Music
-
Radvanovsky Arrives at the Met Early
James Levine is still Music Director
By: - Feb 29th, 2012Unexpectedly Met audiences were treated to Sondra Radvanovsky as Aida; in announcing the new season, Mr. Gelb ignored the Levine problem; Chicago announces a world premier, and so it goes.
-
Michael Doucet avec Beausoleil at the Colonial
Cajun Sun Brightens Berkshire Gloom
By: - Feb 25th, 2012Garrison Keillor has dubbed frequent guests and multiple Grammy winners Michael Doucet avec Beausoleil “The greatest Cajun band in the world.†During their lively gig at the Colonial Theatre we found out why.
-
Los Lobos at Mass MoCA
Prowls North Adams on April 5
By: - Feb 23rd, 2012On Thursday, April 5, at 8 PM for a concert sponsored by Berkshire Gas. Rolling Stone Magazine says, "With the exception of U2, no other band has stayed on top of its game like Los Lobos", and they are touring in support of their acclaimed new album - their first in four years - Tin Can Trust.
-
Travis Tritt at the Colonial on March 10
Country Music in Pittsfield
By: - Feb 21st, 2012Travis Tritt, will appear at The Colonial on March 10 at 8pm. With up and comer Lyndsey Highlander as a special guest, this evening of country music will delight audiences with wonderful stories, beloved country music and a rare, personal atmosphere.
-
Sneak Preview of the Met 2012-2013
The Met Opera Announces the New Season
By: - Feb 21st, 2012While wonderful singing is planned some singers who haven't been popular at the Met are returning. Good news. Sondra Radvanovsky returns for seven performances as Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo. Marina Poplyskaya is gone. Ferruccio Furlanetto returns as Philip and Dmitri Hvorostovsky will sing Rodrigo. This is so promising.
-
The Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival
Scheduled for June 30 to July 1
By: - Feb 20th, 2012The Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival, one of the most celebrated and longest-running jazz events in the world, will celebrate its landmark 35th Anniversary at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, June 30 and July 1, with a dynamic lineup of more than 20 acclaimed artists and ensembles on two stages.
-
Marriage of Figaro at Opera Colorado
Superb Staging by Comic Opera Expert David Gately
By: - Feb 16th, 2012Just because Marriage of Figaro is a great opera, with 14 of its 26 musical numbers ensembles does not mean that a production will succeed. In Denver attention has been paid to every aspect of this Mozart and the opera gleams. It's fun too.
-
Opera Notes from the Met
Ernani, Aida, and the Saga of the Ring Continues
By: - Feb 14th, 2012In support of their great young soprano, Angela Meade, the Met put three great voices on the stage for Ernani. Not your usual fare at the Met, but a thrilling performance, due locally in HD on February 25th.
-
New York City Opera Returns with La Traviata
Brooklyn Academy of Music a Hopeful Home
By: - Feb 13th, 2012After months of effort to restore an important opera company to the New York scene, the City Opera found a wonderful venue for La Traviata. Brooklyn Academy of Music is a hopeful venue for the homeless company.
-
The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies
Boston Lyric's Annex Production at the JFK Library
By: - Feb 12th, 2012Three light-house keepers off the coast of Scotland disappear without a trace. Did they succumb to "The Cry of the Beast" or did they just go mad?
-
BeauSoleil at the Colonial Feb. 24
Louisiana Band Cooks a Musical Gumbo
By: - Feb 09th, 2012Founded in 1975, BeauSoleil released its first album in 1977 and became one of the most well-known bands performing traditional and original music rooted in the folk tunes of the creole and Cajun people of Louisiana. BeauSoleil tours extensively in the U.S. and internationally.
-
Lyric Opera of Chicago: Aida
Interwoven Grandeur and Intimacy
By: - Feb 09th, 2012Verdi's Aida is a wonderful opera warhorse. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago, it was the very best of its recent outings, featuring Sondra Radvanovsky, Marcello Giordani and Jill Grove. Conducted by Renato Palumbo and directed by Matthew Lata you could not ask for a better production.
-
The Collegiate Chorale Presents Bruckner and Tippett
Carnegie Hall is Home to A Child of Our Time
By: - Feb 05th, 2012One of the consequences of the demise of Opera Boston was the cancellation of an opera by Michael Tippett. The Collegiate Chorale keeps Tippett live in a stunning performance of A Child of Our Time.
