It is not often the most memorable part of a production is the act-three ballet. Yet, in Darko Tresnjak’s production of Samson et Dalila (which opened at the Met last fall), Austin McCormack’s lascivious choreography outshone a tepid and tedious staging of Saint-Saëns’s old-testament epic. Read more »
Callum John Blackmore
On paper, the prospect of hearing Kindertotenlieder in a crypt is a macabre one: Rückert’s poems alone are a harrowing read, a cry of anguish over the premature deaths of the poet’s two children, and Mahler matches the torment of the text with some of his most gut-wrenching, and indeed, most beautiful music. Read more »
Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Leoš Janáček‘s “pathbreaking, emotionally raw song cycle” (The New York Times) Diary of One Who Disappeared. Featuring bravura performances by tenor Andrew Dickinson and mezzo-soprano Marie Hamard and additional music by composer Annelies Van Parys, BAM presents the US Premiere of this contemporary update April 4—6 at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.
In 1917, Czech composer Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Van Hove’s contemporary reimagining of Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared paints a deeply affecting portrait of identity, infatuation, and ultimately, alienation. Read more »
New Yorkers will be very familiar with the voice of Barbara Hannigan. Read more »
While 4.48 Psychosis is an intricately-crafted, deeply moving portrait of human agony, Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance lacks the creative clout to realize its artistic ambitions.
Cher Public