Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 20

BWW Review: Opera Theatre of St. Louis Offers a Powerful World Premiere of SHALIMAR THE CLOWN
by Steve Callahan - June 14, 2016

Salman Rushdie's tale of love and vengeance becomes a powerful opera in this commissioned work at Opera Theatre of St. Louis....

BWW Opera Review: What's Old is New Again in CARMEN from Bad-Boy Bieito for US Debut at San Francisco Opera
by Richard Sasanow - June 08, 2016

For a director known as opera's bad boy, Calixto Bieito turned to something awfully familiar in CARMEN for his US debut. Then again, he didn't actually show up for it, tied up with a new production of Aribert Reimann's LEAR in Paris and dispatching one of his top collabortors, Joan Anton Rechi, to p...

BWW Review: INTERLOCHEN ARTS ACADEMY Orchestra and Dancers Gave a Stellar Concert as Part of the NY Philharmonic Biennial
by Sondra Forsyth - June 07, 2016

I was delighted but not surprised by the polished professionalism of the teenage musicians and dancers from Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts who performed on the afternoon of June 5th 2016 at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center as part of the New York Philharmonic's Biennial celebration. I...

BWW Review: ZORN Conducts at YIVO
by Matt Hanson - June 06, 2016

One century ago, 200,000 New Yorkers mourned in the streets, representing the best-attended funeral procession in the history of the city to date. This May, the global Jewish community remembered Sholem Aleichem, for his centenarian yortsayt (Yiddish for "death anniversary")....

BWW Opera Review: Not Wild for Barry's Earnest Take on Wilde's EARNEST at NY PHIL BIENNIAL
by Richard Sasanow - June 06, 2016

“There is no sense in which [the play] THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST needs to be an opera.” Those words aren't mine, but come directly from an article by Paul Kilbey in the program at last week's U.S. stage premiere of Irish composer/lyricist Gerald Barry's 2010 opera THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNE...

BWW Review, Part I: Part's MISERERE and Mozart's REQUIEM a Pair to Remember with Dudamel and LA Philharmonic
by Richard Sasanow - June 03, 2016

Early in May, Gustavo Dudamel—the brilliant music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic—was booed at the opening of TURANDOT at the Vienna State Opera purportedly for playing too loud. There were no such complaints when he returned to Disney Hall in Los Angeles on May 20, with a grand, finely nua...

BWW Classical Music Review: PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY ELGAR & MENDELSSOHN at All Saints Church, New York City
by Peter Danish - May 31, 2016

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony under the guidance of musical director and conductor, David Bernard, presented yet another in a series of superb concerts this past weekend at the All Saints Church in NYC. The program included Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major (K. 313), The Elgar Cello Concer...

BWW Review: The Clarinet Factory Performs at Prague Spring Festival
by Charles Shubow - May 26, 2016

It was quite a performance at the National Technical Museum....

BWW Review: GLAMOUR TANGO a Female Twist to the Sultry Dance
by Marsha Volgyi - May 18, 2016

On May 11, 2016, The Cutting Room on East 32nd Street housed Polly Ferman's Glamour Tango. In befitting cabaret style, wining and dining were part of this evening's performance. A four-piece band would allow our ears to hear live music, which is something quite rare if not at the opera or the ballet...

BWW Review: Midcoast Symphony Presents Stirring VERDI REQUIEM
by Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - May 16, 2016

Music Director Rohan Smith has certainly taken this fine community orchestra to a new level of excellence. This past weekend, joining forces with the Oratorio Chorale, directed by Emily Isaacson, the Vox Nova Chamber Orchestra, directed by Shannon M. Chase, and four guest soloists, the huge ensemble...

BWW Opera Review: Vertical Player Repertory Disinters Pacini's MALVINA DI SCOZIA
by Richard Sasanow - May 16, 2016

As part of the New York Opera Fest, Brooklyn's scrappy Vertical Player Repertory ventured into Manhattan's Christ and St. Stephen's Church near Lincoln Center, bringing with it a true rarity: Giovanni Pacini's bel canto-ish MALVINA DI SCOZIA, which dates from 1851. And while it was good to hear a wo...

BWW Opera Review: Few Sparks from Opera Orchestra in Donizetti's Formulaic PARISINA D'ESTE
by Richard Sasanow - May 09, 2016

Those of us with long enough memories can recall some exciting nights at Opera Orchestra of New York's concerts at Carnegie Hall, with Eve Queler at the helm. It's reputed that Donizetti's PARISINA D'ESTE made quite a stir with Montserrat Caballe in the spotlight in 1974--but anyone expecting histor...

