Music
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A Fall Preview - A Lot to Take In.
Notable Folk Scheduled Across Mass
By: - Sep 22nd, 2013Back from life in a Nova Scotian tent, I proffer upcoming events of uncommon interest to myself and hopefully to many of you scheduled this fall in a number of MA venues.
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Conductor Michael Christie
Continues as Music Director of Minnesota Opera
By: - Sep 19th, 2013Conductor Michael Christie continues as Music Director of Minnesota Opera, a post he began in fall 2012, leading three productions during the 2013-2014 season. Christie conducts Puccini’s Manon Lescaut from September 21-20, 2013, Richard Strauss’ Arabella from November 9-17, 2013, and Verdi’s Macbeth from January 25-February 1, 2014 at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (345 Washington Street).
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Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road at Carnegie Hall
Performance October 16
By: - Sep 11th, 2013On Wednesday, October 16 at 8:00 p.m., in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma returns to Carnegie Hall to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The Silk Road Project—an initiative aimed at promoting innovation and cross-cultural understanding through performance and the arts.
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Harry Connick, Jr. at Tanglewood
Blustery Last Night in the Shed
By: - Sep 01st, 2013With thunder and lightning it rained cats and dogs for the Shed performance of Harry Connick, Jr. at Tanglewood. We managed to stay sky high and bone dry through the best non classical performance of the season. Connick charmed the audience with the full range of his vast musical talent. He sang several songs from the new CD Every Man Should Know his 30th and 7th that he entirely composed and arranged.
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Barbiere at Hubbard Hall
Rossini Opera an Unqualified Success
By: - Aug 29th, 2013Rossini's Barber of Seville has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has held its position as a masterpiece of musical comedy for 200 years. It is one of the few operas which still has its talons in popular culture, with Figaro resonating in modern sensibilities as the everyman who pulls all the strings. Hubbard Hall Opera Theater does great justice to the work. .
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Trial by Jury at Hubbard Hall
Short but Sweet
By: - Aug 29th, 2013Part musical, part opera, this production is a good blend of both, featuring hilarious dance numbers and strong voices that have no need of amplification to be heard. Trial by Jury is the “second-stage†show in this summer’s line-up at Hubbard Hall.
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Film Night at Tanglewood
John Williams with Audra McDonald and David Newman
By: - Aug 25th, 2013For the annual Film Night at Tanglewood for the first half of the program John Williams passed the baton to David Newman the son of the legendary Alfred Newman. There were six songs and an encore by guest artist and Tony winner Audra McDonald. One of the largest audiences of the season enjoyed the broadly appealing program.
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Michael Feinstein and Friends at Tanglewood
Pops and The Great American Songbook
By: - Aug 17th, 2013Michael Feinstein brought his Great American Songbook to Tanglewood in what is evolving as an annual guest appearance with Keith Lockhart and Pops. His guests included Tony winner Faith Prince and Cheyenne Jackson. It was a chilly August evening with a hint of Fall and ultra cool swinging music.
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Jane Hudson of Williamstown’s New CD
Links and Bridges on Cutting Edge
By: - Aug 10th, 2013In a discussion of her new solo CD “Jane Hudson Links and Bridges†the Williamstown based artist/ musician and partner in Hudson’s Antiques at Mass MoCA states that “The title comes from reading Giles Deleuze, the brilliant postmodern French philosopher, who explores the viral connections, unexpected trajectories and other valences of experience.†Pretty heavy.
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Esperanza Spalding at Tanglewood
Grammy Winner Fills Ozawa Hall
By: - Aug 05th, 2013With the face and figure of a fashion model in a sexy backless dress they were hanging from the rafters at Ozawa Hall for a performance by multiple Grammy winner, the 29-year-old wild child, Esperanza Spalding. She sang, played bass and led the band through her arrangements.
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Aida is Grand Opera Under James Conlon
Ravinia Brings Out Everyone's Best.
By: - Aug 04th, 2013Maestro Conlon promised that the audience would be thrilled, chilled, dazzled and besotted by his Aida, even though he could not bring on the elephants. Maestro Conlon delivers on his promises.
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Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre in Cambridge, NY
Barber of Seville August 16 to 25
By: - Aug 02nd, 2013Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre is located at 25 E. Main St. in Cambridge, NY. HHOT’s performances of Barber of Seville— Aug. 16, 17, and 22 at 8 pm and Aug. 24 and 25 at 2 pm — will be fully costumed and staged, sung in Italian (with supertitles), and accompanied by a 19-piece orchestra conducted by Hubbard Hall favorite, Maria Sensi Sellner (Don Pasquale, La Traviata).
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Steve Miller Rocks Tanglewood
40th Anniversary Joker Tour
By: - Jul 30th, 2013On a Monday night The Steve Miller Band drew an audience of hipster pensioners for a two hour rock show in the Shed at Tanglewood. Lenox was a one nighter of Miller's 35 venue Joker Tour in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the seminal rock album.
