Definitely check out this article in The Times. With audio recording technology progressing at warp speed, it’s hard to imagine that just 150 years ago, it seemed unthinkable to be able to record sound and hear it played back.
The recording, that has been reconstituted by scientists, brilliantly reminds us what recorded sound inherently does, even [...]
Opera Review: “Peter Grimes” @ The Met
(Photos by Ken Howard)
Like its central character, Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” occupies a precarious place in the social consciousness. With its attractive score and mysteriously dark story, the opera evokes the same kind of scrutiny the ambiguously sinister yet psychologically compelling Grimes attracts from the local townspeople; folks don’t [...]
We’re doing it again! Check out our latest FIRST WORD REVIEW, that is, a review that comes out when a review should come out: the next morning. No two-day delay. We’re talking a 7am stint at the old PC in order to bring you our unadulterated opinion. Bring it!
Concert Review: Renée Fleming and the Boston [...]
Neh neh neh neh neh neh! Guess who got to attend the opening night of The Metropolitan Opera’s latest “new” production? That’s right, boys and girls! But you know we work for it over here. So we’re bringing you our FIRST WORD REVIEW, that is, a review that comes out when a review should come [...]
RITE OF SPRING MONDAY!
The New York Times finds two ways to cover “The Rite of Spring Project,” the Berlin Philharmonic’s joint outreach venture with Carnegie Hall.
First, Jennifer Dunning gives a surprisingly surly report in the dance section. Her main objection is to the charminess of the whole affair, which involved a couple hundred New York [...]
Opera Review: Julie Taymor’s “Die Zauberflöte” at The Met
(Photos by Beatriz Schiller)
It is hard to tell that The Metropolitan Opera’s fantastical production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (originally created in 2004) is produced by the same person who directed 1999’s Titus, the wildly visionary and intelligently sleek cinematic adaptation of Shakespear’s earliest tragedy. This Magic Flute [...]
Opera Review: Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera
(Photos by Ken Howard; doctoring by C.C.)
It cannot be that difficult to stage a good opera. I’m not talking about that rare, blow-your-mind, if-only-you-had-been-lucky-enough-to-see production that comes around every so often. (I count The Met’s Jenufa of a few years back, starring Karita Matilla, as one of those.) I’m [...]
Anne Midgette, in her review of baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber’s rendition of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin at Weill Recital Hall, falls under the aesthetic spell of Huber’s 19th-century demeanor:
Mr. Huber was the physical incarnation of the Romantic hero, with pale, milky skin; tousled fair hair; and an intensity as he bent and swayed over [...]
Opera Review: Le Nozze di Figaro at The Met
(Photo by Marty Sohl)
The Met has finally brought it this opera season. With their current production of Le Nozze di Figaro, they now have a delightfully performed and sophisticatedly designed opera that satisfies on every level, and, at last, positions the Met as the forerunner in the [...]
How I wish I had been at this concert, if only to have something more concrete to say about it. But Allan Kozinn’s review of David Del Tredici’s “S/M”, performed by Marc Peloquin in honor of the composer’s 70th B-day, is absolutely ridiculous in how seriously it attempts to treat the concept of a [...]
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