Reviewing a new history of the Metropolitan Opera in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, I write: “The Met has never enjoyed the services of a shrewd and practical visionary. There is no one in the company's annals to set beside Henry Higginson, who created the Boston Symphony in 1881; or Oscar Hammerstein, whose Manhattan Opera combined integrated musical theater, new repertoire … [Read more...] about On the Future of the Metropolitan Opera (continued)
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The Elephant in the Room at the Met Opera Negotiations
According to my Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal, the Metropolitan Opera House -- physically and metaphorically -- signifies a notion of "grand opera" that is increasingly unsustainable. To read the rest: http://online.wsj.com/articles/joseph-horowitz-union-trouble-isnt-the-mets-only-problem-1407537082?mod=rss_opinion_main … [Read more...] about The Elephant in the Room at the Met Opera Negotiations
Dvorak’s America
The current Times Literary Supplement (UK) features my latest rant on Dvorak as an American composer, as follows: Earlier this summer, Ivan Fischer came to New York with his Budapest Festival Orchestra to offer two memorable concerts of music by Antonin Dvorak. The repertoire included Dvorak’s last two symphonies: no. 8 in G major, and no. 9 in E minor (“From the New … [Read more...] about Dvorak’s America
Remembering Artur Bodanzky
Sony's 25-CD set "Wagner at the Met: Legendary Performances" reminds us that when the Metropolitan Opera was a great Wagner house -- how times have changed! -- it was also a permanent home to great conductors. My "Remembering Artur Bodanzky," in the current issue of Barry Millington's excellent Wagner Journal, expounds: An abundance of evidence – written and recorded – … [Read more...] about Remembering Artur Bodanzky
Dvorak’s “Hiawatha” Symphony — Part Two
My last posting introduced the Hiawatha Melodrama, proposing a radical re-interpretation of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. As a postscript, here is a visual rendering of the Melodrama’s fifth movement by my colleague Peter Bogdanoff. As concocted by myself and the Dvorak scholar Mike Beckerman, the Melodrama aligns text from Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha” with music by … [Read more...] about Dvorak’s “Hiawatha” Symphony — Part Two