Music
1939 results
Page 142
Piffaro's 1616 baptism and ballet
Once upon a time, in Stuttgart
Piffaro's historical productions can't create a full reproduction of the events they're based on. But this simulation of a 17th-Century royal baptism provided some sense of the way their music felt when it was part of the day-to-day life of the court and the street.
Articles
4 minute read
Met “Boris Godunov” and its critics
Boris, we hardly knew ye (until now)
The Met's new production of Boris Godunov has been criticized because it's so long. Nonsense. At last we have a restoration of this epic of Russian history as Pushkin put it in words and as Mussorgsky transcribed it into music theater.
Articles
5 minute read
The Met's "Das Rheingold' in HD-Live (2nd review)
Here's the gold. Where's the magic?
Das Rheingold scored only a middling success when I saw its live transmission in High Definition. The staging looked expensive but failed to achieve the magic of Lepage's earlier productions.
Articles
3 minute read
Philadelphia Harp Music Festival
Crowded program, empty pews
The Philadelphia HarpMusicFest presents able musicians playing attractive programs. All it needs is an audience.
Articles
3 minute read
Philadelphia Singers' all-American concert
When composers confront technology
The Philadelphia Singers' new emphasis on American choral music wisely exploits conductor David Hayes's conviction and understanding.
Articles
4 minute read
Yo-Yo Ma at the Kimmel (1st review)
Ma's middle-aged crisis, or: Brahms, where is thy sting?
Yo-Yo Ma delivered beautiful tone but neither bite nor flashes of anger in his confusingly bland Brahms. Brahms wants his Sonata No. 1 to both shout and whisper; Ma chose to sit comfortably somewhere in between.
Articles
3 minute read
Yo-Yo Ma at the Kimmel (2nd review)
How an artist makes a difference
What force could nearly fill Verizon Hall to hear a cellist, even a great cellist, especially on a night when the Phillies were fighting for survival in the National League championship series?
Articles
2 minute read
The Met's "Das Rheingold' in HD-Live (1st review)
Ready (at last) for your close-up, Herr Wagner
The Metropolitan Opera's recent HD-Live broadcast of Das Rheingold was a more successful realization of Wagner's dramatic and musical intentions than I could have ever believed possible. The overall result was gripping psychological drama in which Wagner's marvelous music operated subliminally beneath the action, just as Wagner intended.
Choral Arts Society's Salzburg Vespers
Mozart's Vespers, in their original setting
Matthew Glandorf embedded Mozart's Salzburg Vespers in the musical elements of an actual church service. In the process he offered a new look at an old favorite.
Articles
3 minute read
Opera Company's "Otello' (3rd review)
Where's the terror?
The Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Verdi's Otello was beautifully sung, staged and orchestrated. What it lacked was violence.
Articles
6 minute read