Music
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Kian Soltani and Julio Elizalde at Mostly Mozart
A Little Night Music at the Kaplan Penthouse
By: - Jul 24th, 2019Cellist Kian Soltani partnered with pianist Julio Elizalde in a late evening concert in Lincoln Center's nightclub in the sky, the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse. Mostly Mozart presented Soltani, who like Mozart, was born in Austria.
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Kevin Puts Premiere at Tanglewood
Andris Nelsons Conducts Renee Fleming and Rod Gilfry
By: - Jul 21st, 2019The Brightness of Light by Kevin Puts had its world premiere at The Shed at Tanglewood. Rod Gilfry, baritone, and Puts' collaborator Renee Fleming, sang the baritone and soprano roles of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keefe, who were married for twenty-two years. Often living and working in different parts of America, they corresponded. Puts scoured the correspondence to develop an arc for his orchestral song cycle. It is a brilliantly achieved work.
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La Gazza Ladra Performed by Teatro Nuovo
Beautiful Music at the Rose Theater
By: - Jul 19th, 2019Teatro Nuovo presented Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) at the Rose Theater in New York. The company fulfilled all the promise of Rossini’s inventiveness. The simple set served to present the semiseria dramma perfectly. La Gazza or Magpie (Christopher Hochstuhl) flew about the stage at the start. A white table cloth on which the bird’s image was drawn reminded us throughout the evening that all would be well when the true culprit was discovered. A maid is accused of the theft of silverware and is under the threat of execution.
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Verdi’s Requiem Mass at Tanglewood
Andris Nelsons Conducts Massive Work
By: - Jul 15th, 2019On the specal occasion of its annual Gala there was a special treat for partrons and the general audience. The long awaited and much anticipated Verdi’s Requiem Mass was conducted by Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood.
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The Newport Jazz Festival 2019
Talking with Bass Player Ron Carter
By: - Jul 15th, 2019Bass player Ron Carter at 82, still performing around the world – will bring his trio to the Newport Jazz Festival Saturday, August 3rd at Fort Adams. He shared some thoughts about performing, music and musicianship.
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Michael Gordon's Acquanetta at Bard
Texture and Noir Images Engross in Video Opera
By: - Jul 14th, 2019Acquanetta, the video opera by Michael Gordon, a multi-dimensional composer on the contemporary scene, was premiered as grand opera in Aachen, Germany in 2006. Commissioned in chamber form by Beth Morrison Productions, it now is mounted at Bard SummerScape. Grand or not grand, the sound in this version, with members of the Bang on the Can Ensemble, is big. Loud was the word used in warning. The nature of the production, details of which remain closely held, enables the electronic bass and also the string instruments to resound throughout the hall. The music makes the show, as it should in opera.
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A Mark Morris Concert at Mostly Mozart
Satie, Ives and Schumann at the Rose Theater
By: - Jul 13th, 2019Mark Morris is as serious about music as anyone. A questioner dared to state that of course music performed for dance was not up to concert expectations. Morris quickly took exception. His standards are the highest. He expects the music to be performed as written by the composer. He decried excessive rubatos. Yet Morris is as impish as Eric Satie. Satie's Sports and divertissements inspired a world premiere commissioned by Mostly Mozart.
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Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story
Pittsfield's Colonial Theatre Shakes, Rattles and Rolls
By: - Jul 10th, 2019Berkshire Theatre Group and its Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield is producing the world premiere of Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story. The jukebox musical, rumored to be headed to Broadway, has a book by Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola with original music and lyrics by Gary Kupper. A cast of nineteen performs some 47 musical interludes. The music was fun but the long and often slow production needs a lot of work.
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Josh Groban Delights at Tanglewood
Songs and Patter
By: - Jul 03rd, 2019Starting late last night at Tanglwood the quirky man/ child, Josh Groban, delivered a chatty 90 minute set with ten minutes of encores. In tribute to James Taylor, who performs tonight, in a total gonzo move, Groban fell to his knees and "kissed the hallowed ground" of Tanglewood. All kidding aside he has truly awesome pipes.
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Passion by Sondheim and Lapine
Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco
By: - Jun 29th, 2019Passion is a distinctive and less performed work from one of the greatest creators of musical theater, and this production captures its essence. Sondheim enthusiasts will definitely want to see it, and it is well worth experiencing for the broader public as well
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La Voix Humaine Mixes Poulenc and Cocteau
DIVAria Brings Emotion Forward
By: - Jun 28th, 2019The Human Voice/La Voix Humaine by Francis Poulenc and Jean Cocteau melds text from the play by Cocteau with the monologue opera Poulenc was inspired to write. DIVaria and Sergej Productions often work together to present works pared down to their emotional heart. They effectively reach audiences unfamiliar with the opera form by drawing them in to beautiful music and understandable stories.
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Boston Pops Celebrates Queen
James Burton Conducts with Marc Martel
By: - Jun 28th, 2019For the past eight years the Candian Marc Martel has toured performing the music of Freddie Mercury. Rami Malek won an Oscar for portraying him in "Bohemian Rhapsody." That was among the songs that Martel performed in Boston Pops Celebrates Queen. Conducted by James Burton the orchestra rocked the Shed.
