LONDON—Has ENO got a death wish? A new, home-grown Tosca tailor-made for the king-sized London Coliseum stage ought to have been the perfect antidote to Christof Loy’s flat and physically stretched importation (from Finland) in 2022. … » Read

LOS ANGELES – First San Francisco, then Los Angeles, got glimpses of their soon-to-be music directors on consecutive weekends— Elim Chan up north on Halloween weekend, and Daniel Harding down south Sunday afternoon Nov. 8. Both … » Read

LOS ANGELES—Since Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons became a perennial best-seller after World War II, some contemporary composers seem to have wanted a piece of the action by writing companion works on the same theme. Astor Piazzolla was … » Read

This year’s Macao International Music Festival came to a close last weekend with a production of Puccini’s Turandot directed by Jackie Chan. Let that sink in for a moment. Regarding Turandot , after being effectively blacklisted in … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—When Elim Chan was formally introduced as the next Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in May of this year, she met the moment with a mixture of pomp and circumstance and spontaneity. After descending the grand … » Read

LOS ANGELES—Last week’s brief California tour by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra—or Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal—was a long-awaited return. The orchestra was last spotted around these parts at the Hollywood … » Read

October was Steve Reich Month in New York. The composer turned 90 on October 3; to mark the occasion, his native city presented several commemorative concerts. In the middle of the month, the Park Avenue Armory offered a marathon of three … » Read

LONDON—There were only two items on the ticket for the London Symphony Orchestra’s October 25 Barbican Hall concert, yet perhaps surprisingly it was the new work that left the stronger impression despite the tumultuous spiritual … » Read

SEATTLE—Near the end of Samuel Adams’s No Such Spring , pianist Conor Hanick’s hands climbed in successive leaps toward the extreme treble. Against a hushed bed of sustained brass and string chords, he reached beyond the last … » Read

LONDON—The London Philharmonic Orchestra likes to play to a theme and this October 23 concert at Royal Festival Hall was no exception. The subject was transformations, as represented by Dorothy Howell’s Lamia , a symphonic poem about … » Read