Review: Yahoo for Ermonela Jaho! at Palau de la Musica Tribute to Victoria de los Ang Photo
by Richard Sasanow
- March 13, 2024
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....
Review: No Heaven, Only Hell, in Huang Ruo's ANGEL ISLAND from Prototype at BAM Photo
by Richard Sasanow
- January 15, 2024
Huang Ruo’s artistically bold, viscerally devastating ANGEL ISLAND had its local debut the other night at BAM’s Harvey Theatre on Brooklyn’s Fulton Street, produced by Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and BAM. Its New York premiere is part of the annual Prototype Festival of opera theatre-music theatre--co-founded by BMP and HERE--which has been bringing challenging contemporary works of different stripes to town since 2013....