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The Merry Wives of Windsor at BU's Tsai
Nicolai's Rarely Done Opera Worth Waiting For
By: - Jul 29th, 2013The familiar story of the fat knight Falstaff's comeuppance by the two married women he attempts to seduce takes on a new complexion in Otto Nicolai's best known work. Boston Midsummer Opera’s production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor" was given three performances at Boston University's Tsai Performance Center.
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Music from Exile by James Conlon at Ravinia
A Ravishing Case Made for Squelched Music
By: - Jul 27th, 2013James Conlon, music director of the Ravinia Festival, laughs as he points out that the three B’s of music, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, actually top a long list of musical Bs. Some composers who are not prominent on the A list of Bs should be.
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More Tanglewood Withdrawals This Weekend
Programs Continued as Scheduled with Substitutes
By: - Jul 23rd, 2013Because of a freak accident at home yesterday the BSO announced that newly appointed conductor, Andris Nelsons, will not be able to make his only Tanglewood appearance this season. Ironically this is an all too vivid reminder of the ongoing cancellations of James Levine. Today the other shoe dropped with more cancellations and substitutions of the pending programs this weekend.
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Eric Owens to Sing Bass Role in Verdi Requiem
Tanglewood Subbing at the Last Moment
By: - Jul 23rd, 2013Make no mistake. Eric Owens is one of music's leading ambassadors today. Despite a demanding schedule as the go-to bass for roles ranging from Alberich to Handel's Hercules, Eric Owens is everywhere. Now he steps in for Ferruccio Furlanetto to heal the wounds of Andris Nelsons absence at Tanglewood. Bravo Eric Owens.
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Andris Nelsons Withdraws from Tanglewood
New BSO Director Suffers Concussion
By: - Jul 22nd, 2013One of the most anticipated Tanglewood concerts this summer was the only scheduled appearance of the newly appointed BSO director Andris Nelsons. Accordingly his conducting Verdi Requiem on July 27 has been cancelled. He was scheduled to meet with the media on Friday. The concert will be presented with a yet to be announced guest conductor.
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Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend
Downtown Lee July 25-28
By: - Jul 16th, 2013The jazz weekend kicks off at 6pm on Thursday, July 25 with the screening of “A Life in E Flat,†a biographical profile of the legendary alto saxophonist, NEA Jazz Master and 4-time Grammy winner Phil Woods. Through a special arrangement with Jazzed Media, producers of jazz films and CDs, the screening at the Lee Library on Main Street is free and open to the public.
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EarSay: A Plea for Diction, Plus
CDs by Darlingside, Alistair Olgivy, Joe Johnson
By: - Jul 14th, 2013When I write anything, be it an email or an installment in this series, my primary purpose is, as I presume is that of most writers, to clearly as possible express my ideas for you to consider. I would suppose that a songwriter has the same purpose, expressing clearly their ideas within the reinforcing framework of melody, rhythm and instrumental accompaniment.
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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Opens Ravinia
Dohnányi, Ax and the Orchestra Entrance in Beethoven
By: - Jul 13th, 2013You would never know that symphony orchestras are having a tough time if you sit in the hall or the shed of a Ravinia event. Like Tanglewood orchestras are fighting back for their place in the musical sun. And they are succeeding in their efforts to make classical music relevant for our times.
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Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in Zurich
Anja Kampe, Bryn Terfel and Matti Salminen Star
By: - Jul 06th, 2013A clock ticks on stage. We are in real time. The opera, through composed, is through produced. Kampe, Terfel and Salminen head a superb cast. Young conductor Alain Altinoglu brings forth all the glories of the score. Zurich, under music director Fabio Luisi, is an opera house you can count on.
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Scorching BSO Tanglewood Opening Night
Joshua Bell and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos’s Tchaikovsky
By: - Jul 06th, 2013The Koussevitzky Music Shed and lawn were packed for the opening last night of the 76th season of BSO's renowned Tanglewood Music Festival. Solo violinist Joshua Bell and conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos’s performed an all Tchaikovsky program. While heart warming, under sauna like conditions, the musicians and audience were over heated and drenched by the end of a muggy, oppressive evening.
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Has Anybody But Me Even Noticed - A Rant!
Ear Say- CDs by Deanna Bogart and The Mannish Boys
By: - Jun 30th, 2013Here I unburden my soul regarding some of the shortcomings I perceive in the cultural memory of contemporary artists, or maybe I am just making mountains out of molehills. After that, I share my pleasure in my cd discovery of Deanna Bogart and The Mannish Boys.
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Terence Blanchard Returns to Tanglewood
Supports New CD Magnetic on Blue Note
By: - Jun 29th, 2013In 2008 Terence Blanchard was a headliner for the now cancelled annual Tanglewood Jazz Festival. His quintet performed with the 34 oiece Tanglewood Jazz Orchestra in his A Tale of God's Will for the Spike Lee HBO documentary When the Levees Broke. He returned to Tanglewood last night with his quintet in a concert of hard bop straight ahead jazz.
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