Music
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The Collegiate Chorale Presents Bellini
Tanglewood's Own Jamie Barton Stars
By: - Dec 06th, 2012The melodies are glorious, but this performance of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda featured the chorus, a character in the opera, and a magnificent performance by the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie.
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The New York Philharmonic for Very Young People
Ears Wide Open, Mouths Zipped
By: - Dec 03rd, 2012Classical music takes exposure and if it is to continue to thrive in this country, children have to start listening early. The New York Philharmonic serves up a perfect introduction.
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Rita Coolidge at the Clark
Heart Warming Holiday Concert
By: - Dec 01st, 2012Last night at the Clark Art Institute in ever sense there were chestnuts roasting on the fire as Rita Coolidge, backed by the Williamstown Gospel Choir, delivered a heart warming program of Christmas music. Between songs she chatted intimately with the audience sharing insights to her Cherokee heritage, comments about her one and only ex husband, Kris Kristofferson, and life on the road. The set of carols was peppered with top forty hits gleaned from two Grammy awards and a life on the road that started on tour with Delaney and Bonnie in the early 1970s.
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Wilco Tickets on Sale
Solid Sound Festival Returns This Summer
By: - Nov 30th, 2012OMG, OMG. Hurry hurry hurry. Wilco Tickets are on sale to Mass MoCA members starting today. The "early bird" three day passes at a bargain $99 will go quick as a blink. But once they're gone there will be a discounted $124 for the passes which after this window of opportunity will cost $149. So be the first kind on your block to score passes to this sure to be awesome event.
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Rita Coolidge Discusses Her Cherokee Heritage
Part One of a Dialogue with the Renowned Singer
By: - Nov 28th, 2012Prior to a Christmas gig at the Clark Art Institute on Friday, November 30 we spoke at length by phone from her home north of San Diego. Now a grandmother of three by a daughter with former husband, Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson, we delved deeply into her Cherokee heritage. That led to rewarding collaborations exploring Native music with Robbie Robertson. This is part one of a dialogue.
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Two Time Grammy Winner Rita Coolidge
Delta Lady on Surviving Mad Dogs and Englishmen
By: - Nov 28th, 2012Growing up the daughter of a Baptist preacher in Tennessee, as a kid, Rita Collidge listed to R&B broadcast by WLAC out of Gallatin.Hearing Little Richard for the first time she was shaking all over. After Florida State and a year in Memphis she drove to California with Leon Russell in his Thunderbird. She recorded with Delaney and Bonnie before heading out solo which she has been doing ever since. There was a stint as a duo with Kris Kristofferson the father of her daughter. Then the epic tour of Mad Dogs and Englishmen with Joe Cocker who remains a close friend. Through it all she remained level headed while true to her faith and values.
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Tanglewood 2013
Five Pops But No James Taylor
By: - Nov 27th, 2012Because three Pops concerts last summer drew audiences of 10,000 each the number is upped with two more this coming season. The kickoff on June 23 will feature comic and banjo player Steve Martin. On the all important and yet to be fully announced July 4th weekend Keith Lockahrt will conduct Pops with guest artist, the Country singer, Vince Gill. Michael Feinstein and Audra MacDonald are also penciled in for Pops as well as the perennial John Williams Film Night and the epic Tanglewood on Parade.
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Monteverdi's Orfeo at Boston Early Music Festival
Timeless Moral: Don't Look Back
By: - Nov 26th, 2012Aaron Sheehan in the role of a lifetime as Orfeo, in the oldest work in the opera repertory. Boston Early Music Festival cast shines with youthful commitment. Although Orfeo was his first opera, Monteverdi had an innate sense of drama. He chose a simply dramatic story to set, and his music in its variety of form and mood, added to the drama.
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Massenet's Werther at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Matthew Polenzani Wows in Title Role
By: - Nov 24th, 2012Debussy wrote in his obituary of Massenet that he was the most beloved of musicians, but his colleagues never forgave him his power to please. He painted in pastel colors and whispered melodies in works composed. In this mounting at the Lyric, Werther's suave melodies, the intimacy of his characters, and the elegance of the music were realized in a fresh, apt and highly entertaining production.
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Joyce DiDonato Captivates Carnegie Hall
Il Complesso Barocco Accompanies Our Premier Mezzo
By: - Nov 20th, 2012Joyce DiDonato returned to Carnegie Hall to perform scenes and arias of Drama Queens from Cleopatra to Poppea. Sweeping onstage in smashing power red silk, her bustle suggesting an important avoir du pois. DiDonato, like current pop star Beyonce, appears to have attended every detail of her performance.She then focuses on her songs on stage. She is both imposing in her talent and her demeanor.Warm, inviting the $10 student rush attendees in the rafters to enjoy.
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Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage
Conrad Susa's Transformations
By: - Nov 18th, 2012Two midcentury operas played on Boston stages with mixed results. Tippett's early opera brought down by his ponderous text. The text-centered Susa/Sexton collaboration downplays the terror at the heart of her poetry.