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Green Wood Cemetery Hosts Voyage Sonique
Transcendant Music Making at the Angel's Share
By: - Jun 26th, 2019Andrew Ousley has instituted the most exciting and comforting series of concerts in the greater New York area. Using unusual spaces which afford superb acoustics and warming the audience up with excellent whiskeys and cheeses, followed by moonlit walks under a canopy of glorious first growth trees, the audience might end up in Catacombs.
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Into the Woods Launches Barrington's 25th Season.
Sixth Production of a Stephen Sondheim Musical
By: - Jun 23rd, 2019Barrington Stage always front ends an enticing musical. For the sixth time it's Stephen Sondeim. Into the Woods, with James Lapine, launches the 25th season on the Boyd-Quinson Main Stage in Pittsfield.
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Richard Thompson at Tanglewood
With '60s British Band Fairport Convention
By: - Jun 22nd, 2019Richard Thompson has been in the music limelight for over 50 years. His British background and love of anything Scottish, prose wise, music wise or lyric wise, has helped this former member of the '60s band, Fairport Convention catapult his career to a new generation.
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Rusalka by Antonín Dvorák
Produced by San Francisco Opera
By: - Jun 22nd, 2019This production shows Rusalka in all its glory. Yet the opera is not often performed in this country, despite the resurgence of Czech opera. The clock time, a little excessive at 3:40 including intermissions, poses many additional costs and burdens.
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Stonewall the Opera, World Premiere
Iain Bell and Mark Campbell with NY City Opera
By: - Jun 22nd, 2019Stonewall, an opera by Iain Bell with libretto by Mark Campbell, had its world premiere at the New York City Opera. The work was commissioned as part of a commitment by NYCO to produce an LGBT Opera during Pride Month every year. It is a triumph for the artists and the company.
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Paul Pelkonen of Superconductor
Recalling a Brilliant Music Critic
By: - Jun 17th, 2019Paul Pelkonen, a brilliant critic, died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 46. Paul was one of the great pleasures of reporting on music. He loved it as much as anyone could, and knew more about it than most people. His taste was impeccable.
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Chris Thile At Tanglewood
A Musical, Comedic Extravaganza
By: - Jun 16th, 2019Garrison Keillor and 'A Prairie Home Companion' are out to pasture. Chris Thile, successor and host of 'Live From Here' made their second appearance at Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Massachusetts. The musical, comedic, live radio show on American Public Media radio stations featured Thile and his back-up band of musicians, a female trio, a comedian and a pianist-composer-singer from Hudson, New York.
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Experiencing Barbara Hannigan
Ojai Music Director 2019
By: - Jun 13th, 2019As a conductor, Barbara Hannigan is full of physical energy and a dynamic beat. Listening to her sing and conduct feels intimate, intuitive, and collaborative. Bowled over by Hannigan’s deep musicality, her sense of the proper degree of vibrato is often overlooked. She has just the right amount of delicate breath in each note, giving the slightest hint of texture to a smooth and pure line. One’s sense of this may be a matter of taste, but the style suits the music she chooses to sing.
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Ojai Festival Magic Making 2019
Thomas W. Morris and Barbara Hannigan
By: - Jun 12th, 2019The Ojai Music Festival in California is almost 75 years old. In this magical setting an hour and a half north of Los Angeles, music making is very much here and now. Each year, an artistic director selects a music director and works with her to program four days of performance, talk and film screenings. While coming for one program undoubtedly gives pleasure, the maximum effect of this festival is to be had by immersion. This is not your ordinary concert program. One performance follows another by design and relationships become more clear as the days pass.
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Georges Bizet’s Carmen
At San Francisco Opera
By: - Jun 10th, 2019Carmen is conducive to fresh, modernized productions, often with changes in time period, geography, and more. Here we have a traditional approach, including the original spoken dialogue, which mark it as an opera comique. This rendition confirms why the opera has stood the test of time.
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The Flamingo Kid at Hartford Stage
Delightful New Musical
By: - Jun 07th, 2019Darko Tresnjak is going out with a delightful, tuneful musical that will touch your heart. For his last show as artistic director at Hartford Stage he has directed the world premiere musical, The Flamingo Kid now through Saturday, June 15.
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Dr. John at "77"
Voodoo Hoodoo at MASS MoCA in 2002
By: - Jun 06th, 2019New Orleans master Dr. John has died. Perhaps he was 77 but like most aspects of the musician it is yet another factoid swathed in swamp gas. On June 1, 2002, with singer Jimmy Scott, he jammed the inner court yard of MASS MoCA. Over the years I covered him numerous times including his witch doctor Gris Gris phase in the late 1960s. He long ago earned a spot in the pantheon of America's greatest musical tradition.
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Brian Wilson Cancels Tanglewood
BSO Has Special Offer for Ticket Refunds
By: - Jun 06th, 2019Tanglewood would like to offer ticket buyers the opportunity to exchange into any concert at Tanglewood this summer, with the exception of the James Taylor performances on July 3 and 4, which are sold out. Patrons who choose to exchange their Brian Wilson ticket(s) for another Tanglewood performance (see list below) will receive an additional bonus, an undated Tanglewood lawn ticket—a $24 value—for each ticket exchanged, valid for any Boston Symphony or Boston Pops concert throughout the season (not valid for Popular Artists Series concerts).
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