CLASSICAL MUSIC THEATER REVIEWS

“Mozart in a party mood,” conductor Michael Francis announced as he introduced the composer's Contra Dances to begin the concert. And the same party mood prevailed throughout much of the evening. The first and third movements of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1 owe a lot to the most spirited of M...

Russia seems to be everywhere these days. Conductor and violinist, Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra performed to an enthusiastic crowd at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario. The evening was presented by Show One Productions, the same company that recently brought us ...

It's getting near the end of the season at the Met in New York and it's nice to see that they're still bringing out their “A” game, with a splendidly cast run of Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN, with the wonderful Met orchestra under the sensitive baton of Robin Ticciati, music director at the Glynd...

Beethoven's only opera, FIDELIO, was the last of three operas this season at the Met to take place in Seville, after CARMEN and BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. Third time definitely wasn't the charm....

Boston Symphony Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink has sustained a mutually respectful relationship with the BSO and its audiences for over 40 years...

Audiences at the New York Philharmonic have been known to come for the soloists and then slip out for the symphony. There didn't seem to be a lot of that at last Thursday's performance led by maestro Manfred Honeck, which began with a wonderful Beethoven Piano Concerto #1 in C Major from Inon Barnat...

Musical group SONS OF SERENDIP performed at Wausau's Grand Theater on February 17. As fate would have it, they gave an engaging and skilled performance....

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Pulling double duty as both playwright and star, Dan Castellaneta portrays Oscar Levant in his latest new work, FOR PIANO AND HARPO. Levant was a concert pianist, and contemporary of George Gershwin, whose genius gave him entree into the glittering worlds of classical music, Broadway, and Hollywood ...

Just in time for the dreaded Valentine's Day is Orlando Philharmonic's Opera program ELIXIR OF LOVE. This was my first trip to see Orlando Philharmonic and Opera Orlando. I was not disappointed and glad I found this local gem....

Majesty and Terror: Barenboim conducts Bruckner 9th...

Philly celebrates the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Album" with a special concert performance on Feb. 3, 4, 5....

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It was a privilege to hear such venerable instruments played so extremely well....

It didn't strike me until the lights were going down for the start of CARMEN last Thursday that this was the second night in a row that Met audiences were being transported to the same town in sunny Spain. Truth be told, “sunny” is hardly an adjective I'd hardly use to describe Bizet's tragedy i...

The life and times of the spy-as-femme-fatale, Mata Hari, has always attracted the interest of film and stage artists. Now we have the Matt Marks-Paul Peers opera MATA HARI—which opened New York's fifth Prototype Festival last week and continues through Saturday the 14th—though I think of it as ...

In this month's 'Hot Jazz' series' jazz concert, 'Cannonball Adderley's Gold Saxophone', saxophonist Antonio Hart brought his alto saxophone to the Haifa stage for a final show after a week of touring the country with a most talented group of both American and local musicians....

Christian Gerhaher Triumphs in all-Mahler recital at Tully Hall....

At IN WAR & PEACE, HARMONY THROUGH MUSIC, her Carnegie Hall concert the other night with the Baroque ensemble, Il Pomo d'Oro, mezzo Joyce DiDonato was in fine voice, if not in high spirits—and who could blame her? The state of the world is about as bad as it has been for a long time, with death an...

On paper, it might seem that Kaija Saariaho's L'AMOUR DE LOIN (LOVE FROM AFAR), libretto by Amin Maalouf, couldn't possibly fill a stage the size of the Met's: three characters and a chorus that bobs in and out of the action. Yet, in action, this breathtaking, shimmering piece not only seems at home...

Now celebrating their 40th anniversary season, the Emerson String Quartet was already a marquee attraction when I first encountered them in live concert during the summer of 2002 at the Aspen Music Festival. That was about the time when members of the quartet, except for the cellist sitting on a ris...

Despite some fine singing from soprano Patricia Racette (who also went the Full Monty in the title role), the Met's revival of Richard Strauss's SALOME was a little tame--something that it should never be....

An annual holiday tradition, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's CHRISTMAS SHOW is beloved by many in the Oklahoma City metro area. This year's guest artist, Kelli O'Hara, takes the show to new heights-her voice enveloping the audience like a warm blanket by the fireplace on Christmas Eve....

The rarely performed 1930's American Opera, PORGY AND BESS is given a Staged Concert treatment by Director Mitchell Butel with the support of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs....

The incredibly accomplished pianist David Lanz continues to deliver imaginative and creative works, and they've come at time in his life when he seems positively re-energized; making vital, emotional, and personal compositions with Kristin Amarie Lanz that are simply a pleasure to listen to. NORWEGI...