LONDON—Joyce DiDonato, shrewd diva that she is, has carved a useful niche in her résumé out of playing one character. That’s Dido, of course, the Carthaginian queen whose name is encoded within her own. As a sequel to … » Read

On February 1 at Carnegie Hall, Lise Davidsen reaffirmed her status as a once-in-a-generation vocal phenomenon. Singing the Wesendonck Lieder , with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra led by its music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, … » Read

LONDON—Born in Venice in 1619, Barbara Strozzi was registered as the daughter of Isabella Griega, housekeeper to the academician Giulio Strozzi. That the famous poet and opera librettist went on to adopt her suggests she was his actual … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—With one of the West’s atmospheric rivers churning away outside, Hertz Hall on the University of California Berkeley campus sheltered a different and more varied display of natural phenomena on February 6: Bustling … » Read

LONDON—For half a century or more, the benchmark recording of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in English has been an all-star affair conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. With a solo team led by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that included … » Read

Paul Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 1 , the first work on the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble’s January 22 Weill Hall program, opens with an agitated cacophony, all swirling sixteenth notes and trumpet fanfares. Two nights earlier, the … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—When concertgoers made their way into the main entrance of Davies Symphony Hall on Friday, January 26, they did so via MTT Way , the newly named stretch of Grove Street that honors the San Francisco Symphony’s longtime … » Read

BOSTON—The primary hero of the BSO’s January 25 th performance of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is the composer himself. His second of only two operas (the first was his surrealist comedy, The Nose ) is a circus of … » Read

A recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, with a repertoire that spans from Bach to Thomas Adès, Kirill Gerstein has a knack for imaginative programming. His recent recital at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall was anchored by three … » Read

The five-note opening phrase of Ernst Krenek’s 1928 Little Symphony–– launched by the contrabassoon, then echoing through the orchestra––almost sounds like a question. Its two upward leaps are both followed by a … » Read