Reviews of some mid-century modernism, the finale of the Festival of Contemporary Music, and John Williams 80th birthday celebration. Monday, July 30, 2012 Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood  There was a crisp bite and rhythmic charge to everything on Monday’s program at Ozawa Hall.  Though listed as a performance of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, there was never a true orchestra onstage.  The first half consisted of pieces...

Saratoga Performing Arts Center Wednesday, August 8, 2012 The promise is being fulfilled.  Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has got the goods and a new era is truly at hand for the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was more than two years ago that the French Canadian conductor, now 37, was named music director of the orchestra, a post that he’ll finally and officially assume in October.  What a coup for SPAC to present him on...

With the arrival of its new music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the fall, the dawn of a new era is at hand for the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Audiences at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center this week will get more than a sampling of what’s in store. Starting on Wednesday (8/8/12), the 37-year old French Canadian conductor leads three consecutive nights of performances at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.  The enticing...

General director Francesca Zambello brought together the strongest season at Glimmerglass in my 11 years of covering the company.  Let’s hope her three-year tenure, which began last summer, gets renewed.  Who knows, maybe she’s still just getting started! Here’s a collection of my reviews. Verdi:  Aida Glimmerglass Festival, July 7, 2012 Probably never in its 25-year history has the Alice Busch Opera...

One couple met at the Eastman School, another at the Seagle Colony. James Raymond Hirschfeld, trombonist, and John Pickford Richards, violist (Jack Quartet) Steven William Bryant, costume designer, and Darren Keith Woods, impressario (Fort Worth Opera)  

John Corigliano and William Hoffman’s opera “The Ghosts of Versailles” comes in three sizes.  According to Corigliano’s website, there’s the original Metropolitan Opera version from the 1991 debut, which boasted about 300 performers.  There’s the standard version (“eliminates the onstage orchestra by incorporating those parts into the regular pit orchestra, re-assigns roles played...

Robert Wood, founder of UrbanArias opera company, believes that new opera presented in smaller venues using nominal forces at reasonable ticket prices can be successful. Last weekend (4/14/12) he was proved right, with a solid premiere of “Positions 1956,” commissioned by the DC-based group from composer Conrad Cummings and librettist Michael Korie. “Positions 1956” uses various 1950’s instructional manuals, all...

As part of its 29th appearance in the Union College Concert Series in Schenectady on Sunday afternoon (4/1/12), the Emerson String Quartet brought a recent work by the acclaimed British composer Thomas Ades. “The Four Quarters” was written in 2010 for the Emerson and commissioned by Carnegie Hall, during Ades’ tenure as its composer in residence. Get used to Ades’ name, if you don’t already know it.  Next fall,...

David Del Tredici turns 75 on Friday and celebrations are in full swing. Here’s what’s upcoming in New York: March 15: DDT and Courtenay Budd will perform two song cycles: Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and Miz Inez Sez (Symphony Space) March 23: Four Hand Piano recital DDT and Marc Peloquin. DDT will premiere the big new solo Ray’s Birthday Suit. (The Barge under the Brooklyn Bridge) March 25-26: American...

This blog is not quite 2.5 years-old and the counter says that as of today it’s had 100,000 unique visitors and more than 334,000 total hits! Thanks to all of you, my readers. Or maybe I should say my viewers – hopefully you’re not just dropping by but also reading and listening.  Considering that the primary focus here is a niche within a niche – the GLTB community in classical music – I’m most gratified. What...