Now that social contact is mostly limited to familiar faces on computer screens, Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") truly feels like something from an alternate world, if only because of the size of the performing forces. Chorus upon chorus plus eight top-caliber soloists are out to convey the ever more esoteric seven circles of heaven in a work that starts … [Read more...] about Mahler’s 8th: The antithesis of social distance in a new PhilOrch recording
Jessye Norman’s lost Isolde – and so much else
The burden of being Jessye Norman (1945-2019) – and it had to have been considerable, with that much vocal talent and so much intellectual awareness of its value – was perhaps most clearly manifested in her attitude towards recordings. The process and the permanence of recording never seemed to entirely sit well with her. At the peak of her career in the 1990s, her … [Read more...] about Jessye Norman’s lost Isolde – and so much else
Did New York Festival of Song make it ‘back to the U.S.S.R.?’
Though the New York Festival of Song has been in existence for three decades, its concerts are a continuous stream of musical wild cards — wide in scope, full of discoveries you probably couldn't hear elsewhere, and performed by singers with fine voices and open minds. Co-founder/pianist Steven Blier is the catalog-like mind behind it. His particularly adventurous annual … [Read more...] about Did New York Festival of Song make it ‘back to the U.S.S.R.?’
Can Korngold’s monster opera be saved? Even by Bard?
Getting to know opera via recording, as has often been said, is like on-line dating. No reason why it shouldn't work. And it often does. Then you walk into something like Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane with well-founded hopes, and you leave trying to reconcile what you thought it was on recording with what you've just experienced. And if Leon Botstein and Bard SummerScape … [Read more...] about Can Korngold’s monster opera be saved? Even by Bard?
Rossini goes commando in Teatro Nuovo’s ‘La Gazza Ladra’
How often does opera — that medium in which so many elements can cause major derailment — defy so many odds? I had to see La Gazza Ladra (July 18 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater in a one-night-only semi-staged performance), if only because Teatro Nuovo offered the opera a long-shot hope for redemption. Few people have explored the forgotten works of the 19th … [Read more...] about Rossini goes commando in Teatro Nuovo’s ‘La Gazza Ladra’