Seiji Ozawa was a great opera conductor
I first experienced the magic of Seiji Ozawa in 1972 when I was 12 years old.
By TildyDiva
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Boston Symphony Orchestra
63 pieces since 2010.
63
pieces
17
years
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a live performance from Tanglewood
featuring Mané Galoyan, Zoie Reams, Ben Bliss, and
Soloman Howard
Streamed August 23, 2026 at 7:00 PM
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Excerpts from Nixon in China
Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson star in a performance conducted by Andris Nelsons and recorded at Tanglewood last month.
Streamed August 21, 2026 at 8:00 PM
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Don’t tread on Marie
Boston Lyric Opera’s Revolutionary War-set Daughter of the Regiment prioritizes accessibility without losing its charm.
As a hero going to conquest
A joint Beethoven–Adams program conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk suggests a way forward for the embattled Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Landing the plane
With Nixon, Klinghoffer, and Andris Nelsons on the mind, Parterre Box offers a recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recent John Adams outing.
Rose to the occasion
The embattled Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra bring Adams and Dvorák to Carnegie Hall.
Here, there, and everywhere
David Fox and Dan Johnson report on Yannick Nézet-Seguin‘s recent performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia and New York.
By David Fox and Dan Johnson
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Lucky those people who are so anxious to believe
A high-drama Vanessa by the Boston Symphony Orchestra offers something to believe in.
Dona nobis pacem
A Missa Solemnis to celebrate 125 years of Boston’s Symphony Hall was sophisticated and subdued.
Shadows of a doubt
R.B. Schlather‘s shadowy production with Heartbeat Opera at the Williamstown Theatre Festival proves that Vanessa might be coming into its own at last
Not a Marietta
We are a nostalgic sort, we opera lovers. Fortunately, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, which arrived in concert form to Boston’s Symphony Hall last weekend, is all about nostalgia.
Die tote Stadt
Korngold‘s opera in a live broadcast from Boston
Ode to Ode to Joy
Are Beethoven’s symphonies overplayed? Yes, but for a reason. While this justification may sound cliché, Beethoven’s humanist universalism is a sentiment that feels urgent in an era of widespread polarization and pessimism.
Meninas and meninos
Despite the practically unmitigated fiasco of the last Verdi concert opera performance seen in Boston, I approached Sunday’s Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras performance of Don Carlo at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre with much more optimism.
All the light we cannot hear
The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s program of works by Mozart and Kevin Puts, a composer championed by star Renée Fleming, was one of musical and artistic contrasts.
The chimes of midnight
Aside from a tour with the LSO this spring, this was, I believe, the only time Antonio Pappano would be conducting in the US this season. This made the concert at Symphony Hall a real treat.
Veni vidi vici
Mahler’s 8th Symphony is an enormous and enigmatic work.
Stage animal control
Following Gundula Janowitz and Janet Baker, Chris’s Cache sends birthday greetings to another favorite diva—Karita Matilla—with a quartet of broadcasts.
I would they had changed voices too!
Chris’s Cache follows up its Gounod R&J installment with a widely varied quintet of additional Romeos and Juliets
Decadent genealogies
Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot are, in their different ways, the final decadent flowering of a musical tradition at its twilight.
Character is destiny
La forza del destino concluded its run at the Metropolitan Opera with a significant cast change.
Distinctive and unreservedly commendable
My sole live encounter with Seiji Ozawa coincided with his final appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, where he conducted its 2008 revival of Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama.
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).