I’m likin’ this American boy I’m likin’ this American boy

Baritone John Brancy smoothly traverses the American songbook at Carnegie Hall. 

Atlantis in Atlanta Atlantis in Atlanta

“Once upon a time / Lived a foolish king. / Mocking Death, his crime, / Pure chaos he bring.”

Trial by Korngold Trial by Korngold

What is the best metaphor for this year’s Bard Music Festival?

Overview: Riccardo Chailly Overview: Riccardo Chailly

Riccardo Chailly’s appointment as La Scala’s new music director was news that I greeted with enthusiasm when first announced in 2013.  

‘Wunder’ of wonders ‘Wunder’ of wonders

Opera Vlaanderen opened its 2017-18 season with a rare staging of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane.

Breaking Baden Breaking Baden

Baden-Baden 1927 is the title Gotham Chamber Opera has given to its evening of four brief operas that premiered together at a festival in, yes, Baden-Baden on July 17, 1927.

Cardillac: arresting!

[UPDATE: Now with photos!] Before Opera Boston’s performance of Cardillac at the Majestic Theater on Sunday afternoon, a woman warned the people in her row that she might have to leave early. A man insisted to her that “the last seven minutes” were not to be missed.

Cloud nein

Although Walter Braunfels was among those German composers whose music was banned in their home country after 1933, and whose political rehabilitiation in 1945 was not accompanied by a commensurate revival of his music, his 1920 opera Die Vögel should need no special pleading on musical or dramatic grounds.  Though Braunfels is traditionally described as…

Spoiled for choice

Adapting a novel, especially a well known novel like Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron, can be a herculean task. The two conflicting, almost mutually exclusive, forces at work are the desire to create a great work for the stage, while at the same time remaining true to all the nuanced characterizations and storylines present in…