Music
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Bellini's La Sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera
Live HD Broadcast in American Movie Theatres on March 21
By: - Mar 18th, 2009On Saturday, March 21, there will be a live HD broadcast in American movie theatres of a new Metropolitan Opera production of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 Bel Canto masterpiece "La Sonnambula." The opera stars the soprano Natalie Dessay in the demanding role of Amina and the tenor Elvino, Juan Diego Florez, who rejects her for alleged infidelity the night before their wedding.
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Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) Celebrates 70th Birthday of composer John Harbison
Premiere: the Complete Version of John Harbison's Opera "Winter's Tale"
By: - Mar 14th, 2009Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) celebrates the 70th birthday of composer John Harbison (b.1938) one of America's most prominent artistic figures. BMOP presents the first complete performance of Harbison's revised version of "Winter's Tale" his first opera, on Friday, March 20th, 8:00 PM, at Jordon Hall.
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BSO and James Levine Release First Major Recordings
Works by Ravel, Brahms, Mahler and Bolcom
By: - Feb 20th, 2009The Boston Symphony Orchestra releases its first major recordings with Music Director James Levine—Ravel's complete Daphnis and Chloé, Brahms's A German Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 6, William Bolcom's Eighth Symphony, and Bolcom's Lyric Concerto for flute and orchestra—available on the orchestra's own BSO Classics label through its website at bso.org.
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The Metropolitan Opera Announces 2009-2010 Season
Eight New Productions Including Four Met Premieres
By: - Feb 11th, 2009Music Director James Levine conducts a new production of Tosca on Opening Night as well as four other operas Many of the world's greatest singers are featured in new roles. Debuts include conductors Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Esa-Pekka Salonen; directors Pierre Audi, Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau, Richard Eyre, and William Kentridge; designers Herzog & de Meuron, Rob Howell, Richard Peduzzi, and Miuccia Prada In its fourth season, The Met: Live in HD series will include nine live transmissions to more than 35 countries around the world
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The Enigma of Sarah Caldwell
Two Biographies Try to Unravel Her Mystery
By: - Feb 06th, 2009While she was alive Sarah Caldwell's name became a synonym for opera in Boston. She presided over a glorious period of operatic innovation, even as she ran up the bills, bounced checks and broke her word to her boards and ticket buyers alike. Two books have been written since her death in 2006, though neither help one understand what motivated her beyond a love of art. Perhaps that was all there was for her.
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Boston Pops 2009
Rites of Spring
By: - Feb 05th, 2009Barbara Cook will kick off the 2009 season of the Boston Pops on May 9. For the 15th year Keith Lockhart will conduct. Overall there is a great Pops tradition which is now 124 years old. The Pops will debut material from its new Red Sox CD. Other higlights include tributes to Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman.
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Eulogy for the Berkshire Opera Company
Will it go quietly into that good night?
By: - Jan 26th, 2009It appears that as it reaches its 25th Anniversary, there could be a funeral instead of a celebration for the Berkshire Opera Company. Its fate will be decided at a crucial board meeting in the near future.
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Show and Tell (and Play) with Philip Glass at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
The Great American Composer Returns to North Adams
By: - Jan 17th, 2009On the coldest night of the Berkshire winter, Philip Glass was welcomed back to the Hunter Center at Mass MoCA with the warmth and love that only a family of admirers can provide. For two hours he chatted amiably with Boston Phoenix critic Gerald Peary about the films he has scored, and entertained the audience by playing several excerpts from his work.
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Claremont Trio Honors Kirchner's 90th Birthday
At Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
By: - Jan 17th, 2009Composer Leon Kirchner is honored on his 90th birthday by New York based Claremont Trio and others at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2009
A Labor Day Tradition in the Berkshires
By: - Dec 18th, 2008In the span of the past few years the Tanglewood Jazz Festival has quickly become established as a Labor Day Weekend tradition in the Berkshires. For 2009 it will come following an extra week of programming featuring James Taylor. So the Second Line will rock and goove home titubating the last gasp of summer.
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Ozawa Conducts Queen of Spades
Tchaikovsky at the Metropolitan Opera
By: - Dec 15th, 2008For the first time since his debut in 1992 Seiji Ozawa returned to the Metropolitan Opera to conduct "The Queen of Spades" by Tchaikovsky. The production stars Ben Heppner as Ghermann and Maria Guleghina as Lisa. Since leaving the BSO in 2002 Ozawa has been the music director of the Vienna State Opera.
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Renee Fleming Stars in Massenet's Thais
Metropolitan Opera Live in HD on December 20
By: - Dec 13th, 2008On December 20, Renee Fleming in "Thais" by Jules Massenet will be seen on screen at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington as well at 850 theatres in 28 countries as a part of The Met: Live in HD series. We covered a recent performance at the Met in anticipation of the live broadcast one of eleven during the 2008-2009 season.
