Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 12

BWW Review: ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA WITH MAHAN ESFAHANI, HARPSICHORD at 92nd St. Y
by Joanna Barouch - May 13, 2019

Members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed at the 92nd Street Y with virtuoso harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in a concert which included works by Martinu and de Falla....

BWW Review: Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty in Concert at Des Moines Symphony: A Night I Will Always Remember
by DC Felton - May 12, 2019

Over the last 5 years, Des Moines Symphony and Des Moines Performing Arts have come together to present a concert with one of Broadway's brightest stars. It has become a yearly tradition for me as well. Some of the past concerts have included Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Kristin Chenoweth, and Les...

BWW Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at The Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - May 05, 2019

Jahja Ling was the San Diego Symphony Orchestra's conductor and music director for 13 years. During that time he was responsible for hiring the 70 new musicians who participated in a huge leap upward in the orchestra's precision and sound. Now the SDSO's Conductor Laureate, he has returned to apprec...

BWW Review: SIMON SINGS PORGY AND BESS at Des Moines Symphony: A Jubilant Evening of Beautiful Music
by DC Felton - April 28, 2019

It is always a jubilant evening when I get to see the Des Moines Symphony, and their most recent concert was no different. I had the pleasure of attending the Saturday evening performance of 'Simon Sings Porgy and Bess' and was treated to an evening of stunning music. One thing I appreciate about th...

BWW Review: KATHLEEN FERRIER AWARDS 2019 FINAL, Wigmore Hall
by Sophia Lambton - April 28, 2019

Stupendous singing from a group of students battled old professionals who didn't dare reward risks....

BWW Review: MOZART REQUIEM Clashes With Sunny Salieri Symphony
by Perry Tannenbaum - April 16, 2019

Well-aware of the Peter Shaffer implications of programming MOZART'S REQUIEM with a Salieri symphony, Charlotte Symphony flipped the script, revealing a happy-go-lucky Salieri and a fearsome Mozart....

BWW Showstopper: Ride 'Em, Valkyries, in Part Two of the Met's RING CYCLE
by Richard Sasanow - March 27, 2019

There's lots to enjoy in the Met's revival of DIE WALKURE, the second part of Richard Wagner's great tetralogy, DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN, better known simply as Wagner's Ring Cycle, which had its first performance of the season on Monday night--all five hours of it!--under the pulsating control of Ph...

BWW Review: What Retirement? Fleming Soars in Final Scene from CAPRICCIO with the Boston Symphony under Nelsons
by Richard Sasanow - March 22, 2019

Since my days as a pothead are long gone (LOL)—did anyone ever watch 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY without a little help from a friend?--I came to the Boston Symphony's (BSO) concert at Carnegie Hall the other night more interested in hearing the excerpts from Richard Strauss's CAPRICCIO, including Renee Fl...

BWW Review: WNO's Exquisite EUGENE ONEGIN at the Kennedy Center
by Benjamin Tomchik - March 12, 2019

Washington National Opera's (WNO) Eugene Onegin is exquisite! The entire evening soars like a dream with pitch-perfect performances led by the immaculate Anna Nechaeva as Tatiana....

BWW Review: EDO DE WAART AND THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - March 08, 2019

Edo de Waart began his official tenure as The San Diego Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor with a program of three 20th Century works of, to receptive listeners, quiet reassuring beauty. The concert opened with 'The Walk to the Paradise Garden,' a between-scenes interlude from British co...

BWW Review: 100 YEARS OF BERNSTEIN: CZECH NATIONAL SYMPHONY, CONDUCTED BY JOHN MAUCERI, MEZZO SOPRANO, ISABEL LEONARD at Tilles Center, CW POST University
by Peter Danish - March 07, 2019

BWW Review: 100 YEARS OF BERNSTEIN: CZECH NATIONAL SYMPHONY, CONDUCTED BY JOHN MAUCERI, MEZZO SOPRANO, ISABEL LEONARD at Tilles Center, CW POST University...

BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood
by Maria Nockin - March 04, 2019

On March 3, 2019, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented its more-than-a-little-bit-zany version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE (DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE) at Los Angeles's El Portal Theatre. POP Director and Designer Josh Shaw and Baritone E. Scott Levin premiered a new English version of Emanue...

