Richard Strauss

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Review: Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis

The Boston Lyric Opera, with Boston Classical Orchestra music director Steven Lipsitt and a company of singers and designers largely new to Boston, has given us a memorable production of the opera that composer Viktor Ullmann and poet Petr Kien created i
Boston Lyric Opera pulls out the stops
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 04, 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

Welsh rarebit

Boston Lyric Opera hasn't had much success lately with either its home-grown or its second-hand products, but its latest import — the Welsh National Opera's 2004 production of Ariadne auf Naxos, Richard Strauss's third collaboration with Hugo von Hofman
Boston Lyric Opera's imported Ariadne
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 19, 2010

Heaven!

Martin Pearlman's edition of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beate Vergine, with inserted antiphons to suggest an actual service, remains a masterpiece of historical research and inspired guesswork.
The BSO and Boston Baroque at their best
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 26, 2010

John Harbison plus 10

Classical music in Boston is so rich, having to pick 10 special events for this winter preview is more like one-tenth of the performances I'm actually looking forward to.
Picking from a packed concert schedule
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 01, 2010

Diva-gations

Last week's Boston Symphony concert was a snaggle of contradictions. British guest conductor Mark Wigglesworth was substituting for the exciting but erratic Russian maestro Yuri Termirkanov, who'd cancelled all his American appearances.
Mark Wigglesworth conducts the BSO; Renée Fleming returns to Symphony Hall
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 24, 2009

The show goes on

Soprano Renée Fleming visits the PSO
Soprano Renée Fleming visits the PSO
By EMILY PARKHURST | February 11, 2009

Puccini goes punk

Perched on the lid of a lace-draped baby grand, a bobblehead quivers along with Christine Teeters's vibrato as she powers through a Tuesday-night voice lesson in the Steinway Piano Building on Boylston Street.
Faced with diminishing mainstream opportunities, Boston's young opera singers are going small and making the repertoire their own
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | January 21, 2009

Adam and Eve

A day at New York City Ballet that starts with a matinee of Coppélia and ends with a Balanchine evening might seem to offer merely the contrast between classic and modern, old and new.
It's boy-meets-girl at New York City Ballet
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 13, 2009

Cen que fas après lo balèti?

“Bon soir!” someone from the audience shouted as the six members of Lo Còr de la Plana took the Somerville Theatre stage last Friday.
Lo Còr de la Plana, Somerville Theatre, October 3, 2008
By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 14, 2008

Rural libertarians

For something so full of personal quirks and whimsical detail, John Brandon's first novel, Arkansas, is a sober, even dignified, read.
Disorganized crime, rendered elegantly, in Arkansas
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 30, 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

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

Glenn Gould: The Original Jacket Collection

Even when Glenn Gould was not at his best, he was an indispensable artist.
Sony
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 20, 2007

Dancing about architecture

If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as the famous saying suggests, then Alex Ross is the Lord of the Dance.
Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise
By EMILY PARKHURST | December 19, 2007

Voice of authority

German baritone Thomas Quasthoff has overcome adversity (his mother took Thalidomide) to become the outstanding German lieder singer of his generation.
Thomas Quasthoff holds forth
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 14, 2007

The art of . . .

Craig Smith’s Emmanuel Music began its season with Bach, the composer it’s best known for.
Bach at Emmanuel, Boston Baroque’s Cosí fan tutte, Kiri Te Kanawa’s farewell to Boston
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 16, 2007

Locomotion commotion

The DeCordova Museum’s “Trainscape: Installation Art for Model Railroads” is a great, wild, flawed 14-artist circus.
Trains at the DeCordova, the Kabakovs’ Utopia at Tufts
By GREG COOK | September 18, 2007

Innocents abroad?

Great symphony orchestras don’t just play at home.
The BSO prepares to go on tour
By JEFFREY GANTZ | August 22, 2007

Heroics

It’s been eight years since Ricardo Chailly made his last Boston appearance.
Ricardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Teatro Lirico, and the BSO’s latest guests
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 13, 2007

Mixing it up with Strauss

Although the works of German composer Richard Strauss rank among my favorites, it was unfair to give him credit last week for Die Fledermaus .
USM performs Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | February 14, 2007

Classical community

In the shadow of symphony orchestras, community bands usually do with less fanfare.
Spotlight on the Casco Bay Concert Band
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | February 07, 2007

Anticipation

James Levine was back in front of the BSO after his Christmas break, and as good as at least one of the guest conductors.
James Levine and Deborah Voigt, Collage New Music, Teatro Lirico’s Turandot
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 06, 2007

Masters share wisdom

Lest I forget those who like their Phoenix es hot off the press — Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Brewer will be giving a master class.
Christine Brewer + DaPonte String Quartet invite you to learn
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | January 31, 2007

Beyond the fringe

It was a good week for chamber opera: Bluebeard’s Castle from the BSO, Curlew River from Intermezzo.
The BSO’s Beethoven, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Brahms; Intermezzo’s Britten; Zander’s Mahler
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 20, 2006

Mozart plus

Tanglewood 2006 may well be remembered as the summer of James Levine’s Don Giovanni .
James Levine’s Don Giovanni and Elektra ; Dubravka Tomsic at Newport
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | July 25, 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

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

Making it new

The avant-garde ain’t what it used to be.
Ballet mécanique in Washington, the Callithumpians’ Xenakis, Mark Morris in New York and Boston, Yo-Yo Ma at the BSO, Harbison’s But Mary Stood
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 21, 2006

We {heart} Schoenberg

Now we can add James Levine’s Gurrelieder to the list of the BSO’s historic triumphs.
The BSO makes even the ‘hard’ parts appealing
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 28, 2006

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