Gaetano Donizetti

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The Big Hurt: Pancakes! Lent! Golf!

March has been a true delight in the music-PR department — I haven't seen this many dumbshit stunts since Jackass 3D . Let's roll up our sleeves and thrust our hands elbow deep into a steaming pile of press releases:
This month's inessential press releases
By DAVID THORPE | March 25, 2011

Snakebite

"I can no longer stand to let this travesty continue," sings a character in Madame White Snake , the new opera based on an ancient Chinese legend co-commissioned by Opera Boston, which has just presented its world premiere. I'm afraid I shared the senti
Opera Boston presents the world premiere of Madame White Snake; plus the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Boston Philharmonic
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 05, 2010

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

Decoding Balanchine

Nancy Goldner’s diminutive new book about George Balanchine’s choreography is deceptively readable.
Nancy Goldner on Mr. B
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | May 06, 2008

Is there a pianist in the house?

Moved and excited by pianist Leon Fleisher in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Boston Symphony, I wanted to hear it again.
A last-minute Emperor at the BSO, Gatti and Ohlsson, BLO’s Elisir, and Brahms meets Weill with the Cantata Singers
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 18, 2008

Too much too soon?

Two of the most exciting concerts announced for this winter are on the same date, February 24.
Classical goodies for 2008
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 31, 2008

Super abundance

“Something absolutely extraordinary is happening in Venezuela,” announced Tony Woodcock.
Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela; James Levine’s Berg and Mahler; Measha Brueggergosman at Jordan Hall
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 13, 2007

Chris and friends

The hype was huge, but Wheeldon seems to have a modest agenda.
Wheeldon’s Morphoses at City Center
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | October 29, 2007

Luciano Pavarotti, 1935–2007

Luciano Pavarotti was so famous, so beloved, he became the first classical musician since 1940s violinist Jascha Heifetz to have his name become generic.
Generic for tenor
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 17, 2007

Beverly Sills, 1929–2007

Beverly Sills, the most loved American opera singer of her generation, died this past week from inoperable lung cancer at 78.
The fun diva
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | July 11, 2007

Operatic oboe

For centuries it has been the ultimate goal of instrumentalists to emulate the singing human voice.
Instruments mimic vocalists
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | January 10, 2007

Village of dancers

When you hear of a new ballet titled Russian Seasons, you visualize khovorods and trepaks danced in a simulated birch grove by peasants in earth-toned costumes.
Russian Seasons at NYCB
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | June 14, 2006

Ear-popping

Of the three operas recently competing with one another, Opera Boston’s presentation of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia was in some ways the most fun.
Opera Boston’s Lucrezia Borgia , the BSO’s Oedipus Rex
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 09, 2006

Carried away

I’ve heard a lot of music in the past couple of weeks — concerts by two major symphony orchestras, with two major young violinists, a hot new-music group, and two opera productions.
Frederic Rzewski, eighth blackbird, Yan Pascal Tortelier & the London Philharmonic, Emmanuel Krivine & the BSO, BLO’s La traviata, Teatro Lirico’s magical Flute
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 04, 2006

Opera’s great loss

When the curtain went up at Boston’s Back Bay Theatre for the American premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron , in November 1966, two figures were standing back to back in a spotlight on a small disc.
Sarah Caldwell, 1924–2006
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 29, 2006