BOSTON—Imagine an opera with a gorgeous score by Wagner, Mahler, Puccini, Zemlinsky, Richard and Johann Strauss, and Erich Korngold, whose sweeping romantic soundtracks for The Adventures of Robin Hood and Anthony Adverse (among many … » Read

CHICAGO—As recently as a decade ago, Michelle Cann, like many classical music lovers, didn’t know who Florence Price was. A friend set her straight in 2016, sending along Price’s Fantasies nègres . As Cann told a rapt … » Read

NEW YORK—When Pierre Boulez died in 2016, the world lost one of its most important authorities on modern music. A fierce polemicist who famously advocated blowing up the grandest opera houses, he mellowed in middle age, becoming recognized … » Read

BOSTON—Those of us who have a special place in our hearts for Verdi’s Don Carlo must count ourselves lucky. For his annual semi-staged opera with the Boston Youth Orchestra, Federico Cortese conducted what may be Verdi’s most … » Read

The “processional opera” Primero Sueño had its January 23 world premiere at the Cloisters, the Met Museum’s famed repository of European medieval art and architecture in upper Manhattan. True to its description, the … » Read

Piano and winds were the order of the evening at the New York Philharmonic on Jan. 23: three works qualifying as concertos in substance, if not in name, including two relative rarities and one warhorse, all benefiting from the appearance of the … » Read

Throughout his six-decade career, Riccardo Muti has worked to confer dignity on Italian opera, banishing spurious traditions and approaching the music with absolute seriousness of purpose. The first half of the January 21 Chicago Symphony … » Read

In a Grove and Black Lodge , two offerings at the January 9-19 PROTOTYPE Festival, were both marked by their innovative approaches to sung drama. In a Grove , with music by Christopher Cerrone and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, felt less like … » Read

VIENNA—As I write, it has been over ten hours, and my mind is still reeling. Something very rare and extraordinary happened on Monday night (Jan. 20): A performance changed my life. I have heard Bach’s Goldberg Variations probably at … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—John Adams can’t help himself. Even when he’s not writing for the stage, as in such operas as Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Doctor Atomic , the Bay Area-based composer has an irrepressible … » Read