Previews: LA SUSPENDIDA - A JAZZ METAL OPERA at Nublu Photo
by Peter Danish
- March 11, 2024
Will Berger is a renaissance man on a mission. When he's not lecturing on classical music and opera, or writing the commentaries for the Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius, or co-hosting the live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, or producing (and writing) the broadcasts' Met Opera Quiz, or writing books (Wagner Without Fear (1998), Verdi With a Vengeance (2000), Puccini Without Excuses (2005), all published by Random House) he's writing the libretto for a new Jazz Metal Opera! ...
Feature: Director Mary Birnbaum Readies EMIGRE—Oratorio by Zigman, Campbell and Walsh Photo
by Richard Sasanow
- February 27, 2024
“I think the story is about survival, and about people sheltering one another,” director Mary Birnbaum told me in our conversation about EMIGRÉ, the oratorio that features what she called “composer Aaron Zigman’s sweeping score” and the “complex storytelling” by librettist Mark Campbell and lyricist Brock Walsh. The work makes its US debut on February 29 at the New York Philharmonic in Geffen Hall, under conductor Long Yu....