In lieu of a parterre box review of Mostly Mozart’s Mass (none of the our bullpen showed any interest in taking the piece on), here’s what Zachary Woolfe has to say: “I think that if it’s not [Bernstein’s] worst, it surely reflects his worst tendencies: his allergy to self-editing, his saccharine streak, his embarrassing wordplay, his obsession with (and tone-deafness toward) youth culture, his weak counterfeits of pop styles.” [New York Times]
Forget starry Neverland: if you’ve ever wondered what the Lost Boys’ abode might look like lined with mermaids, shopping carts, and unpeeled potatoes, look no further than Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, where Christopher Alden’s new production of Peter Pan debuted last month for a three-week run ending July 22. Read more »
Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Leoš Janáček‘s “pathbreaking, emotionally raw song cycle” (The New York Times) Diary of One Who Disappeared. Featuring bravura performances by tenor Andrew Dickinson and mezzo-soprano Marie Hamard and additional music by composer Annelies Van Parys, BAM presents the US Premiere of this contemporary update April 4—6 at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.
In 1917, Czech composer Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Van Hove’s contemporary reimagining of Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared paints a deeply affecting portrait of identity, infatuation, and ultimately, alienation. Read more »
Well here we are, beloveds, still swathed in the warm glow of the Leonard Bernstein centennial. Box sets abound like bunnies in a hutch. Read more »
The opening night of the Metropolitan Opera of September 1972 was supposed to be the dawn of a new era.
“Thirty years after the action of Tahiti the young son, Junior, is now gay and possibly schizophrenic; his former lover is married to his younger sister, Dede. During his mother’s funeral Junior starts a striptease in front of his father, knocking into the coffin in the process…. This was neither the sound nor the subject matter that audience members at the 1983 premiere at the Houston Grand Opera were expecting.” The arrival of A Quiet Place at New York City Opera also provides a debut for Zachary Woolfe in the New York Times.
Cher Public