Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 21

BWW Review: ANTHONY DE MARE Brings Majesty and Mastery for THE LIAISONS PROJECT at Hayes Theatre
by Brodie Paparella - July 05, 2016

We've all felt the sensation where we talk fondly about artistic legends from our time only to discover someone younger or of another genre having no idea and genuinely concerning you that your icons might be lost someday entirely, and what a sad day that would be. That's where absolute miracle arti...

BWW Review: Down the River with Catan's FLORENCIA at New York City Opera
by Richard Sasanow - June 30, 2016

If you're a fan of Puccini-esque music and the “magic realism” of the great Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Daniel Catan's FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS may be for you. Others might find the opera--which had its New York premiere at New York City Opera's home at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose The...

BWW Review: The Met's SummerStage Recital Has a Date with an 'Angel'
by Richard Sasanow - June 27, 2016

The weather, the stars and “the stars” aligned the other night in Central Park, when the Metropolitan Opera performed its annual recital at SummerStage. Usually home to more pop culture performers, it turned out to be the perfect venue for introductions to some unfamiliar yet striking performers, in...

BWW Review: On Site Opera's FIGARO a Charming Diversion that's Not Mozart
by Richard Sasanow - June 20, 2016

“Bride's side or groom's? I'm Count Almaviva,” said the elegant actor as we entered what, we are told, is the Count's summer palace. “Bride's side or groom's?” says the seductive brunette in a bath towel, stepping out of the tub. She introduces herself as the Countess, Rosina. Upstairs, downstairs, ...

BWW Review: HAIRSPRAY in Concert with Baltimore Symphony Featuring John Waters as Narrator
by Charles Shubow - June 17, 2016

Audience is enthralled with BSO again featuring the musical HAIRSPRAY...

BWW Review: ERWIN SCHULHOFF RETROSPECTIVE Swings at Center for Jewish History
by Matt Hanson - June 16, 2016

Recently honored as a Lower East Side Community Hero, pianist Mimi Stern-Wolfe walked onstage on the evening of May 25th 2016 at the Center for Jewish History in NYC. She is the founder and artistic director of Downtown Chamber Players and the recipient of the 2015 Clara Lemlich Award. And she did ...

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....