Entartete Musik (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
The fin-de-siècle and the Anschluß are well-documented parts of Viennese history: cultural explosion at one end and barbaric onslaught at the other. Yet the question which is rarely addressed is what happened between. Vienna after the collapse of the Empire was a very different place to that during its twilight years. Even a doyen of pre-war Vienna, such as Richard Strauss, found it hard...
Intermezzo (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
Le Chevalier à la rose (Der Rosenkavalier): Orchestre National d'Île de France/Frank Strobel - Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, 14 November 2009 Many people accuse Richard Strauss's music of sounding like a film soundtrack. Not everyone realises that he did actually...
Summer is Coming In (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
Brahms' Symphony No. 1 is one of those rare pieces I can listen to over and over again, without ever getting bored. There's so much drama, anxiety and (eventually) affirmation in the piece that I would gladly travel abroad to hear different performances of it. So I did. Brahms' First is often mockingly called Beethoven's Tenth, so it was a fitting conclusion to Bonn's Beethovenfest last month. The...
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
Says mezzo-soprano Susan Graham: "Singing the ('Dido and Aeneas') role will be like drinking a long, cool drink of fresh spring water when you've been surrounded by milkshakes." If versatility is a musical virtue, then mezzo- soprano Susan Graham should be canonized. The 49-year-old Graham's singing résumé reveals an intense desire for tackling a wide range of roles. These...
Vancouver Opera Blog (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Photo credit by Clive Barda & San Francisco Opera We love it when our friends visit other cities. And that's because they love telling us all about the amazing operas they saw! D.S. Spring and Diana Herbst spent last week in San Francisco and was at the opera. Three nights in a row! That's devotion. D.S. and Diana thoroughly enjoyed the San Francisco Opera and were literally blown away by both...
Vancouver Opera Blog (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
Although we won't let ALL the cats out of the bag, we can tell you who will be singing what at the Golden Anniversary Concert November 6. But you must be there to check out our very special guests! (shhhhhhh!) VO Golden Anniversary Concert Program Friday, November 6th, 2009 Orpheum Theatre - 7:00 PM Maestro Jonathan Darlington – Conductor/Host Michael Cavanagh - Director Guest Soloists Vancouver...
DCist (Free subscription) | 10/31/2009
(L to R) Iréne Theorin (Ariadne), Lyubov Petrova (Zerbinetta), Nathan Herfindahl, Corey Evan Rotz, Greg Fedderly, and Grigory Soloviov, in Ariadne auf Naxos, Washington National Opera (photo by Karin Cooper -- see more pictures ) Washington National Opera's new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos puts me in a bit of a quandary. It has a score and libretto of particular beauty...
Ionarts (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
(L to R) Iréne Theorin as Ariadne, Lyubov Petrova as Zerbinetta, with Nathan Herfindahl, Corey Evan Rotz, Greg Fedderly, and Grigory Soloviov, in Ariadne auf Naxos, Washington National Opera (photo by Karin Cooper)Let's face it: we will take just about any chance we can to hear and see Richard Strauss's operas. Ariadne auf Naxos, one of the odder and more beautiful of them, has been under review...
A Beast in a Jungle (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
The best art lingers like an aftertaste in your mouth, sometimes an unpleasant one. San Francisco Opera's current production of Richard Strauss' Salome is art on that level. It left me with a visceral feeling of having witnessed the perverse melt-down of a sexually abused and confused young girl. I can't say it was fun to watch, but it was thrilling in a weird, icky way. What this production does,...
The Washington Times (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
The Washington National Opera's production of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" is simply fabulous. Brilliantly performed and sung and sharply directed, Saturday's opening-night performance brought good humor and artistic coherence to a work whose ultimate aim eluded even the composer and his librettist. The initial 1912 version of "Ariadne," composed as a hybrid evening of music...
San Francisco Sentinel (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
Soprano Nadja Michael makes her San Francisco debut in Richard Strauss’ tale of Biblical bad girl By Seán Martinfield Sentinel Editor and Publisher Photo by Lynn Imanaka San Francisco Opera presents Richard Strauss’ biblical drama SALOME, starring German soprano Nadja Michael in the title role. Ms Michael makes her Company debut in this co-production with Opera Theatre of Saint [...]...
The Arts Blog (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
A couple of tidbits pertaining to the Pacific Symphony’s concerts this week (8 p.m. Oct. 15-17). Carl St.Clair will conduct the orchestra in Richard Strauss’ extravagant tone poem, “An Alpine Symphony,” complete with “photochoreography” by Tobias Melle. Melle is a German cellist/photographer who in recent years has begun creating “Symphonies in Images,”...
AfriClassical (Free subscription) | 10/12/2009
[ Africa: Piano Music of William Grant Still ; Denver Oldham, piano; Koch 3 7084 2H1 (1991) ] Yesterday AfriClassical posted “Vangelisti & Marks Perform Songs of William Grant Still at U. of Louisiana at Monroe Oct. 12.” In an interview, Dr. Brian Marks, a pianist at Baylor University, explained that he and Dr. Claire Vangelisti are scheduled to present a recital at 7:30 pm Monday,...
The Collaborative Piano Blog (Free subscription) | 10/02/2009
Earlier today, I played in a recording session with dramatic soprano Susan Tsagkaris at Donway United, with recording engineer Timothy Minthorn presiding. Susan sang the last two songs from the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs, Měsíčku Na Nebi Hlubokém from Dvorak's Russalka, Hojotojo! from Die Walkure, and the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. For those of you that...
From Beyond the Stave (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
As promised at the end of Wayne Heisler Jr’s post, Mr Mlakar and Richard Strauss , here is an excerpt from The Ballet Collaborations of Richard Strauss , recently published by the University of Rochester Press : In addition to tone poems, numerous songs, and nearly perennial operatic musings, several dance scenarios passed over Strauss’s desk (or may have done so) in the years leading up...
Videos