Mainly in the plain Mainly in the plain

I wonder why many New Yorkers have been led to believe that the only Handel conductor in the world is Harry Bicket.

Straight to hell Straight to hell

November in New York hosts two premieres dedicated to mythology’s greatest musician, which prompts Trove Thursday to present a vintage Monteverdi L’Orfeo with Judith Raskin and Gérard Souzay conducted by Leopold Stokowski (!) and a recent HIP London broadcast of Luigi Rossi’s L’Orfeo.

Girl, next door Girl, next door

Writing an opera for kids based on Neil Gaiman‘s successful children’s novel Coraline must have been a double challenge for Rory Mullarkey and Mark-Anthony Turnage

One Handel, one heart 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.

Two ghosts

The ENO was filled with ghosts last week. Spectral, possibly illusory figures fleetingly materialized in the Internet chatrooms that provide the setting for much of Nico Muhly’s new opera Two Boys, and brutal boarding school memories came back to troubled life in director Christopher Alden’s dark take on Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.