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Filumena, Banff Centre, Photo: Don Lee

New Opera Productions in Canada

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Canadian Music, Classical, Contemporary, La Scena Spotlight, Opera, Romantic

The 2017–18 season is shaping up to be a milestone for new opera productions by Canadian companies. In celebration of the country’s 150th birthday, several works with Canadian themes will get their world premieres in Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto. Furthermore, Vancouver Opera has a watershed season with the inaugural year of the Vancouver Opera Festival. If you missed its triumphant opening run in Montreal last spring, Opéra de Montreal’s production of Les Feluettes (Lilies) travels to Pacific Opera Victoria this April. The Lost Operas of Mozart City Opera of Vancouver, 27 to 29 October, 2016 It’s a little-known fact that…

Lebrecht Weekly – Elgar Remastered (Somm)

By Norman Lebrecht on 26 August 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

My instant reaction to this 4-CD box was that it’s strictly for audio buffs and English music devotees, whose lives will be infinitely enriched by rummaging through the disused takes of Sir Edward Elgar’s recordings of his own works between 1919 and his death in 1934. My second response, on reading Lani Spahr’s nerdish essay on the masters in Elgar’s private library is that only the golden-ears, acoustic-era brigade would get much out of this. How wrong I was. Before I describe the contents of the box, it’s important to know that Elgar dried up as a composer after the…

Aleksey Bogdanov (Baron Scarpia), Tosca, Opera North, Photo: Lisa Morrison

Review: Putting Puccini in His Place

By Charles Geyer on 19 August 2016 Art Song, Choral, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Romantic

CONCERTS: Puccini “Beyond Verismo” at Bard SummerScape 2016 OPERA: Tosca at Opera North Puccini qua, Puccini là! Arguably the most popular and successful opera composer in history has been enjoying his typical ubiquity this summer, as a single weekend’s sampling around the Northeast United States will demonstrate. Friday, August 12 saw the closing performance of the maestro’s Tosca as rendered by Opera North (Lebanon, New Hampshire) in a taut, handsome production. And at Bard College’s final weekend of SummerScape 2016 (Dutchess County, New York), three full days of programming (August 12 through 14) were dedicated to winding up an exploration of…

Lebrecht Weekly – Martinu: Ariane (Supraphon)

By Norman Lebrecht on 19 August 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Opera, Orchestral

I am beginning to wonder if posterity will ever place Bohuslav Martinů where he justly belongs, as the last in a quartet of Czech geniuses, after Smetana, Dvořák, and Janáček. With each passing year, Martinů (1890–1959) seems to recede further into the mists, his 16 operas unstaged, his six symphonies unperformed. Czechs find him too cosmopolitan – he lived most of his life in France and the US – while others are daunted by his mountainous output. There are more than 400 recorded works by Martinů, all of high proficiency. When the innocent ear catches Martinů for the first time, it recognises a …

Lebrecht Weekly – Bruno Walter: Violin Sonata / Piano Quintet (Naxos)

By Norman Lebrecht on 5 August 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

The most successful and elusive of Gustav Mahler’s inner circle, Bruno Walter was ranked among the foremost conductors of his time, esteemed equally by the jealous and mutually hostile Toscanini and Furtwängler and showered with offers when he arrived in the US as a Hitler refugee in 1939. Mahler had taken Walter on as his assistant in Hamburg when he was barely out of school at 18, guided his career path to Vienna and entrusted him with the first performances of Das Lied von der Erde and the ninth symphony. Walter, for his part, kept an objective distance from his…

Orchestre de la Francophonie, Photo: Michel Pinault

Review: Orchestre de la Francophonie (July 28)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 2 August 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral, Quebec Music, Romantic

For their 15th anniversary season, the Orchestre de la Francophonie participated in Les Concerts Populaires for a celebration of French music that placed foundational Quebec composers in a lineage extending from Ravel to Claude Champagne, Saint-Saëns to Pierre Mercure. The evening of July 28 marked the first Thursday of the season that was not interrupted by the Jeux du Québec, which increased competition for venues at the Parc Olympique from July 17 to 25. The concert, a veritable kaleidoscope – even with its French roots – began with a piece of the same name by Mercure, a constantly-shifting ternary form…

Franz Liszt

Daily News Roundup: 29 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 29 July 2016 Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Opera, Romantic

+ This is one the world has been waiting for: Norman Lebrecht reviews the Minnesota Orchestra’s final disc of their Sibelius cycle. + Shanghai Opera brings Thunderstorm to London. Read a review by the Financial Times here. + A recent biography about Liszt by Oliver Hilmes might simply be unnecessary. Read a review of the book here. “The weight of biographical commentary on Liszt is simply colossal. People have been writing full-length accounts of him since he was in his early 20s, and touring 1830s Europe. The first biographies written with the declared aim of stripping away accumulated myths appeared…

Dan Tepfer

Daily News Roundup: 28 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 28 July 2016 Art Song, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Dance, Piano

+ Jazz pianist Dan Tepfer will perform the Goldberg Variations with his own variations as part of the Cleveland International Piano Competition and Festival on July 31. + The National Ballet is taking on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale for the first time in 26 years. + The most famous Finnish composer since Sibelius, Einojuhani Rautavaara, has died at the age of 87. + 13-year old boy soprano Aksel Rykkvin has released an album of arias by Mozart, Handel and Bach, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under conductor Nigel Short. + Read a review of the first round of…

American composer Steve Reich

Daily News Roundup: 25 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 25 July 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Opera, Piano

Today’s Daily News Roundup is celebrating Bösendorfer pianos, welcoming a new contributor, and learning how to dress properly for concerts. + Read a review of three performances from the Lincoln Center Festival that featured maverick-turned-music-hero Steve Reich. + The Guardian’s Juanjo Mena explores the seduction of the Alhambra and Andalucían influences on Alberto Ginastera’s works. + La Scena Musicale’s newest contributor Andrew Burn asks if it is a good time to be a cynic. “When I am given the opportunity to speak in front of a group of musicians, I usually conduct an exercise or two. One of my most though-provoking…

Susanna Eastburn

Daily News Roundup: 22 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 22 July 2016 Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Musical Theatre, Opera, Piano

Today’s Daily News Roundup responds to the questions “Where have the great composers gone?” Plus presidential operas, Norman Lebrecht’s latest, and more. + Soap opera or operatic tragedy? Schmopera’s Jenna Douglas evaluates the hypothetical operas of the 2016 American Presidential election. + Susanna Eastburn, a chief executive of Sound and Music and a champion of new music, responds to Philip Clark’s editorial “Where have the great composers gone?” “It’s necessary to acknowledge that the world is different from even 10 years ago, let alone the 20th century. We underestimate the disruptive societal impact of digital technology. Most obviously, access to…

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