TCHAIKOVSKY

If you cross the traditional EUGENE ONEGIN by Tchaikovsky (great even when overfilled with drama and, yes, music music music, with Konstantin Shilovsky’s co-libretto) with a touch of Ken Russell’s 1971 “The Music Lovers” (the overwrought bio-pic of Tchaikovsky with Richard Chamberlin and Glenda Jackson as his patron and wife that took the composer out of the closet for anyone who didn’t know he was there), and you might have an idea of what Heartbeat Opera’s version of the opera-cum-composer’s t...

No matter how many “star” performances the Met manages to muster in the course of a season, there’s nothing quite as exciting as the Laffont Grand Finals Concert—formerly known as the Met’s National Auditions Finals—which took place this past Sunday afternoon for its 70th season, when we got to hear up-and-comers who might have knocked our socks off at the concert itself or could at some time in the future....

It’s hard to compete with a dazzling concert hall like Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica Catalana—designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of Antonio Gaudi’s contemporaries in the modernista style. Or, with the famed Catalan (yes, not Spanish) diva Victoria de los Angeles, a Met favorite, whose centenary was being celebrated. Nonetheless, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho did quite impressively in her house debut at the Palau with the Franz Schubert Filharmonia under Tomas Grau....

Much was made of the fact that it’s been almost 20 years since Verdi’s LA FORZA DEL DESTINO was last seen at the Met. For its heralded return, they picked a choice cast (starting with Lise Davidsen), a fine conductor (Music Director Yannick Nezet Seguin) and a director (Mariusz Trelinski) who’s, well,… Two out of three ain’t bad, considering the cast. So we might as well start there....

The foray of the Met Orchestra under Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin into the concert hall the other night—Carnegie Hall to be specific, during its “Fall of the Weimar” series—was in some ways like a three-part meal that mixed the order of the courses. First came an appetizer (running less than 10 minutes) in the form of Bach’s “Fuga [Ricercata] a 6 voci” from Musical Offering, BWV 1079, a late work by the composer (1747) rethought by Anton Webern in the 20th century. Then there was dessert ...