanley Tucci directs a razor sharp revival of Lend Me A Tenor with a mega watt cast. If you sit in the first five rows, be prepared to receive cherries and roses and so on.
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Flying Dutchman at Metropolitan Opera Music
Lori Phillips Makes a Remarkable Debut as Senta
By: - May 04th, 2010The Metropolitan Opera production of the Flying Dutchman is a visual treat-- water, water, everywhere. Readers who appreciate Henry James "The Ambassadors" will see some of the same themes at play here -- the redemption of a man by a woman. The man's failure however to connect in human terms and the ultimate dissolution of his world. Without any knowledge of the plot, the music is transporting. There are performances May 6, 10 and 14.
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Stravinsky Festival at the New York Philharmonic Music
Valery Gergiev Conducts
By: - Apr 30th, 2010Stravinsky's music is unimaginably compelling as Valery Gergiev conducts the New York Philharmonic. Oedipus Rex was a new form of musical theater when it was first produced and continues to seem as fresh and vibrant as ever in this performance.
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Evaluating The Met's Appointment of Fabio Luisi Music
Warm Welcome from the Opera Community
By: - Apr 29th, 2010James Levine has given so much joy and musical pleasure during his tenure at the Metropolitan Opera. A musician of the highest order, we have all appreciated his insights. No one can replace him. But Fabio Luisi, a classically trained conductor who started as a pianist and accompanist, clearly can convey composers' intent and musicians' best efforts. He will start his new position at the Met this fall. Berkshire Fine Arts has covered him this season.
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Tosca Triumphs at the Metropolitan Opera Music
Racette, Terfel and Kaufmann Score
By: - Apr 26th, 2010The reviews of Tosca in the fall don't whet the appetite for the new production of Tosca at the Met. But those who braved bad notices and looked forward to a new cast, are richly rewarded by Luc Bondy's new production. Turns out he was not at fault in the fall, except perhaps in thinking he had actors on the set. His ideas sprang into flower and action in April....
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Met's Armida by Rossini Live in HD May 1 Music
Renee Fleming as the Wicked Sorceress
By: - Apr 22nd, 2010Torquato Tasso wrote "Jerusalem Delivered" in the16th century and it has been used as the jumping board for more art than any other underlying property in history--except the Bible. It took 193 years for Armida, Rossini's take on the poem, to arrive at the Met. The opera will be broadcast Live in HD on May 1 in a movie theater near you.
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Million Dollar Quartet at Nederlander Theater Theatre
Great Balls Are Afire!
By: - Apr 20th, 2010Elvis lives. And so do Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. A seminal moment in rock and roll history is captured in four great impersonations -- both visual and musical. You don't have to remember those days to have a fabulous evening.
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Handel at the New York City Opera Music
Iestyn Davies Is a New Sensino
By: - Apr 14th, 2010When Handel was in Rome,the Pope banned opera. After countless performances in 18th century England, Handel operas were as dead as the opera seria form in which he wrote. The New York City Opera helped revive not only Handel, but the hot show biz style he mounted.
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Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic Music
Antonio Pappano of Covent Garden Conducts
By: - Apr 09th, 2010Two galvanic classical musicians appear at Avery Fisher Hall. They may resemble rock stars, but they wield violin and baton, rather than the electric guitars of a performance at Madison Square Garden. Antonio Pappano, a conductor of opera, is referred to as "electrifying." Joshua Bell routinely sells out venues. Can this be classical music?
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Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall Music
De Burgos Replaces Ailing Levine for Elijah
By: - Apr 07th, 2010The Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall performed Mendelssohn's glorious oratorio, Elijah. It was presented with a cast worthy of Cecil B. de Mille. It featured the orchestra, a chorus of 110 voices, four principal soloists and five ensemble soloists. The musician count does not itself make a memorable evening, but this one surely did. Maestro de Burgos, substituted for an ailing James Levine.
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San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall Music
Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts
By: - Mar 27th, 2010The San Francisco Symphony presented the premier of Post-Scriptum by Victor Kissine, which brought the house down. This was followed by Christian Tetzlaff playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major with intelligence and passion.
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The Metropolitan Opera Presents Hamlet Music
Simon Keenlyside a Brilliant Hamlet
By: - Mar 25th, 2010With such praise preceding him, Simon Keenlyside might have a tough time living up to expectations, but as he inhabits the role of Hamlet, it is clear he belongs there, as a baritone of beauty and range, and a consummate actor worthy of any stage in the world, straight theater or opera. His performance is an event not to be missed. Yet Jennifer Larmore as his wicked mother almost upstages her son.
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