When I was working recently on a profile of the baritone Sanford Sylvan for this newspaper, I watched a DVD recording of one of the performances that brought him widespread acclaim in the opera world. It was in one of the iconic productions of the 1980s: Peter Sellars’s version of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
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“A Cosi fan tutte that will haunt me for the rest of my life,” Peter G. Davis wrote in his 1984 New York review of Peter Sellars’ landmark production of Mozart’s opera. The performance took place at the Castle Hill Festival in Ipswich, Mass.; critics noted that the opera’s roadside diner set resembled the places Read More
The heat of summer seems to bring out obscure oddities plucked from the overstocked greenhouse of Western classical music. For some time, no festival has been more avid in pursuit of the unfamiliar than Bard SummerScape, whose guiding spirit is Bard College president Leon Botstein, a conductor and scholar who loves footnotes as much as Read More
The heat of summer seems to bring out obscure oddities plucked from the overstocked greenhouse of Western classical music. For some time, no festival has been more avid in pursuit of the unfamiliar than Bard SummerScape, whose guiding spirit is Bard College president Leon Botstein, a conductor and scholar who loves footnotes as much as Read More
I once asked the late, esteemed voice teacher Beverley Johnson what distinguished a truly great singer. “An inner light,” she said. “Whether you’re talking about Piaf or Pavarotti, the great voices have a way of illuminating their soul.” On Monday, July 3, the most luminous voice I’ve ever heard was extinguished when the American mezzo Read More
Opera, the most multilayered art form, loves war for its multiplicity of passions. Opera also fears war—or at least the direct depiction of it onstage. Most opera composers have sensibly realized that the fury of battle is better conveyed by the sound of clashing instruments than by the spectacle of extras charging at one another Read More
Opera, the most multilayered art form, loves war for its multiplicity of passions. Opera also fears war—or at least the direct depiction of it onstage. Most opera composers have sensibly realized that the fury of battle is better conveyed by the sound of clashing instruments than by the spectacle of extras charging at one Read More
For some time now, my attendance at rock concerts has been spotty, to say the least. Recently, however, I was surprised to find myself at an event that, despite its billing as a classical-music performance, reminded me of nothing so much as one of those great hard-rock hootenannies of the 60′s, minus the strobe lights, Read More
Paul Kellogg, the New York City Opera’s general director, has been eloquent about the need to relocate the company away from Lincoln Center, and until now I’ve been entirely on his side. What gives me second thoughts has nothing to do with the economics, politics or acoustics of City Opera’s widely publicized plight. The prompting Read More
At an overactive Salzburg Festival production of Gluck’s Iphig énie en Tauride last summer, the American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, singing the demanding title role, was obliged to do everything except cartwheels. Afterward, I asked her how it was possible to sing one particularly high-flying passage while lying prostrate on the stage with her head dangling Read More