BWW Opera Review: Oh, To Be Abducted from This SERAGLIO at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - May 04, 2016

I wonder whether James Levine imagined that Mozart's DIE ENFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL (THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO) would be his swan song as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera. I think he might have chosen better....

BWW Review: A Stunning PORGY AND BESS With the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Morgan State University Choir
by Charles Shubow - May 03, 2016

What a thrill it was to hear George Gershwin's opera with the BSO under Maestra Marin Alsop....

BWW Review: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's MOZART REQUIEM: 100 VOICES Brings Baroque Music To A New Generation
by Jade Kops - May 01, 2016

The rich old world sound of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Brandenburg Choir is given a new youthful dimension with the Brandenburg Young Voices Choir for MOZART REQUIEM: 100 VOICES concert....

BWW Opera Review: MASTERVOICES Strikes a Masterful Chord with Dido and Aeneas
by Christina Pandolfi - May 02, 2016

A heavenly aura flooded through the regal New York City Center this past Thursday night at the MasterVoices premiere of Henry Purcell & Nahum Tate's baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas. With a full orchestra, the MasterVoices choir, and the Doug Varone and Dancers company, this unique production created ...

BWW Opera Review: Met's New ELEKTRA Has the Cast and Conductor--But Where's the Catharsis?
by Richard Sasanow - April 26, 2016

The Met's new production of Richard Strauss's ELEKTRA is something to behold, with Vincent Huguet recreating the original by the late Patrice Chereau from France's Aix-en-Provence Festival. Starring the glorious Nina Stemme in the title role--and backed by the stellar performances of Waltraud Meier ...

BWW Opera Review: SF vs. NY, Tilson Thomas vs. Gilbert, Mezzo vs. Baritone, But Audiences Take the LIED
by Richard Sasanow - April 25, 2016

Earth Day has come and gone in 2016, but symphonic orchestra audiences in New York have lots to remember from this year's celebration, with performances of Mahler's DAS LIED VON DER ERDE (SONG OF THE EARTH). In less than a week, we had two different versions of the piece, with differing pluses and m...

BWW Review: LES FETES VENITIENNES
by Wesley Doucette - April 22, 2016

A review of Robert Carsen's direction of 'Les Fetes Venitiennes,' as performed by Les Arts Florissants and L'Opera Comique at BAM....

BWW Review: THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE Melds Music, Storytelling, and Inspiration, at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - April 13, 2016

Chalk up another winner for Portland Center Stage this season -- THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE is one you don't want to miss! Mona Golabek's one-woman show about her own mother's escape from Nazi-controlled Austria on the Kindertransport is part-concert, part-storytelling, and all magic....

BWW Reviews: Folds Spreads the Spotlight Around in Concert with CSO
by Paul Batterson - April 11, 2016

As a principal percussionist for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Philip Shipley is used to watching concerts from behind the oboes and the woodwinds. At the CSO's concert with Ben Folds on April 9, Shipley got distinctly different point of view....

BWW Review: Lawrence Brownlee Dominates CHARLIE PARKER'S YARDBIRD at New York's Apollo
by Richard Sasanow - April 07, 2016

As Charlie “Bird” Parker, the great jazz saxophonist, who is the central character in CHARLIE PARKER'S YARDBIRD--the opera that had its New York premiere last week at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem--Lawrence Brownlee wonderfully embraced the classical and bebop sides of the score....

BWW Review: Broadway Divas and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Bring Girl Power to the Strathmore
by Vanessa Michaud - April 04, 2016

Talented vocalists Christina Bianco, N'Kenge, Kristen Plumley, and Mandy Gonzalez, in conjunction with Jack Everly and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, headlined the concert of classic songs from the Great White Way to honor some of the most beloved Broadway divas and musicals of our time at the Mu...

BWW Review: Radvanovsky Completes Donizetti Hat Trick with Potent DEVEREUX at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - April 01, 2016

“The Tudor Trilogy” --putting together Donizetti's ANNA BOLENA, MARIA STUARDA and ROBERTO DEVEREUX--was fabricated to light Beverly Sills' fire as “America's Queen of Opera” at the old New York City Opera. This season, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was charged with bringing the trio of operas to the Me...

BWW Review: Audience LOVE-fest for Grigolo in Met's Cartoon-y ELISIR D'AMORE
by Richard Sasanow - March 29, 2016

Vittorio Grigolo's fans were out in force last week when he took on the star-tenor role of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'ELISIR D'AMORE (THE ELIXIR OF LOVE) at the Met and it seemed like they'd taken a potion of their own....