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Boston Pops to Present 32 Concerts December 11-28
Keith Lockhart to Premiere The Polar Express
By: - Nov 21st, 2008It will be Jingle Bells at Symphony Hall from December 11 through 28 as Keith Lockhart conducts the Boston Pops in a marathon of 32 concerts including the premiere of a commissioned work The Polar Express. Bundle up and enjoy a great Boston tradition.
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Tanglewood 2009
Full Schedule Extended by a Week
By: - Nov 21st, 2008Despite a tough economy the Tanglewood Music Festival is planning a spectacular 2009 season. Although there is a dense schedule another week has been added between the official end of the BSO performnances and the annual Jazz Festival. During the interim James Taylor will be in residence from August 27-30.
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Boston Symphony Orchestra Offers $20 Tickets to Those Under 40
Special Appeal for a Younger Audience
By: - Nov 19th, 2008In a special outreach to a younger audience the Boston Symphony Orchestra has launched a new program with special ticket prices targeted at those under 40. Our report includes a full schedule of available events.
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Ned Rorem's Opera Our Town set for New England Debut in Peterborough, NH
American Composer Still Vibrant at 85
By: - Oct 28th, 2008Ned Rorem celebrates his 85th birthday this week. His opera "Our Town"is based on the Thornton Wilder play. It will make its New England premiere on November 14-16 in Peterborough, NH and February 12-16 of 2009 at Tufts University. This chamber opera, according to Musical America, has "emerged as one of those rare new operas that seem destined to survive." Writer Lawrence Johnson catches up with Ned.
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Pianist Dave McKenna Was 78
A Fixture on the Boston Jazz Scene
By: - Oct 20th, 2008Dave McKenna grew up in Rhode Island. After years of touring with Woody Herman and Charlie Ventura, among others, by the 1960s he was primarily a solo artist. We heard him often in Boston including a memorable gig with Tony Bennett in a broadcast for PBS.
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TV on the Radio's New CD Dear Science
Done With Being Cool
By: - Oct 04th, 2008How do you define a band that transcends the typical limits of genre? Uh, they are synth- driven, acappella and doo-wop roots rock, indie-funk-electro with a horn section. TVOTR has a new CD "Dear Science."
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Jumpin Jambalaya at MCLA
New Orleans Musicians Cook Up a Mess of Gumbo in North Adams
By: - Oct 03rd, 2008As the MC for MCLA, Jonathan Secor stated, it was to be a "typical evening of New Orleans music." As though we were transported to the Maple Leaf Bar where Papa Grows Funk is the house band. For this Berkshire gig there were special guests Walter "Wolfman" Washington and pianist, Joe Krown. They put up a stunning wall of sound.
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The Berkshire Arts Season Summer 2008
Recalling Tanglewood and Theatre
By: - Sep 17th, 2008Memories of many wonderful nights in the Shed and under the stars on the lawn at Tanglewood. As well as superb Berkshire theatre.
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Flown Home Band at Eclipse Mill Gallery
North Adams Based Folk Musicians
By: - Sep 13th, 2008On short notice the North Adams based Flown Home Band performed a concert at the Eclipse Mill Gallery. Despite the limited lead time there was a nice turn out for the launch of a series of concerts live at the Eclipse.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Generations
Marian McPartland, Dianne Reeves, Eddie Daniels, Nnenna Freelon, Spencer Day
By: - Sep 07th, 2008There was a sense of the passing of the torch as Marian McPartland celebrated her 9oth birthday taping her NPR program with the emerging artists Nnenna Freelon and Spencer Day
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Donal Fox and Christian Scott
Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project
By: - Sep 02nd, 2008The pianist Donal Fox and his quintet, featuring the young trumpet player,Christian Scott, presented a confluence of Baroque music and jazz feeling. While hailed as represeting the "future" of jazz there is in fact a long tradition of this experimentation.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Terence Blanchard
A Tale of God's Will A Requiem for Katrina
By: - Sep 01st, 2008As New Orleans based musician, Terence Blanchard, led his quintet and a 34 piece orchetstra through his evening long composition "A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina" just three years after that tragedy, ironically, the city was evacuated and braced for Hurricane Gustav which again battered the Crescent City. It made the music all the more powerful and emotionally charged.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Opening Night
Eliane Elias Trio and Edmar Castaneda Quartet
By: - Aug 30th, 2008The much anticipated Tanglewood Jazz Festival, an annual Labor Day Weekend event, got off to a swinging start last night with the Edmar Castaneda Quartet, with Joe Locke, and the Brazilian pianist, Eliane Elias and her trio.
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