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Browsing: Classical Music

Metropolitan Opera Star Hibla Gerzmava makes Canadian Debut, with Moscow Virtuosi – A Show One Presentation

By Newswire on 16 March 2017 Classical, Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Strings

A Show One Productions Presentation – June 8 at Roy Thomson Hall SOPRANO STAR HIBLA GERZMAVA MAKES CANADIAN DEBUT WITH THE MOSCOW VIRTUOSI & VLADIMIR SPIVAKOV WITH ISRAELI CELLO PRODIGY DANIELLE AKTA “Outstanding portrayals…a crystal-clear coloratura voice…. Singing beautifully…with secure technique and ethereal high notes, she seemed not merely to play, but to become Violetta.” – Raymond Stults, Moscow Times, reviewing soprano Hibla Gerzmava in La Traviata “Perfectly balanced, dynamically expressive, with a warm swell in the phrasing, and a finish that’s as smooth as silk.” – Colin Eatock, reviewing The Moscow Virtuosi in Toronto Metropolitan Opera star…

Photo: Luca Piva

Eschenbach & Houston Symphony Deliver Exceptional Bruckner

By Paul E. Robinson on 14 March 2017 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 1 in C minor. Te Deum. Lindsay Russell, soprano. Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano. Jack Swanson, tenor. Kyle Albertson, bass-baritone. Houston Symphony Chorus & Houston Symphony Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach. Jones Hall, Houston, Texas. March 5, 2017 Since he left the Houston Symphony in 1999 after an11-year tenure as music director, Christoph Eschenbach has returned from time to time as a guest conductor. Each time he has been received with enormous adulation and appreciation from audience and players alike. On his most recent visit, after a week of all-Bruckner concerts the reaction was the same; Eschenbach is beloved in Houston and…

Blythely Oratorio (Stephanie Blythe) and Martha (Dito van Reigersberg) finally reach each other, Photo: Dominic M. Mercier

A Diva, a Divo – But Which is Who? You Decide, as Opera Philadelphia’s “Two Queens” Switch it Up

By Charles Geyer on 13 March 2017 Concert Reviews, Opera, Popular Music

DOUBLE-TAKE: Review of Opera Philadelphia’s special event, Two Queens, One Night – February 24, 2017 at the Theatre of Living Arts, 334 South Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Be it stipulated: mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe can do just about anything – and apparently will! That includes slapping on her Baba the Turk beard and ‘stache; strapping on – ahem – a magnificent Greek warrior cuirass and plumed helmet; and belting out just about the entire bel canto and romantic tenor songbook – plus a raft of pop and show tunes, to boot – all in raucous consort with Philadelphia’s premier drag performer, “Martha…

Lebrecht Weekly – Hanns Eisler: Hangmen Also Die! (Capriccio)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 March 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

In the Hollywood walk of composing fame, Hanns Eisler is the forgotten man. Erich Korngold was the founding father, Waxman and Newman the busy bees, Rosza and Herrmann the atmosphere merchants. Eisler, who wrote the first book on composing for film and treated the craft as an art in its own right, is all but pushed off the sidewalk. A Hitler refugee, Eisler landed in New York in 1938, taught for three years at the New School, then moved to Los Angeles to work with Bertolt Brecht. In 1948, he was forced to leave the US during Senator McCarthy’s witch-hunt,…

Michael Kelly as Edward Kynaston and Maeve Höglund as Margaret Hughes, Photo: Tina Buckman

A King in New York: Opera Royalty Carlisle Floyd Brings His ‘Prince of Players’ to the Big Apple

By Charles Geyer on 9 March 2017 Contemporary, Interviews, Opera

OPERA REVIEW: Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, presented by the little OPERA theatre of NY; and INTERVIEW: with the work’s creator, acclaimed American composer Carlisle Floyd. “You will be hearing more about Carlisle Floyd,” said Howard Taubman in 1956, writing in The New York Times of “a young composer who teaches at Florida State University,” whom Taubman deemed “meant for the lyric theatre.” And barely three years later, composer, critic, and educator Eric Salzman (also in the Times) already discerned in Floyd a voice that had “prepared the way for the burst of American works that followed.” The young man…

In Memoriam (1917-2017): China’s Maestro, Huang Feili

By Paul E. Robinson on 8 March 2017 Classical Music, Education, Orchestral, World Music

China’s Maestro Huang Feili died at his home in Beijing this past month (Feb. 19, 2017) at the age of 99). The following article is a reprint of my tribute to Maestro Huang – “Huang Feili: The Father of Chinese Conductors”, which appeared in La Scena Musicale on June 1, 2013. ___________________________ In March 2009, I was a Guest Lecturer at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing, China. My audience was a class of young conductors. My lecture, titled “Stokowski: the Limits of Interpretation,” considered the many changes that Stokowski had made in the scores of the music he conducted…

Opera Philadelphia Launches Free Breaking the Waves Audio Stream on March 2

By Newswire on 8 March 2017 Arts Industry, Contemporary, Newswire, Opera, Orchestral, Strings

Wednesday, March 8, 2017: When Opera Philadelphia’s new adaptation of Lars von Trier’s searing Oscar-nominated film,Breaking the Waves made its world premiere in September 2016, the New York Times declared the opera “ambitious, accomplished, [and] dramatically direct,” and Opera Newssaid it “stands among the best 21st-century American operas yet produced.” It has since earned an International Opera Award nomination for Best World Premiere and made its New York debut with Beth Morrison Projects’ Prototype Festival to continued acclaim.Now, starting on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 1 p.m., home audiences the world over can listen to this spellbinding production in its…

30 Competitors Annonced For Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

By Newswire on 8 March 2017 Arts Industry, Newswire, Piano

The Competition takes place May 25–June 10, 2017, at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall FORT WORTH, Texas, March 7, 2017—The Cliburn announces today the 30 competitors selected to participate in the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, taking place May 25–June 10, 2017, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Two hundred and ninety pianists submitted applications to participate in the 2017 Cliburn Competition, and 141 auditioned live in front of a five-member screening jury in London, Hannover, Budapest, Moscow, Seoul, New York, and Fort Worth in January and February 2017. “After an exhilarating and quite thorough process,…

24 Reasons to Follow CMIM Piano 2017 in May!

By Newswire on 7 March 2017 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Newswire, Piano

24 young pianists, 6 women and 18 men from 15 countries with an average age of 26, have been selected to participate in the CMIM (Concours musical international de Montréal) next May 2 to 12. The highest number of candidates are from South Korea (7), followed by France (3) and Italy (3). The remaining countries are represented by one participant each: Canada, China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. The 24 competitors were selected out of a record-breaking 304 pianists, representing the highest number of applicants in the history of the Competition and…

Opera McGill’s Lisl Wirth B!NGE Festival: By the Numbers

By Kiersten van Vliet on 6 March 2017 Interviews, Opera

Binge, n. (bɪndʒ): A bout of overindulgence; an instance of engaging in a particular activity (esp. eating) to excess Usually the practice of binging refers to unhealthy things: imbibing, eating whole bags of chips, and—since the invention of internet streaming services—watching so much of a television show that your computer has to check that you are still living. It was in the latter binge situation that Patrick Hansen, the Artistic Director of Opera McGill, came up with the concept of an opera binge. “My boys and I were binging on [History channel show] Vikings and I went, ‘We need an opera…

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