Dan Johnson

Doommates Doommates

The aesthetic vision of M. Lamar’s Funeral Doom Spiritual was undeniable.

By on January 15, 2017 at 10:04 AM
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That is the explanation of the crime That is the explanation of the crime

anatomy theater, receiving its New York premiere Saturday night at this year’s Prototype Festival, is a conceptual exercise in which nothing, absolutely nothing is left to the imagination.

By on January 08, 2017 at 9:46 AM
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Sea, no evil Sea, no evil

Breaking the Waves is not only a “real opera,” it is an immensely powerful work of music drama.

By on January 07, 2017 at 10:15 AM
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Hooterdämmerung Hooterdämmerung

Is there anything more essentially operatic than the suffering of women?

By on September 24, 2013 at 12:42 AM
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Veil song Veil song

I was led through a small labyrinth of white curtains, sheer like veils, to a row of seven chairs jutting in between the stage risers.

By on August 11, 2013 at 9:02 PM
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Wednesday afternoon, Pocket Orchestra New York’s new PONYmobile presented a guerrilla performance of sorts in a most unlikely space, the XES Lounge in Manhattan, where designer Joel Yapching‘s BOOK homme debuted its Spring/Summer 2012 collection to the strains of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. 

By on September 15, 2011 at 7:12 PM
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Since it’s put on in lavish productions at the biggest houses, sung by the biggest stars, since it wrings such a rich sound out of such a small band, and since the musical, formal and literary ambitions of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s great meta-opera are so very grand, it might be easy to…

By on August 22, 2011 at 5:31 PM
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I had every reason to think I’d love the New York Phil’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen as much as I did their staging of Le Grand Macabre with the same creative team.

By on July 07, 2011 at 2:32 PM
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John Corigliano‘s first and second symphonies won the Grawemeyer and the Pulitzer, respectively; the premiere of his Third Symphony wasn’t even reviewed by the Times. His score for The Red Violin won an Oscar™; his score for Edge of Darkness ended up on the cutting room floor. Is there an American composer at once more…

By on September 03, 2010 at 10:28 AM
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“I just saw a woman upstairs,” said poet/translator Richard Howard, “wearing a very large pair of sunglasses that made her look for all the world like a great dragonfly.” “Upstairs” was the balcony at the Met; at the time, I was taking Howard’s lecture on the subject of frivolity in literature, and so when I…

By on September 02, 2010 at 10:15 AM
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I’d never actually seen a production of Lohengrin before I agreed to review a new Decca DVD of Richard Jones‘s staging for the Bayerische Staastoper, starring Jonas Kaufmann, so I hope I’ve got this right: It’s about this architect named Elsa, who lives in an Orwellian steampunk Germany that has videocamera technology but still dresses like…

By on June 29, 2010 at 8:08 AM
51 comments

Look, this is a very special piece of music for me. You were twenty once, right? You were self-righteous. You had your musical heroes, and your mind was being remolded every fifteen minutes or so by a rapid succession of new experiences that challenged your notions of what music could do. 

By on June 01, 2010 at 1:51 PM
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