David Kravitz

Latest Articles

Tod Machover's Death and the Powers, plus Norrington's C.P.E. Bach and the Cantata Singers' B-minor Mass

In her director's note for the American premiere of Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera , Diane Paulus, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, wrote that this "work of music-theater . . . has brought together artists from the widest r
Robotics
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 25, 2011

Blythe spirit

Leaving the Cutler Majestic after the opening night of Opera Boston’s latest Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein , you could see the smiling faces of an audience that had had a good time.
Opera Boston’s Offenbach, Thomas Quasthoff, the BSO, Boston Baroque, and BU’s Sondheim
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 14, 2010

Ye gods!

Much beautiful music turns up in the 18th-century operatic form that’s probably most alien to a modern audience.
BLO’s Idomeneo, BU’s Susannah, Garfein’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Zander’s Stravinsky, and Pollini’s Chopin
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 30, 2010

Right Click

Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressi
While conservatives have ruled radio, liberals have dominated the net. But as the rise of Red Mass Group demonstrates, the left's Web supremacy is hardly a sure thing.
By ADAM REILLY | February 19, 2010

Creationists

Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music
Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 20, 2009

Here comes the bride

It's been a long time since Bostonians had the chance to see the most popular Czech opera, Bedrich Smetana's The Bartered Bride , but Opera Boston followed its electrifying run of Shostakovich's The Nose with this tuneful folk opera and gave it a swe
Opera Boston's Smetana, the BSO's Berlioz, and Dawn Upshaw
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 08, 2009

Mad love

The destructive power of jealousy makes a good subject for opera.
John Harbison's Winter's Tale, Dvorák's Rusalka, Hans Graf with the BSO, Mark Morris's music
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 24, 2009

Is Patrick losing the netroots?

Quick--guess the source of the following blog commentary:Post #1: It really makes me physically naus...
By Adam Reilly | March 17, 2009

Obama on signing statements: much ado about nothing?

Over at Blue Mass. Group, blogger/attorney David Kravitz makes a pretty compelling case that Barack ...
By Adam Reilly | March 10, 2009

Woof!

Probably most music lovers wouldn’t head their greatest-composer list with Carl Orff, despite the popularity of his violent, garish, sumptuously tuneful Carmina burana .
The BSO’s Carmina burana, the Cantata Singers, the Boston Camerata, and BLO’s Tales of Hoffmann
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 11, 2008

Magic bullets

Last week’s Boston Symphony Orchestra program looked odd on paper, but the concert was a knockout.
Maurizio Pollini returns to the BSO; Opera Boston’s Der Freischütz
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 21, 2008

It’s about time . . .

It’s been 17 years since Boston’s last local festival of contemporary music, the New Music Harvest organized by composer Charles Fussell: 19 programs (several free), a celebration of composer Ned Rorem, an opera production performed by BU students, and t
The Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music starts in Boston
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 25, 2008

Grand finales

Jeffrey Rink has just ended his 18th and final season as music director of Chorus pro Musica. He’ll be missed.
The Cantata Singers’ Weill retrospective, Mark Morris leading Dido , Chorus pro Musica’s Carmen
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 03, 2008

Epic undertaking

The act four sequence of quintet, septet, and love duet is non-stop musical orgasm.
Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the BSO; Opera Boston attempts Verdi’s Ernani
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 07, 2008

Communication breakdown

You campaign in poetry, Mario Cuomo famously claimed, but you govern in prose. Don’t buy the dichotomy.

How did Deval Patrick's greatest strength become a dangerous weakness?

By ADAM REILLY | April 24, 2008

All over again

The Boston Symphony Orchestra program for last week’s four concerts was a familiar one.

Brahms from Levine and Kissin, Emmanuel’s Bach B-minor Mass, the Cantata Singers’ Kurt Weill cabaret

By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 15, 2008

Passion-less

If the St. John Passion is Bach’s equivalent of lesser Shakespeare, the St. Matthew Passion is Bach’s King Lear.
Bernard Haitink and the BSO; Dominique Labelle with the Handel and Haydn Society
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 02, 2008

The marriage of Heaven and Hell

It’s been a joy to see James Levine back on the Symphony Hall podium, with his admirable combination of vitality and sensitivity.
Levine’s Schubert and Bolcom, Boston Baroque’s King Arthur, Jan Curtis
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 07, 2008

Stepping stones

The dance is large and sweeping, the music (by an unnamed recorded chorus and organist) majestic.
Tudor and Limón at Boston Conservatory
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | February 25, 2008

‘A miracle!’

“Deep, tough, devout — and in church! It’s a miracle!”
Emmanuel’s memorial for Craig Smith, plus Russell Sherman’s Bach, the Royal Concertgebouw, and Handel’s Semele
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 05, 2008

Movie music

Classical music in 2008 Boston did not get off to a brilliant start.
The BSO, Handel and Haydn, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Cantata Singers, David Daniels, and Teatro Lirico d’Europa’s Tosca
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 23, 2008

That’s what he said

More than any other presidential candidate, Barack Obama owes his success to sheer rhetorical power.

Barack Obama sounds just like Deval Patrick. Is that good or bad?

By ADAM REILLY | January 17, 2008

Flying high

Cantata Singers director David Hoose must feel that Weill’s music is more timely than ever.
Kurt Weill in Stow; Ziegler and Lima sing Mahler
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 26, 2007

The strange dust-up over ‘Beat the Press’

In case you missed it — and you probably did — a very small segment of the Massachusetts media was aflame with controversy this week.
Do you love me?
By ADAM REILLY | December 13, 2006

Too much information?

It’s not often that the Globe makes the Herald look restrained, but it happened earlier this month.
Revisiting the Globe ’s gang-truce scoop. Plus, Deval Patrick scolds the media, and the problem with Blue Mass Group’s success.
By ADAM REILLY | December 07, 2006

Debating pointers

Well, folks, Fox 25 certainly set the bar with its debate broadcast Monday night, don’t you think? So with that in mind, here are some helpful hints for the bake-offs to come. Blue Mass Group's anti-Healey ad (YouTube) Christy Mihos's Big Dig TV ad
Advice to local TV stations
By JOHN CARROLL | September 27, 2006

Sweet tooth

I hope the estate of Leonard Bernstein is collecting royalties for The Little Prince . Rachel Portman’s unremittingly sweet and relentlessly lilting score for this children’s opera based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous story borrows heavily from Be
Boston Lyric Opera imports The Little Prince , the BSO premieres Yehudi Wyner’s piano concerto, and Renée Fleming
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 19, 2006

Variety show

James Levine completed his second season as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s music director with another riveting though not-quite polished evening of Schoenberg and Beethoven.
James Levine at the BSO, Ewa Podles, Gunther Schuller’s jazz, Ben Zander’s Elgar, Russell Sherman’s Mozart, Opera Boston’s Chabrier, Boston Baroque’s Purcell
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 08, 2006

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