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Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Beethoven Ninth
Revolutionnaire et Romantique Triumphs at Carnegie Hall
By: - Nov 17th, 2012Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has been compared to the greatest of all human achievements: the pyramids, Machu Pichu, and Angkor Wat. None of the myriad of appropriations by popular media, "A Clockwork Orange" among them, has diminished Beethoven's testament to man’s freedom.
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Thomas Pasatieri's World Premier at DiCapo Opera
Catherine Malfitano Sings On
By: - Nov 10th, 2012A compelling monopera with libretto by Daphne Malfitano is mounted by Di Capo. In a small setting, but with big music, words writ large and the score beautifully sung, a great evening of opera as it should be.
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Boston Lyric Opera's Flawless Madama Butterfly
Yunah Lee Soars as Butterfly
By: - Nov 09th, 2012Over the past five years "Madama Butterfly" is the seventh most produced opera internationally. Many opera goers have had enough. But there are never enough Butterflys of the quality of the BLO's production. What’s extraordinary about Lee’s performance is not so much the singing, although that is all you could wish for, but her acting at the micro-level. Every movement, every gesture is not hers, but Butterfly’s.
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Rita Coolidge at the Clark Nov. 30
Annual Holiday Walk Weekend in Williamstown
By: - Nov 08th, 2012Like all of her musical endeavors, A Rita Coolidge Christmas is a project that comes straight from the heart, reflecting the love she feels for the holiday and the many memories it evokes. Memorable Coolidge chart-toppers include “Fever,†“We’re All Alone,†“One Fine Day,†“(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher,†“The Way You Do the Things You Do,†“All Time High,†“Superstar,†and many others.
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Arlo Guthrie at the Colonial Theatre November 16
Celebrating Woody's Hundreth Birthday
By: - Oct 30th, 2012Arlo Guthrie will play the Colonial on November 16 at 8pm to honor his father, Woody Guthrie, and all that he contributed to Folk Music. For this concert only, Arlo will be accompanied by his family, to celebrate Woody Guthrie's life and music.
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Simon Boccanegra Rules at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lessons in Superior Opera Production
By: - Oct 29th, 2012Elijah Moshinsky directs, Sir Andrew Davis conducts, and the singers, each and every one, including Thomas Hampson, Krassima Stoyanova, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Frank Lopardo and Quinn Kelsey keep you in their thrall. A report on Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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Charles Dutoit Conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Stravinsky's Le Rossignol and L’Enfant et les sortileges of Ravel
By: - Oct 29th, 2012With its French and Russian traditions, the BSO seemed the ideal orchestra to present these two rarities. But the Stravinsky had never been done before, and the Ravel only 3 times. Both works are oddities within the composers’ oeuvre, but that makes them even more of a delight to encounter.
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World Peace Orchestra Celebrates Solti Centennial
Lady Solti Presents Solti's Life in Music
By: - Oct 21st, 2012Prince Charles writes of his admiration for George Solti, a committed humanitarian and passionate advocate of the cause of international peace and understanding. Carnegie Hall was the setting of his centennial celebration.
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Handel Rarity Partenope by Boston Baroque
Amanda Forsythe and Owen Willetts Shine as Vocal Soloists
By: - Oct 21st, 2012Partenope is the Queen of Naples in this comic romp by George Frideric Handel. Playing the queen like a reality series star, Amanda Forsythe leads cast in comic and vocal bravura. It’s hard to believe but as recently as 25 years ago the Italian-language operas of George Frideric Handel were rarely heard, while his English-language oratorios were a mainstay in Anglo-Saxon countries.
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The MET Orchestra at Carnegie
Slow Flows the Don Under Semyon Bychkov
By: - Oct 17th, 2012A world-reknowned conductor, Semyon Bychkov, led the Met Orchestra in Wagner and Strauss. James Levine has been announced as conductor of the May Carnegie concert. Fabio Luisi has said he is not available as a back up.
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The Vespers At Eagle Hill Cultural Center
Nashville Band a Solid Hit.
By: - Oct 16th, 2012What began as a delicate and subtle seeking of a fragile melody on the dobro by Bruno Jones, was shattered as the group’s hoyden, Callie Cryar, stepped to the microphone and let loose...
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Riverside Blues and Barbecue Festival
Greenfield Hosts 2nd Annual Contest
By: - Oct 12th, 2012Part I - Blues In this subculture, mention the three B's and everyone knows you are talking about Blues, Beer and Barbecue. Riverside served up plenty of each. First, about the music.
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B.U. Fringe Festival Presents Massenet Rarity
Explores Theme of The Ladies of the Camellias
By: - Oct 08th, 2012Risk-taking annual Fringe Festival goes beyond normal student production formula. Three-part festival looks at tragic role of the courtesan in 19th century art, focusing here on Manon Lescaut and Marguerite Gautier in works by Massenet, Dumas and Verdi. The theme is “The Ladies of the Camellias,†and it attempts to probe how 19th century French and Italian playwrights and composers dealt with the role of the fallen woman.
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The Chicago Symphony at Carnegie II
Muti Continues Our Musical Education
By: - Oct 08th, 2012School has never been more fun and moving than it is with tutor Riccardo Muti introducing his native composers, Martucci and Respighi, and also Dvorak, who helped to jump start his career.
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