Life in the newspaper world these days can't help but feel like Russian Roulette. With every wave of layoffs, my position has seemed that much closer to its end. And I'm surprised that I lasted as long as I did. But as of December 8th, after 17-plus years, I will no longer be on the Philadelphia Inquirer fine arts staff. I will continue to freelance for the Inquirer, but … [Read more...] about Another classical music critic is sent into the night … and this time it’s me.
New York Festival of Song on a day of wine and roses
The New York Festival of Song is one of those distinctively urban pleasures: Its season is a series of hand-crafted programs often mixing European art song with great American popular music, drawing from New York's world-class pool of singers, pairing the right singer with the right music in exactly the right sequence. But I had to re-acquaint myself with NYFOS in the … [Read more...] about New York Festival of Song on a day of wine and roses
Bard SummerScape’s latest operatic resurrection: Dvorak takes Boris Godunov many steps further
Dmitrij is an opera that keeps growing before your very ears. And growing. And growing, until you have some of the most dramatically apt music Dvorak ever wrote for the stage. But about the time the plot strands need to be tied up - as they are in a matter of minutes of Verdi's Otello - Dvorak hits a stride that won't stop: The final act is around 90 minutes long. Walking … [Read more...] about Bard SummerScape’s latest operatic resurrection: Dvorak takes Boris Godunov many steps further
Janacek’s Vixen is re-thought and hunted down in the backstreets of London
The title, simply, is Vixen. It's not The Cunning Little Vixen or Russ Meyer's Vixen, though it was closer to the former than the latter. And true to the foxiness of the title, you had to hunt it down. Ostensibly an adaptation of the Janacek opera, Vixen was presented by a company called Silent Opera in conjunction with the English National Opera, and in a site nowhere near … [Read more...] about Janacek’s Vixen is re-thought and hunted down in the backstreets of London
The Met’s new Rosenkavalier: Hello Robert Carsen, goodbye (maybe) to Renee Fleming
Operavore, WQXR www.wqxr.org/#!/story/review-richard-strauss-der-rosenkavalier-met-opera/ Review: Richard Strauss' 'Der Rosenkavalier' at The Met Opera Friday, April 14, 2017 - 03:00 PM By David Patrick Stearns So personal is the relationship between Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and its admirers that the arrival of a new production at the Metropolitan Opera is … [Read more...] about The Met’s new Rosenkavalier: Hello Robert Carsen, goodbye (maybe) to Renee Fleming