-
Andris Nelsons and Boston Symphony Orchestra
Nelsons to Conduct at the 75th Anniversary Tanglewood Gala
By: - Feb 02nd, 2012We may be years away from the installation of a new Music Director at the BSO, but Nelsons presence at an important event, made me wonder.
-
News from the Metropolitan Opera
Firing the Imagination, or Not.
By: - Feb 01st, 2012Tosca is now terrific, thanks to Tomer Zvulun, Angela Meade is more firmly planted in the wings and on stage, but the Ring ends up in the beheading of bobble-headed statues, a bore and a visual insult.
-
Ear Say: Ana Popovic and Candye Kane.
Recent CDs By Women Blues Singers
By: - Jan 31st, 2012Here are two contemporary releases by women with whom the blues have had their way, Ana Popovic and Candye Kane.
-
Rienzi Takes Avery Fisher Hall Under Eve Queler
Opera Orchestra of New York Demolishes Rome
By: - Jan 30th, 2012Rienzi, Wagner's third opera, was scheduled for an OONY concert performance in 2009, but the economic crisis cut it. Now Eve Queler returns with one of her signature pieces, and the staging was wonderful indeed.
-
Tanglewood Jazz Festival Cancelled
Labor Day Weekend Events To Be Announced
By: - Jan 28th, 2012As tickets go on sale for the 2012 Tanglewood season we are saddened to learn of the demise of the annual Tanglewood Jazz Festival. The BSO at a later date will announce plans for the now open slot of Labor Day Weekend. But it is encouraging to learn of new dates for jazz masters Chick Corea and Gary Burton as well as a date for bass player Christian McBride.
-
La Dame Pique Peaks at the Paris Opera Bastille
Vladimir Galouzine, a Great Hermann
By: - Jan 25th, 2012Singer after singer, in role upon role, hits a home run at the Opera Bastille. You might think this is the way Opera should be delivered, but we don't get it at the Metropolitan Opera, so consistent performance is a thrill in Paris.
-
Opera Bastille's Smashing Manon by Massanet
Natalie Dessay and Giuseppe Filianoti Enchant
By: - Jan 19th, 2012Let us hope that there will always be Paris, because at the Opera Bastille, there will always be opera as it is meant to be: big, thrilling, musically completely in step and in tune. Even punk and Emo seem just right on stage with the descending staircases of Kings.
-
Florian Hecker “MIT Projectâ€
Music to Challenge and Entertain the Senses
By: - Jan 16th, 2012The artist Florian Hecker primary interest is in sound and music as well as the interplay between acoustics, software development, composing and the different circulation of material in sound. Chimerization is the piece he specifically created and performed during his artist in residency at MIT . It hybridizes many disciplines - philosophy, typography, music, technology, science and more. “It is an attempt to find a materialization and exchange qualities for a utopian longing.â€
-
Catherine Russell at Mass MoCA February 18
Jazz Singer to Appear in the Hunter Center
By: - Jan 16th, 2012Catherine Russell, who has earned comparisons to jazz icons such as Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith, will share her soulful blues on Saturday, February 18, at 8pm in MASS MoCA's Hunter Center in a concert sponsored by Amtrak.
-
Jane and Jeff Hudson Rock Mass MoCA
Re-release of 30-year-old LP Flesh
By: - Jan 15th, 2012Some 200 senior citizens stayed up late last night at Mass MoCA to cheer on their peers Jane and Jeff Hudson. They were cool to the point of stoic performing loud synthrock with pulsing, robotic, rhythm tracks. The occasion marked the re-release of their 30-year-old indy album Flesh. It was a fun night.
-
Wilco Solid Sound Festival a No Go
Set To Return in 2013
By: - Jan 13th, 2012Cancel your hotel reservations and put away the tent and camping gear. Damn. There will be no Wilco Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA this June as there has been for the past two years. That's tough darts for fans and merchants alike. The rock band will perform a benefit for MoCA on a date TBA and return with the festival in 2013.
-
Le Comte d'Ory Seduces Our Gal in Zurich
Camareno, Bartoli and Olvera Scintillate at the Opernhaus
By: - Jan 13th, 2012Zurich proves that opera can be live and freshly-minted in apt productions, beautifully sung and acted and true to the composer and the form without twisting itself out of shape to satisfy. When it first opened in Paris almost two hundred years ago critics said Le Comte d’Ory was a mess, too vaudeville, and too much of a pastiche of Rossini’s previous work.
<< Previous Next >>