Archive for the ‘Berlin Times’ Category
Friday, May 16th, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid Classical music historiography of the 20th century tends to create neatly delineated periods, with World War Two creating a kind of indelible caesura in all things aesthetic and philosophical. This is particularly true in Germany, where the Nachkriegszeit (post-war period) is defined as a veritable epoch: a time in which the country […]
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Tags: Aco Aleksander Bišćević, Allan Clayton, Andreas Ottensamer, Aribert Reimann, barrie kosky, Castor et Pollux, Cenk Sahin, Christian Curnyn, David Robert Coleman, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Frans Helmerson, Gili Schwarzman, Guy Braunstein, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Jonathan Gilad, Katrin Lea Tag, komische oper, Mojca Erdmann, Mor Biron, Nicole Chevalier, Richard Strauss
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on New works at the Jewish Museum; Rameau’s “Castor et Pollux”
Tuesday, April 29th, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid A new production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore at the Deutsche Oper turned out to be a very Anglophone evening. Staged by Irina Brook (daughter of the legendary director Peter Brook), the opera starred young American singers Heidi Stober and Dimitri Pittas. And for the first time, the company introduced English subtitles alongside […]
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Tags: Alexandra Hutton, Deutsche Oper, Dimitri Pittas, donizetti, Heidi Stober, Irina Brook, L'Elisir d'amore, Martin Buczkó, MusicalAmerica.com, Nicola Alaimo, Noëlle Ginefri, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Simon Pauly, Thomas Richter
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on “Elisir” in inglese at the Deutsche Oper
Wednesday, April 16th, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid While Berlin is famous for its three-house opera system, Paris boasts at least as rich a cultural landscape. Last week, Opéra Garnier revived an Andrei Serban production of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri while Cecilia Bartoli starred in another Rossini opera—Otello—at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. At the Opéra Bastille, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde […]
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Tags: Andrei Serban, Bill Viola, Opéra Bastille, Opéra Garnier, Opéra National de Paris, Peter Jordans, peter sellars, Riccardo Frizza
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on “Tristan” and “L´Italiana” in Paris
Tuesday, April 1st, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid Given the range of works across the classical repertoire, one wonders how the same Brahms and Beethoven warhorses continue to dominate programming, especially in the midst of constant debate about how to keep the art form lively. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin manages to prove an exception. An evening of Honegger, Franck, Roussel […]
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Tags: Albert Roussel, Arthur Honegger, betrand chamayou, Cesar Franck, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Maurice Ravel, musicalamerica, Rebecca Schmid, Stéphane Denève
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on The DSOB breaks the Mold with Roussel and Honegger
Friday, March 14th, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin presented what was announced as a “French evening” on March 12 featuring the German premiere of Dutilleux’s Le temps l’horloge. The RSB has its share of competition between the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (another orchestra with broadcast roots), the Staatskapelle and others. But it was a surprise to see […]
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Tags: Baudelaire, Bohuslav Martinu, Claude Debussy, Deutsche Grammophon, Henri Dutilleux, Konzerthaus Berlin, Laura Aikin, Le temps l’horloge, Ludovic Morlot, MusicalAmerica.com, Rebecca Schmid, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on At the Konzerthaus, a German Premiere and a half-empty Hall
Friday, February 28th, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid In the final scene of Bach’s St. John Passion, staged by Peter Sellars at the Philharmonie on Feb.27, the members of the Rundfunkchor gather in meditation around a spotlight, the rest of the hall submerged in darkness. The body of Jesus has been quietly removed during a lament of Mary Magdalene, his […]
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Tags: Anna Prohaska, Berlin Philharmonic, Camilla Tilling, Christian Gerhaher, Concentus Musicus, Dido and Aeneas, Dixit Dominus, J.S. Bach, Les Arts Florissants, Magdalena Kožená, Mark Padmore, MusicAeterna, MusicalAmerica.com, Nurial Rial, Perm Opera, peter sellars, Philharmonie, Rebecca Schmid, Roderick Williams, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle, St Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Teodor Currentzis, Thomas Quasthoff, Topi Lehtipuu
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on Ritual in the Philharmonie: Bach’s ‘St. John Passion’ and MusicAeterna
Friday, January 24th, 2014
By Rebecca Schmid Duos—both literal and metaphoric—are the official theme for this year’s Ultraschall Festival for New Music, taking place in Berlin until Jan.31. The event, hosted by the city’s two main classical radio stations, Kulturradio rbb and Deutschlandradio Kultur, is better known for its wide range of offerings than its tight programming. But the […]
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Tags: Andreas Göbel, Elliott Carter, Heinz Holliger, Holger Groschopp, Jörg Widmann, Klaus Huber, Rebecca Schmid, Ruth Killius, Thomas Zehetmair, Ultraschall Festival, Wolfgang Lischke
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on Dual Frequencies at the Ultraschall Festival
Friday, December 13th, 2013
By Rebecca Schmid Vocal music, in all its forms of expression and social relevance, was the subject of a Radiale Vokalnacht at the Radialsystem on Dec.7. It was an opportunity to catch the vocalist-instrumentalist-composer Shara Worden, otherwise known as My Brightest Diamond, who performed with drummer Earl Harvin and accompaniment from BerlinJazzVocals. After the a […]
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Tags: BerlinJazzVocals, Boaz Avni, Carmina Slovenica, Earl Harvin, Kiezoper Berlin, Laura Berman, My Brightest Diamond, Pecha Kucha, Radialsystem, Shara Worden
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on Radiale Vokalnacht
Friday, December 6th, 2013
By Rebecca Schmid While Il Trovatore counts as one of Verdi’s most gripping scores, the libretto’s sprawling tale of love and vengeance is not without dramaturgical challenges. A staging by Philip Stötzl which opened at the Staatsoper Berlin on Nov.29 featured several first encounters with the opera. Anna Netrebko, who attended the premiere of the […]
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Tags: Adrian Sâmpetrean, Anna Lapovskaja, anna netrebko, Conrad Moritz Reinhardt, Daniel Barenboim, fettFilm, Gaston Rivera, il trovatore, Mara Kurotschka, Marina Prundenskaja, MusicalAmerica.com, Olaf Freese, Philip Stötzl, Plácido Domingo, Rebecca Schmid, Salvatore Cammarano, Staatsoper Berlin, Ursula Kurdna, verdi
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on ‘Il Trovatore’ at the Staatsoper Berlin
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
By Rebecca Schmid The Taiwan Philharmonic, which also calls itself the National Symphony Orchestra, came to Berlin on Nov.18 as part of the second European tour in its history. With two recent commissions on the program—one by a German composer, the other by an American-trained Taiwanese native—it became clear how global classical music trends have […]
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Tags: Antonin Dvorak, Christian Jost, Jean Sibelius, Meng-Chun Lin, Ming-Hsiu Yen, MusicalAmerica.com, Rebecca Schmid, Shao-Chia Lü, Taiwan Philharmonic, Viviane Hagner
Posted in Berlin Times | Comments Off on East meets West: The National Symphony Orchestra at the Philharmonie