Classical Music
The bottom line is that Opera in HD is a huge hit all over the United States and is transforming the art form as it succeeds. Via The Met: Live in HD, New Englanders can experience parts of Wagner’s Ring Cycle without going to New York beginning on October 9 at 1 p.m. with the…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb. October 2: The Longwood Symphony Orchestra opens its 28th season, the sixth under conductor Jonathan McPhee, with a program of Sibelius and Delius. Award-winning Zina Schiff will be soloist in the demanding Sibelius Violin Concerto. Also on the program are Sibelius’s “Karelia Suite” and Delius’ lovely “Walk to the Paradise Garden.” At…
Read MoreOpera on Tap is designed to be surprising and fun – what other opera performance encourages its singers to walk right up to your table warbling high C notes? Opera on Tap at Oberon, September 26 and 27 By Chantal Mendes World famous opera master Luciano Pavarotti wouldn’t have been caught dead performing on a…
Read MoreSnobby and sober no more! Made up of singers who perform arias and duets in bars, Opera on Tap currently presents its innovative songfests in Chicago, New York, New Orleans, and Ann Arbor. Now the concept comes to Boston, with performances tomorrow and Monday night (September 26 and 27) at Oberon in Cambridge. Anne Ricci,…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb September 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29: Free Wednesday afternoon concerts continue throughout the month. September 1: Pianist Benjamin Warsaw plays works by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, and Warsaw himself. September 8: A further celebration of Schumann’s bicentenary brings a program of songs, with soprano Lisa Lynch, mezzo Carola Emrich-Fisher, tenor Jason…
Read MoreEvery single player and singer seemed thrilled to be performing this music, absorbed in it, attentive to their masterful conductor and having a good time. It made me think how often that is not the case at symphony concerts. By Helen Epstein There were no star soloists or conductors around on Friday night and since…
Read MoreBy Helen Epstein After some peculiar programming last week, Tanglewood’s current weekend got off to a rousing start on Thursday night as Garrick Ohlsson gave a haunting, introspective, and idiosyncratic performance of Chopin. The program, emotion-packed and filled with delicacies as though the pianist could not bear to leave anything out, included nocturnes and mazurkas,…
Read MoreBy Helen Epstein This Tanglewood season, overshadowed by the absence of ailing maestros James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, and others who have canceled their appearances, has got me thinking about age and illness. There have been some compelling concerts these past two months, including Michael Tilson Thomas’s riveting Mahler renditions, but the absence of a strong…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Harvard’s two main volunteer musical events of the summer took place on consecutive nights in Sanders Theatre. The Summer Chorus, buttressed by a full orchestra, held forth on Friday, July 30, and the Summer School Orchestra followed on Saturday, July 31. The former was of special significance since the conductor, Jameson Marvin…
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Arts Remembrance: In Memoriam — Tom Stoppard