By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 16, 2017 MUNICH — An odd thing happened during the curtain calls last evening after a taut, riveting Rusalka here at Bavarian State Opera. The orchestra players made various signs of approval for the cast members’ work, as is customary, and then essentially none for the conductor (and leading lady’s […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead June 15, 2017. An article in Tuesday’s Le Figaro newspaper gives some positive news about the future of the two radio orchestras in France, the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. As we reported in 2015 in Musical America, there was panic when proposals were floated to […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 3, 2017 SALZBURG — When artistic control of the Whitsun Festival here moved to Cecilia Bartoli nearly six years ago, its programming changed from a steady focus on one period and place (18th-century Napoli) to shifting annual themes. First there was “Cleopatra.” Next came the idea of “sacrifice.” Then the […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 19, 2017 RAVENNA — Sometimes a musician just needs a good partner. Cellist Alban Gerhardt and pianist Steven Osborne work magically together but have a habit of starting their recitals apart, as if to establish credentials. So it was April 11 here at the Teatro Alighieri, home of the Ravenna […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 17, 2017 MUNICH — President Trump will next Friday (May 26) attend his first orchestra concert since taking office. Scheduled for 7 p.m. al fresco at the Teatro Antico in Taormina, Sicily, the program consists of Italian opera overtures and intermezzos: Puccini – Madama Butterfly: Act III Sunrise Rossini – […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 16, 2017 MUNICH — Nikolaus Bachler’s Bavarian State Opera has been having its idea of fun with the taxpayer money it receives. In connection with a new Tannhäuser, due May 21, it commissioned for its quarterly Max Joseph magazine a discussion of Wagner’s bacchanale of distant bathing naiads and sedate […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Frank Cadenhead Today, Sunday May 14, 2017, Emmanuel Macron, the newly-elected President of France is officially installed with much ceremony including a parade down the Champs-Elysées. In an interview on a French classical music website in April, he was asked about his favorite composer. This is his reply: “I have a great admiration for […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 2, 2017 MUNICH — Like the miracle of compound interest, Bavarian State Opera’s pricing can chart smartly upwards when you’re not watching. The company sells using an astounding total of 128 price points — the product of eight price categories for its National Theater home and sixteen sliding scales. Things […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: April 30, 2017 FERRARA — Lanky Teodor Currentzis looms over his MusicAeterna players the way Basil Fawlty loomed over Manuel, and with comparable gestures. It is anyone’s guess how their 13-year relationship has survived, what with labor conditions in Russia, the quirks of period-instrument practice, their joint move from Novosibirsk (in […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: April 25, 2017 BOLOGNA — Teatro Comunale’s busy direttore musicale Michele Mariotti, 38, ventured his 33rd and 34th operas* this month with a foray in verismo, the terse tribulations of Cavalleria rusticana, and, incongruously, La voix humaine, a vehicle for the Bologna-schooled soprano, former mezzo, Anna Caterina Antonacci. He chose big […]
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