KALAMAZOO, MI—Shy. Private. Self-deprecating. Van Cliburn wasn’t exactly your typical divo. As the subject of American Sputnik , however, an unusual new monodrama by composer Evan Mack and librettist Mark Campbell, the legendary … » Read

LONDON—This May 16 Wigmore Hall concert saw London’s premiere chamber music venue hosting Ensemble intercontemporain, the Parisian new music collective founded 50 years ago by Pierre Boulez. In a nod to another significant … » Read

The much-anticipated appearance of Herbert Blomstedt with the San Francisco Symphony, the orchestra he led from 1985 to 1995, last weekend had its ups and downs. About to turn 99 in July, the maestro has maintained an impressive number of guest … » Read

MILWAUKEE—The same company that churned out the well-traveled Chevalier and Secret Byrd in recent seasons is back with Copland/Twain , which debuted at the Milwaukee Symphony’s Bradley Center May 8 to 10. The semi-staged production … » Read

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank scored a triumph at the May 14 Met Opera premiere of her 2022 work El Ú ltimo Sue ño de Frida y Diego. The two-act work, with a Spanish-language libretto by Nilo Cruz, is born aloft by Frank’s … » Read

BRUSSELS—Medusa sulks among stone bodies of men. Around her, the world has hardened into a mausoleum: gray walls, dead air, her lamenting gorgon sisters, and fate approaching in the form of Perseus. This is the bleak territory of Iain Bell … » Read

The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) continues to perform as scheduled at its Kennedy Center home until mid-June, but its Music Director Gianandrea Noseda led it for the final time this season on May 3 and chose to do so in Carnegie Hall. On the … » Read

The New York Philharmonic’s April 30 concert, under Gustavo Dudamel, led off with Ellen Reid’s new Earth Between Oceans , a 30-minute, four-movement tone poem for chorus and orchestra. The piece is dedicated to Dudamel, who has used … » Read

LONDON—Canny programming and rare repertoire were the order of the day in the Royal Opera House’s Tales of Love and Loss , a trio of one-act chamber operas, all of them by women. This May 1 premiere at the Linbury Theatre featured … » Read

CHICAGO—Among the many things the pandemic taught us is that Chicago Symphony musicians can assemble a mean program. When Orchestra Hall shut down, like so many orchestras, the CSO pivoted to chamber music, handsomely recorded and streamed … » Read