To elevate a jester to a tragic stature comparable to a Macbeth or a Lear is no easy feat. The dramatic essence of Shakespeare runs in the veins of this Rigoletto, although the story is based on the controversial Le roi […]
Not sure at all about this upcoming Vienna premiere. Would you say it’s appropriate? In KaiserRequiem, Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis merges with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem to create a musico-dramatic dance evening. It […]
The revered violinist Haim Taub, concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic for two decandes until 1988, died today at the age of 99. A student of Oedoen Partos at the Tel Aviv Academy and then of […]
A barely recognisable version of Puccini’s last opera opened in Seoul on Sunday after its director stormed out hours before the premiere and many rows of seats were removed after poor ticket sales. La Scala […]
The Syracuse Opera Company has filed for bankruptcy, following repeated cancellations over the past two seasons. The city (pop. 145,560) in upstate New York lost its symphony orchestra in 2011. Syracuse once hosted Gustav Mahler […]
In The Bleak Midwinter – Wigmore Hall Why is this the world’s most popular Christmas carol? Its message (thanks to Christina Rosetti) is miserable and, what’s more, inaccurate. Assuming that Jesus was in fact born in […]
The magnificent German mezzo, later an imposing theatre and festival director, gives a rare interview to Zsolt Bognar. Now 85, Brigitte involves her successor as director, Josef Köpplinger, as an intermediary in the conversation. Brigitte […]
Fans have uploaded a performance of Schubert’s four-hand Fantasie, played on their recent tour by Yuja Wang and Vikingur Olafsson. There is much to admire in it by way of structure and accuracy, but the […]
Those of us old enough to hear Nathan Milstein in our youth will never forget the sound, the charm, the sheer joie de vivre of a violinist who made the greatest of his rivals seem […]
The composer and educator Jack Behrens passed away earlier this month in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His 1970 orchestral work The Sound of Milo was warmly received. Behrens was chair of music theory and composition at the […]
%20Sasha%20Gusov.JPG.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "Le Piano Symphonique, Lucerne: pianist Alexandre Kantorow in a marathon from Prokofiev to Alkan & Medtner with an Anders Hillborg premiere")
