Can re-interpretation improve a symphony or concerto? Can an ingenious staging fundamentally enhance an opera? My friend Alexander Toradze has long made a specialty of Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto. He reads it as a memorial to the composer's soulmate Maximilian Shmitgoff, who had committed suicide. Personally, I doubt that the detailed scenario Lexo extrapolates … [Read more...] about Re-Inventing Bernstein; Re-Inventing City Opera
Archives for November 2010
Rheingold, Boris, and Artistic Miscalculation at the Met
The current issue of The Times Literary Supplement (UK) includes my review of Das Rheingold and Boris Godunov at the Met, as follows: The two most eagerly awaited Metropolitan Opera productions this fall autumn were Wagner's Das Rheingold directed by Robert Lepage, and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov directed by Peter Stein, with René Pape singing his first New York Boris and Valery … [Read more...] about Rheingold, Boris, and Artistic Miscalculation at the Met