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’
Nixon in China comes to Princeton, literally smarter than ever
Though John Adams' first opera, Nixon in China, never felt particularly foreign, everybody from singers to directors to conductors to critics needed a few decades to determine what's there and how to draw the most out of it. The new Princeton Festival production played only two performances, June 23 and 30 at the McCarter Theatre Center, but did so with a welcome sense of … [Read more...] about Nixon in China comes to Princeton, literally smarter than ever