How Mahler would have loved the Met Orchestra! It played with such presence, such enormous expressivity, clarity and strength that all the extremes Mahler inserted into his hard-won Fifth Symphony came across brilliantly. Mahler, like Mozart, frequently wrote marches. But whereas Mozart’s were purely musical, as a means of generating material for musical development, Mahler’s marches might be said to express[...]
San Francisco Opera recently presented six performances of Lohengrin (Oct. 15 – Nov. 1) that left an indelible mark on its audience. Eun Sun Kim, the company’s Music Director, ventured […]
The Hollywood Bowl–site of so many glittering performances under the balmy Southern California skies–is celebrating its 100th anniversary this summer. Wagner was invited to the birthday party, which seems only […]
This is a Wagner newsletter, and I am writing about Strauss, but there is an important Wagner connection to Ariadne, perhaps less a connection than a push-back. Hofmannsthal and Strauss […]
Gallons of ink have been spilled in praise of the ravishing instrument that soprano Lise Davidsen brought to the opera world when she burst on the scene in 2015. It […]