“Can the Diva Who Once Ruled the Met Make a Comeback?” asks Zachary Woolfe in the New York Times, and who even needs to ask who he’s talking about? Read more »
Our Own Joel Rozen in Slate ponders the “good gay vs. bad gay” politics of Zachary Woolfe‘s New York Times celebration of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Celebrated conductor William Christie, widely considered among the foremost interpreters of early-music for modern audiences, and his acclaimed ensemble Les Arts Florissants have delighted audiences at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) for 30 years. On March 1st, they return with Rameau, maître à danser, featuring two rarely seen operas originally penned by 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau for the court of Louis XV.
A pastoral atmosphere prevails throughout La naissance d’Osiris, a one-act ballet set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac commissioned to celebrate the birth of the Duke of Berry, future Louis XVI; Daphnis et Églé tells the story of two lovers ignorant of their own love for each other, charming audiences with its use of classic European dance styles like sarabande, gavotte, gigue, minuet, tambourin, and contredanse.
Both operatic miniatures served as a symbol of the court’s opulence as well as a source of evening entertainment; together, as Rameau, maître à danser, they serve as a sublime showcase for Christie’s singular brilliance and the ravishing power of baroque music. At the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Mar 1—3. Read more »
Now, you would think nothing could please gaycentric La Cieca more than yesterday’s New York Times profile of the Met’s new music director, combining as it does four of your doyenne’s favorite things: Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Zachary Woolfe, opera and being out. (The brown paper packages tied up with strings I can take or leave.) And yet… Read more »
“We’ve realized that, actually, the status quo is not an option if we want to survive, let alone thrive.”
Broadway’s new Head Over Heels is anything but under committed; it’s a show with an irresistibly fun spirit and an infallibly good heart.
“I think that if it’s not [Bernstein’s] worst, it surely reflects his worst tendencies…”
At long last (and about fucking time) undisputed genius Stefan Herheim will make his Metropolitan Opera debut, staging Les Vêpres siciliennes.
Cher Public