Bringing up Babylon
“Trove Valentine’s Day” further stokes Semiramis-fever with another of the celebrated works about the infamous queen: La Semiramide riconosciuta, a superb 1729 opera by Nicola Porpora.
George Frideric Handel
79 pieces since 2010.
79
pieces
17
years
The Otter Limits
Scheming Anne-Sofie von Otter offs her brother and sons before the opera even begins? You bet!
I love you to death
New York fans of 17th century Italian vocal music should be rejoicing this month.
Elements of style
Antonio Literes, a boy soprano from Majorca, had, we may presume, friends in high places.
One Handel, one heart
I don’t usually attend a performance of an opera I’ve known well most of my life expecting a revelation.
Their sound is gone out into all lands
“Trove Maundy Thursday” offers a recent un-HIP version of Handel’s Messiah.
Conquering hero
Today is Handel’s 332nd birthday and “Trove Thursday” celebrates with a rare live broadcast of his best-known opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto.
“Thy power standeth not in multitude nor thy might in strong men”
An unstaged performance of Juditha Triumphans by five soloists and the Venice Baroque Orchestra under Andrea Marcon.
Harmony of contrasts
Joyce DiDonato’s atest album, In War & Peace: Harmony through music, is more specific than it sounds.
Another man’s Persian
The seventeenth-century works of Francisco Cavalli may be easier for modern audiences to accept.
Fast and furious
A 1984 performance of Handel’s Orlando with Marilyn Horne, Valerie Masterson, Marvis Martin, Jeffery Gall and Robert Lloyd, conducted by Charles Mackerras.
Maxed out
Might Max Emanuel Cencic be the countertenor for people who hate countertenors?
Martyr system
William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants made a much-anticipated appearance at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival Saturday performing Theodora.
The year in Yohalem
My memory is fading but the events I recall most vividly of the last season seem largely to have been concert performances.
The secret of nymph
Mark Morris’ staging of Acis and Galatea at Lincoln Center is everything good about summer condensed into two hours.
Partial eclipse
We must be doubly grateful that The English Concert’s recent Theodora was so quickly followed by the American Classical Orchestra’s fine Samson on Tuesday evening at Alice Tully Hall.
Deeds of kindness to review
For decades thousands and thousands have attended Handel’s Messiah (usually around Christmas or more appropriately near Easter) making it easily one of the most widely known works of classical music.
Pyramid scheme
Giulio Cesare at the Met proved an evening that added up to much more than the sum of its uneven parts.
Empire records
That’s what it must have been like in 1726 London when Handel composed Alessandro for perhaps the three most famous (and expensive) singers of the day.
Tiny tunes
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s best known opera is La Serva Padrona, but the Neapolitan composer also composed several other works, which are now lovingly presented on video by the Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini at Jesi.
Divas merrily on high
Cecilia Bartoli and Joyce DiDonato are not the only ladies who have recorded recitals this year featuring music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mission statement
Can it be nearly a quarter-century ago that an Italian mezzo-soprano in her early twenties recorded her first recital?
Brit star! would I were steadfast as thou art!
Rule Britannia? Often during the Olympics that famous number from Thomas Arne’s 1740 Alfred echoed in my ears.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).