Joel Rozen
Joel Rozen is a culture critic, anthropologist, and audiophile living in New York. His doctoral thesis at Princeton—still underway—is based on some field research he did in North Africa a few years ago; since then he’s enjoyed teaching in the city and writing about music. His love of opera can probably be traced back to high school, when he used to poach from his girlfriend’s dad’s CD collection. The orientation has changed and so has the digital format. What hasn’t is the Domingo/Studer Otello, which remains awesome, and unreturned.
Between staging, music, and material, it’s hard to decide what feels most broken about New York City Opera’s American premiere of Brokeback Mountain.
By Joel Rozen
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Whether full-bodied and rich or comic and actorly, the baritone voice contains multitudes.
By Joel Rozen
“Hey. Sorry to trouble you. I was wondering if I could have a word with my client.”
By Joel Rozen
Heartbeat is, after all, a company that loves to tinker.
By Joel Rozen
Doomed Lucia di Lammermoor was only halfway through her Mad Scene at the time of the incident.
By Joel Rozen
For tonight’s distinguished premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Algonquin Opera, there would in fact be far more blue hairs in the audience than blue collars.
By Joel Rozen
b>Lawrence Brownlee, star tenor of stage and NFL games is a real “pillar of the community.”
By Joel Rozen
Julia Bullock revisited a few well-trodden song cycles and lieder but pointed up their hidden politics.
By Joel Rozen
Even dauntless Evan Ingersoll felt his nerves beginning to mount.
By Joel Rozen
As far as prewar Italian verismo goes, L’amore dei tre re is a supernova.
By Joel Rozen
After an early Saturday shift bar-backing at Aura Bar, Evan had trotted over to his friend Jesús Halévy’s for a late-night slumber party à deux.
By Joel Rozen
Evan clicked over to the his favorite music critic’s weekly column, “Slings and Arias.”
By Joel Rozen
Walls of tinted glass engirdled a heated portico-terrarium, where two figures could be seen polishing off the last of their Crêpes Suzette.
By Joel Rozen
Wedlock, betrayal, sibling rivalry, feminism, and union strikes give the opera Morning Star much of its driving thematic material.
By Joel Rozen
“Have you seen the lawsuit yet?”
By Joel Rozen
They all wished, for reasons at once superstitious and deeply misguided, to avoid over-rehearsing the sextet.
By Joel Rozen
At last, Jesús Halévy had found the right size. The small ecru sweater was buried beneath a stack of extra-larges at the Macy’s on Herald Square.
By Joel Rozen
Supernumerary callbacks for the Big Apple Singing Theater Association’s spring production of Bison Don’t Cry were held later that night at the Mariachi Playhouse.
By Joel Rozen
As if the corner of Broadway and 53rd weren’t already busy enough, Evan Ingersoll couldn’t believe the line leading into the Mariachi Playhouse where BASTA tryouts were held.
By Joel Rozen
The day of the big BASTA audition, Evan found the flier Paul Upczuk had passed him the previous weekend at Aura Bar.
By Joel Rozen
It was already nearly two o’clock in the morning, late for a work night, and Nixon Ben Mahmoud was ashamed to find himself crying real tears.
By Joel Rozen
Mariachi bands travel the world, make appearances in Hollywood, and moonlight on Linda Ronstadt albums.
By Joel Rozen
Jerold Offerman had spent the day readying the Algonquin Opera orchestra for a high-profile, high-stakes revival of Lucia, and things weren’t going well with the glass harmonica.
By Joel Rozen
Touting an austere, governessy program—the hour-and-change Schubert/Müller cycle, Die schöne Müllerin—Jonas Kaufman fulfilled his long-awaited, high-profile return to Carnegie Hall last night.
By Joel Rozen
