LOS ANGELES--David Lang’s the loser , presented by Los Angeles Opera in its West Coast premiere February 22 and 23, works on the principle of musical mesmerization. It relies on a single voice relating its hour-long tale in the first person … » Read

Ever since the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra  dispensed with the services of its Chief Conductor Daniele Gatti following charges of sexual harassment—accusations that Gatti still denies—the media has been speculating on his … » Read

At first impression, Robert Ashley’s style of vocal writing seems tantamount to simplicity itself. Text typically unfolds on a single pitch, like the reciting tone of liturgical chant, in a continuous flow that seems undifferentiated by … » Read

For more than 45 years, San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet has been one of classical music’s agents provocateurs. Early forays into musical agitprop would have to include George Crumb’s anti-war polemic, Black Angels , and to a lesser … » Read

CARDIFF—As Welsh National Opera awaits the arrival of Aidan Lang from Seattle Opera as its new general director, outgoing incumbent David Pountney’s farewell season continues with the second work in his Verdi trilogy, a new production … » Read

LOS ANGELES—A signature of Tan Dun’s most successful compositions is his gift for mixing putatively disparate elements into powerfully original amalgams. To make that happen means being able to take serious risks—and the premise … » Read

PHILADELPHIA-- It may have taken 28 years to reach the U.S., but Robert Carsen’s near-definitive staging of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has finally made landfall at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, giving … » Read

The components of the Balanchine-Stravinsky Greek-themed trilogy Apollo (1928), Orpheus (1948) and Agon (1957) are infrequently seen together, perhaps because the middle ballet is not an outright crowd pleaser. But the sum of the whole is greater … » Read

SEATTLE—As Ludovic Morlot’s final season at the helm of the Seattle Symphony gets closer to the final stretch, his legacy of nurturing new music is coming into sharper relief. The SSO’s last two programs in … » Read

Let’s start with a little perspective. Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. He was playing piano before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany; he made his 1944 New York Philharmonic debut in the closing years of World War II under … » Read