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George Bridgetower

The “Kreutzer” Sonata: Friendhip and Transgression

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By on Classical Music, La Scena Spotlight, Romantic
February / March 2021

Much the most admired of Beethoven’s 10 Violin Sonatas is the ninth, which we know as the “Kreutzer.” It could just as logically be called the “Bridgetower,” and might have been so, had an unfortunate disagreement not intervened. George Bridgetower (1778-1860) gave the first performance with the composer at the piano and was probably on track to be the first dedicatee. Our evidence for this is an inscription on the autograph1 by the composer, which can be translated as: “Mulatto sonata composed for the mulatto Bridgetower, great madman and great mulatto composer.”  Despite the apparently humourous tone, Beethoven’s admiration for…

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Stingray will support National Music Centre with a $525K contribution for classical music residencies at Studio Bell

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By on La Scena Spotlight

First three selected artists include Jean-Michel Blais, Jiajia Li and Anders Muskens Calgary, July 22, 2019 — The National Music Centre (NMC) will receive a $525,000 contribution from Stingray over the next seven years to support classical music residencies at Studio Bell. A handful of artists have already been selected to help launch the program over the second half of 2019. They include Montreal-based post-classical pianist Jean-Michel Blais, celebrated Calgary flautist Jiajia Li, and Edmonton musician Anders Muskens, who specializes in historical keyboards. “As a Canadian company and member of the music community, Stingray is committed to promoting local talent. …

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Celebrating a Century of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn with Poetry and Music

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By on Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Education, Interviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Literature, Piano, Scena Arts

PREVIEW: of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn at 100, at New York City’s 92nd Street Y, Monday, November 19, 7:30 p.m.; and INTERVIEW: with pianist and conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn, son of Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the heroic anti-Soviet dissident whose vital and uncompromising documentation of the horrors of the Stalinist police state won the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature and provided indispensable impetus to the forces that brought on the communist regime’s late 20th-century downfall, would have turned 100 this December 11. In what promises to be an especially rich, personal and heartfelt early celebration of that centenary, New York City’s…

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The audience playing the part of “The Water” at Festival O18’s Queens of the Night: Dito and Aeneas at the Theatre of Living Arts; photo by Steven Pisano

Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O18: The Whirlwind That Was

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By on Baroque and Early, Choral, Classical, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Multimedia, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Theatre, Visual Arts

REVIEW: of Opera Philadelphia’s “Festival O18” (September 20-30, 2018) – a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, composed by Gaetano Donizetti with libretto by Salvadore Cammarano; the world premiere of Sky on Swings, composed by Lembit Beecher with libretto by Hannah Moscovitch; the premiere of Ne quittez pas (a “reimagined” La voix humaine of Francis Poulenc, with a new prologue featuring numerous of the composer’s art songs); the premiere of Glass Handel, an immersive concert experience featuring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo performing music by George Frideric Handel and Philip Glass; and Queens of the Night: Blythely After Hours, an opera/rock…

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Faith and Folly — Taking Up Serpents, a New American Opera, Bows in Boston

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By on Art Song, Choral, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Indigenous, Interviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Uncategorized, Vocal

PREVIEW: of a public workshop performance with orchestra of the new opera Taking Up Serpents – libretto by Jerre Dye, score by Kamala Sankaram; presented by MassOpera, Boston; Sunday, September 30, 2018 at 3 p.m.; Deane Hall at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts (527 Tremont Street, Boston); the opera is a commission of the Washington National Opera and this workshop is presented by MassOpera. In the final passages of St. Mark’s Gospel, Christ declares that a hallmark among his true believers shall be a willingness that “they shall take up serpents!” And in certain quarters…

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Sebastian Catana as Rigoletto; Berkshire Opera Festival; photo by Ken Howard

All Jesting Aside – the Berkshire Opera Festival’s Thrilling Rigoletto

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By on Classical, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW: of the Berkshire Opera Festival production of Giuseppe’s Verdi’s Rigoletto (August 25 at 1 p.m.; August 28 at 7:30 p.m. and August 31 at 7:30 p.m., at the Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). Sex, power, seduction, revenge, and a dazzling lightning storm. Verdi’s gutsy 1851 operatic melodrama, Rigoletto, gets a fascinating, stylish, and unflinchingly close study in the Berkshire Opera Festival’s new production, running through August 31 at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (viewed here at the August 25 opening). Under director Jonathon Loy (who is also the festival’s co-founder), Verdi’s tale of a deformed court jester who seeks…

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Michael Hewitt as Lieutenant Horstmayer and Arnold Livingston Geis as Nikolaus Sprink in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2018 production of Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell's "Silent Night." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Through the Glimmerglass, 2018 – Reflections of a Turbulent Century

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By on Art Song, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Dance, Education, Folk, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Romantic

PROFILE/REVIEW: of the 2018 Glimmerglass Festival Season: Silent Night by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell; West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim; Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček; and The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini and Cesare Sterbini. “It’s remarkable how many important things happened in 1918,” observes Glimmerglass Festival artistic and managing director Francesca Zambello, speaking at a recent pre-show audience address in Cooperstown. “The end of World War I. The birth of Leonard Bernstein. And the premiere of this piece” – this last a reference to Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, which was…

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Mozart & Salieri Are at It Again, at dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s Festival 2018

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By on Art Song, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Interviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Strings, Theatre, Vocal

PREVIEW: of the 2018 dell’Arte Opera Ensemble Summer Festival Season, “Mozart & Salieri,” at New York City’s LaMaMa (66 East 4th Street), August 11 through 26; and INTERVIEWS: with company founder and artistic director, maestro Chris Fecteau, and dell’Arte 2018 creative team members Brittany Goodwin and Catherine O’Shaughnessy. This company is ready to rumble. Call it the Thrilla from Vienna: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, that most bruited matchup of 18th Century musical titans, is slated for a redux this month – this time in 21st Century New York, courtesy of the dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. Grab a ringside seat.…

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A scene from DEMON by Anton Rubinstein; Bard SummerScape; photo by Stephanie Berger.

Rubinstein’s Demon Lover Stalks Bard SummerScape 2018

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By on Classical Music, Interviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Opera, Romantic, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of the 2018 Bard SummerScape production of Anton Rubinstein’s 1871 opera Demon; and INTERVIEW: with Dr. Leon Botstein (American Symphony Orchestra founder and SummerScape festival artistic director). A warning to all princes of the Caucasus – lock up your daughters! The devil is on the prowl, and he’s feeling amorous. Russian composer Anton Rubinstein’s 1871 opera, Demon, weaves a fascinating yarn of ultimate forbidden love. Based on an earlier, censored poem by Russian poetic genius Mikhail Lermontov, a demon (depicted as the very model of the proud, lonely, passionate Byronic tragic hero) finds himself smitten by the beauty of…

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The Grisettes from THE MERRY WIDOW; photo by Gary David Gold

Opera Saratoga 2018, in Plain English

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By on Classical Music, La Scena Spotlight, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW/PROFILE: of the Opera Saratoga 2018 mainstage production season: Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow, David T. Little’s and Royce Vavrek’s Vinkensport, Gareth Williams’ and Anna Chatterton’s Rocking Horse Winner, and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul; at the Spa Little Theater, Saratoga Springs, New York, through July 15. You’ve still got all of August for those good pulpy beach reads. Why not set aside a bit of July to savor a different delectus of juicy plotlines during the all too brief lyric holiday afforded by Opera Saratoga’s summer 2018 season, running only through July 15? This year’s programming is (almost) completely…

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