Andre Previn - of Opera and Classical Music, as well as Hollywood, Broadway and Television - Dies at 89
by Richard Sasanow - March 01, 2019

Composer, conductor and pianist Andre Previn has died at the age of 89 on February 28. Previn was composer of the opera versions of Tennessee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and Noel Coward's BRIEF ENCOUNTER, dozens of orchestral works, film scores, jazz works and the score for Tom Stoppard's ...

BWW Review: BENJAMIN HOCHMAN WITH NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ENSEMBLE at Merkin Hall
by Joanna Barouch - February 27, 2019

After suffering a hand injury several years ago and a subsequent three year break from concertizing, Israeli-born pianist Benjamin Hochman made his successful re-entry onto the New York musical scene on February 17, 2019...

BWW Review: DON GIOVANNI at OPERA WROCLAW - Universal Madness
by Natalia Jarczynska - February 18, 2019

This is a well known story: Don Giovanni - addictive seducer - struggles with live in temptations to meet consequences. Classic Opera from 18th century is still watched all over the world. 'Opera buffa' as Mozart described it himself should be comic but in this version the world „comic' doesn't come...

BWW Review: Yuja Wang And Leonidas Kavakos At Carnegie Hall
by Joanna Barouch - February 07, 2019

????Mr. Kavakos and Ms.Wang are frequent collaborators in concert and on recordings. There is such a rapport between them that an easy flow of ideas and emotions inform all of their performances....

BWW Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL with Grand Rapids Symphony and Grand Rapids Ballet
by Brian Hilbrand - January 23, 2019

A magical world comes to life in the Grand Rapids Symphony's updated version of the classic children's tale, Hansel & Gretel, featuring Grand Rapids Ballet.  Set to music from 'The Wand of Youth' by Sir Edward Elgar, our modern-day Hansel and Gretel go out into their neighborhood, looking for advent...

BWW Review: The Alabama Symphony Orchestra Delivers Musical Mastery in CARMINA BURANA & THE RITE OF SPRING
by David Edward Perry - January 21, 2019

This energized concert shook the pillars of Olympus with a powerhouse performance of two very popular and dynamic pieces of music.The concert hall was filled to the rafters with the voices of a massive choir. The power behind such a collection of voices and music was breathtaking....

BWW Review: MICHAEL FRANCIS CONDUCTS THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY IN A PROGAM OF THE YOUNG ROMANTICS at The Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - January 22, 2019

British conductor Michael Francis is known to San Diego concert goers as the music director of the city's Mainly Mozart Festival. Since taking the job four years ago he has embarked on an ambitious chronological survey of the music of the composer who inspired the festival's name. On this evening he...

BWW Review: RAFAEL PAYARE CONDUCTS THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at the Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - January 15, 2019

Rafael Payare's initial concert as Music Director Designate of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra featured four familiar and easily appreciated pieces, including Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni and the topically related Don Juan by Richard Strauss. In a different program two nights later Payare repe...

BWW Preview: THE FIREBIRD AND LA SYLPHIDE at Symphony Hall
by Maria Nockin - January 11, 2019

Are you wondering what you and your love should to do on Valentines Day? Ballet Arizona is presenting the world premiere of Ib Andersen's THE FIREBIRD to music by Igor Stravinsky at Symphony Hall from February 14 to 17, 2019....

BWW Review: AIDA at Metropolitan Opera
by Peter Danish - January 09, 2019

Aida has been called the grandest of grand operas and the production that has graced the Met stage for the last (unbelievably) 30 years still looks absolutely amazing - towering columns, massive sandstone blocks, etc. Oddly, the audience did not applaud the sets (as they have in every other performa...

BWW Review: Dudamel's Baptism by Fire Turns in a Solid, Throbbing OTELLO at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - December 17, 2018

Talk about baptism by fire! That's what Gustavo Dudamel--that wunderkind of the classical conducting world--faced as he reached the podium of the Met for the first time Friday night. Not only was he conducting Verdi's great opera, OTELLO, but he was doing so with a last-minute substitute in the titl...