Come and Gandhi
Led by a mesmerizing Anthony Roth Costanzo, Satyagraha at the Paris Opera dispenses with historical particularities for something for more elusive.
Philip Glass
40 pieces since 2010 — at 1 company, most often at Metropolitan Opera.
40
pieces
1
company
17
years
By company
Where imitation ends
Daring reimaginings of Cocteau and Wilde take the stage at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
They do the sand dance, don’t you know?
Akhnaten has lost none of its power or glitz at the Los Angeles Opera.
Nun the wiser
Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Hildegard gives the Middle Ages the Bridgerton treatment at the Prototype Festival.
Old friends, new friends
Les Arts Florissants present two ravishing programs in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Everything the light touches
Vincent Lombardo pays poetic tribute to the 60-year-long career of Robert Wilson.
Alien encounter
“Protect the dolls, they say, but who really cares for them?” This question, posed by performer Mara Snip during the postlude of Neuköllner Oper’s 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, had a clear answer: Aliens.
Not an asset to the abbey
Francesco Filidei’s new opera The Name of the Rose struggles to bridge the past and the present in Milan
Frick in the sheets
The Jupiter Ensemble with Lea Desandre and Anthony Roth Costanzo offers sleek and sexy HIP inaugurates the Frick Collection’s new Stephen A. Schwartzman Auditorium
Conductors for the ages
In Munich, performances by 97-year-old Herbert Blomstedt and 32-year-old Thomas Guggeis show the city’s orchestral ensembles at their best
“Il vostro fato è in vostra mano!”
On this day in 1974 Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani had its Metropolitan Opera stage premiere.
“Oh, thoughtless crew! Ye know not what ye do!”
One wonders whether an obsession with metrics and measurement has the potential to create arts organizations that are more preoccupied with finding systems that quickly and efficiently tick the Arts Council’s boxes than with creating meaningful, impactful art.
Reviving a pharaoh
The Met brought back 2019 smash Akhnaten last night, with nearly the exact same cast and creative team, and with nearly the same knockout effect of three years ago.
Shining ‘Hours’
Dramaturgically, The Hours is a mixed bag: I wouldn’t discard it, but I would want to fix it. But simply as an evening of gorgeous music and singing, it’s cordon bleu.
The sonic clash never resolves itself
The cabaret at Saint Ann’s Warehouse delivered frothy fun and a dollop of pathos with Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond in Only an Octave Apart.
A change of season
What options are there for the Met and the other performing arts organizations trying to envision restarting performances in the fall?
A place in the sun
Friday evening’s Met premiere of Akhnaten was a resounding triumph and an outstanding testament to Philip Glass’s enduring operatic vision.
Endlessly engrossing
It seems a travesty that Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, one of the seminal works of the 20th by one of America’s most iconic composers, is only just receiving its Met premiere in 2019, some 35 years after its first performance!
Aestival body
Broadway star Kelli O’Hara stepped out of her comfort zone.
Truth, force
I hardly know where to heap my praise first.
Dramatic A.R.C.
Imagine you are at Disneyland, and there’s an Anthony Roth Costanzo ride.
Pretty little lyres
While one sympathized with Matthew Aucoin’s urge to add his voice to the Orpheus canon it was difficult to figure out how his work complemented Gluck’s.
Back to the beach
Now it’s time to grab Albert Einstein for a lengthy swim.
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).
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
