CLASSICAL MUSIC THEATER REVIEWS

Every year since 1989 Mainly Mozart has been bringing many of the best orchestra musicians in the country to San Diego to perform a month-long series of concerts ranging from solo recitals to orchestral. When Michael Francis succeeded founding music director and conductor David Atherton in 2015 he r...

For certain xenophobic East Coast opera lovers, the words 'St.Louis' and 'Opera' could seem like an oxymoron. However, this would be an invalid assumption....

Conductor Edo de Waart opened the last concert in the San Diego Symphony Orchestra's 2017-18 Jacobs Masterworks series with Overture to Candide. The overture has been perhaps Leonard Bernstein's most frequently programmed work during this, his centennial year. The cheeky, riotous piece is always t...

As both a celebration of the Washington National Opera and a culmination of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Leonard Bernstein at 100 celebration, last weekend's Opera Gala definitely found success. While the evening had its share of disappointments (Titus Burgess of Unbreakable K...

The Mental Health Foundation reports that there were 8.2 million cases of anxiety in the UK in 2013. All of us may feel stressed at some point in our lives, but it can be an unwanted and overwhelming strain on many people's day-to-day activities....

Two masterpieces of Baroque choral music made an excellent pairing....

I certainly hope to hear the Adelaide Baroque Orchestra again, and regularly....

BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS MAHLER'S 1ST SYMPHONY at The Church Of The Good Shepard...

For several seasons I've searched for a term to describe Gateway Opera. In a city flush with larger companies-Opera Theater St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera, and Winter Opera-which offer truly 'grand opera', what can one call this little company which gives us such delicious bite-sized treats? They're...

In celebration of what would have been the year of Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday, Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) pays tribute to the acclaimed American composer, conductor, author lecturer and pianist with a concert of THE BERNSTEIN SONGBOOK, A MUSICAL THEATRE CELEBRATION....

The San Diego Symphony, along with many others, is this year celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein. The first half of the Symphony's 'Dances Suites and Serenades' concert consisted of 'Three Dance Variations' from Bernstein's ballet Fancy Free, and Serenade (After Plat...

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's (ABO) latest concert, THE HARPIST, pairs the wonderful orchestra with the amazing talents of the acclaimed harpist Xavier de Maistre. ...

The word most-associated with Robert Lepage's THE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHER SHORT FABLES is 'magic'. And like 'magic,' you need to see it to believe it. Words simply do not do it justice....

For those new to the art form, classical music often inspires a false sense of reverie - pomp and circumstance. By subscribing to this false narrative, we're building a Trumpian wall around classical music - forcing an unnecessary impediment to its accessibility. It's impossible to show respect to t...

Sunday was gorgeous. So gorgeous, in fact, the first half of the day distracted me-cutting my trek to the Dudamel/LA Phil concert dangerously close. After running home and tossing on my short-suit, I threw myself into the middle of Columbus avenue in a frenzied flail-praying for a lit cab. Luckily, ...

BWW Review: MOZART AND BRUCKNER AT THE NY PHILHARMONIC at David Geffen Hall...

On Friday, April 27th 2018, the Emerson String Quartet collaborated with celebrated Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin. The concert, presented at Carnegie Hall, featured Mr.Kissin in each work on the program....

The classic comic love story proves timeless as The Australian Ballet's THE MERRY WIDOW returns to the Sydney stage 43 years after it debuted in Melbourne in 1975....

Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR--the story of a fragile young woman, Lucia, who's caught in a feud involving her family, the Ashtons, and the Ravenswoods--is one of the mainstays of the repertoire at major opera houses around the world, famed particularly for its mad scene. It's long been a favorite...

It was good to see Maestro Jahja Ling return to San Diego as Conductor Laureate while we await the arrival next year of his replacement as Music Director Rafael Payare. Nor did Ling disappoint. He seemed totally absorbed in the music produced by the orchestra he was largely responsible for rebuildin...

On Sunday, April 22, 2018, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra gave a matinee performance of Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms together with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor....

I recently attended a production of Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, an interesting feast of visual delight choreographed to Liszt's piano transcription of Berlioz's masterpiece – it was Fantasia for adults....

A work rarely heard in its entirety, the complete Mass in B Minor by J.S. Bach was performed at the Church of the Holy Trinity, the 'Bach' church on the Upper West Side....

Bargemusic took me on a quirky, weird journey that shouldn't have worked, but in a bizarre way, absolutely did – and we didn't even leave the dock!...

The San Diego Symphony's season continued this past weekend with guest pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane. He opened at the piano in front of an orchestra reduced to half its usual size for Mozart's 27th piano concerto. After intermission there were roughly twice as many musicians for Samuel Barbe...