Unanswered Question

Conrad L. Osborne’s detailed assessment of the new Met “Tristan und Isolde,” a definitive critique of Yuvan Sharon’s obtrusive production, is compulsive reading for all remaining Wagnerites. Even more distressing than this version’s shortcomings is the acclaim it has received and the influence it may exert on opinion and practice. Osborne writes: “The [production’s] … [Read more...] about “In Constant Motion for its Own Sake” — the Met’s New “Tristan”

Today’s Boston's "The Arts Fuse” carries an investigative piece of mine exploring how the Boston Symphony trustees decided not to hire Leonard Bernstein as the orchestra’s Music Director in 1949 even though he was the chosen successor of Serge Koussevitzky. This story is not irrelevant to the current controversy over the termination of Andris Nelsons, or the Chicago Symphony’s … [Read more...] about Why Did the Boston Symphony Decide Not To Hire Leonard Bernstein? Did that Decision Change the Course of American Music?

Reviewing my new novel “The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age,” the British critic Clive Paget writes in “Musical America” that it’s “a richly detailed depiction of [New York] at the apogee of the Gilded Age and its embrace of all things Wagnerian.” His review reads in part: Horowitz sees Seidl’s sudden death at the age of 47 as a national and cultural calamity. … [Read more...] about “Blows Off the Dust of History”

In Verdi, the elephants are in Aida. In Wagner, the elephant in the room is a pamphlet: “Judaism and Music.” It seems the Rosetta Stone of Wagner scholarship, the central text that lays bare what lurks hidden in his life and work. Beyond a doubt, it is an egregious text, unforgivable and dangerous. Less egregious is a necessary preliminary topic: Wagner’s actual relationships … [Read more...] about Was Richard Wagner a “Monster”?