LONDON--Back in Beethoven or Mozart’s day, your average concert would comprise a composer’s very latest works, in other words there would be little that wasn’t new music. These days it’s rare to feature more than a single … » Read

CHICAGO—The Haymarket Opera Company (HOC) opened its 2022 season March 26 with a spellbinding performance of La Susanna , a significant if little-known oratorio written in 1681 by Alessandro Stradella. A middle-period Baroque Italian … » Read

A March 24 concert by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) under Simon Rattle’s baton “looked like a sure thing on paper,” writes Timothy Mangan in the Voice of Orange County . Unfortunately, he continues, “The concert … » Read

With the perspective of a three-year hiatus from New York City Ballet performances at Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater, my return for its “Visionary Voices” program last month was telling. The works—Kyle Abraham’s The … » Read

With significant communities from China, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and Korea among others, Seattle has one of the most diverse Asian communities in the U.S. That makes Seattle Symphony’s annual Celebrate … » Read

NEW YORK—The operas of Dutch composer Michel van der Aa are known for their unconventional inclusion of film content. Van der Aa stands out in this respect because most composers don’t also have an expertise in filmmaking. By … » Read

LONDON--The Royal Opera has done well by Britten’s (and Britain’s) most revered opera, and over the years each new production has been indelibly associated with its inaugural fisherman. First was Peter Pears in 1947, not long after … » Read

Comprehension was only a nominal objective and not particularly necessary in Book of Mountains & Seas the new stage work by composer Huang Ruo and director/designer Basil Twist that was salvaged from the COVID-cancelled Prototype Festival and … » Read

Time was when an integral performance of Schumann’s four symphonies would, as a matter of course, be accompanied by a response to attacks that Schumann lacked ability as a symphonist and, especially, as an orchestrator.  In an extreme … » Read

PARIS--Reactions to Leonard Bernstein’s late-life output vary according to taste, both ours and his. That goes for his compositions as well as his conducting, since the creative spirit that had wowed the world with a flow of unpretentious … » Read