Garden varieties Garden varieties

Those of us in New York City who relish 17th century Italian vocal music were offered an enticing banquet over the past few weeks.

Band in Boston Band in Boston

In the triumphant American premiere of Orlando Generoso at the Boston Early Music Festival last week, the hippogriff was among the many stars of the show.

Home brew Home brew

An extraordinarily rich variety of opera happens locally, under the umbrella of New York Opera Fest.

Lyrists’ club Lyrists’ club

For one week every two years since 1981 the eyes—and ears—of those interested in period performance turn to the Boston Early Music Festival, particularly to its opera centerpiece, but that organization doesn’t rest on its laurels in between festivals.

Ulysses in Midtown Ulysses in Midtown

In the program for Opera Omnia’s production of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse, Crystal Manich, the company’s stage director, speaks of producing “baroque works in non-traditional ways.”

Canon ball

New York Festival of Song’s Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life is a delightfully lighthearted, deeply personal, and colorful recital made of equal parts sex, camp, melancholy, and tenderness.  Steven Blier‘s wide-ranging program consists of five sets of songs, each meant to evoke, as per his program notes, “a quintessential moment of a gay…