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
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
The Singularity of Gershwin
The singularity of George Gershwin is an inexhaustible topic. One thing that sets Gershwin apart is what I'd call his "cultural fluidity." He is Russian, he is Jewish, he is American. He composes for Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, Hollywood, Carnegie Hall. He is an American in Paris. In Vienna, he is the rare American composer for whom Alban Berg greatly matters. This fluidity of … [Read more...] about The Singularity of Gershwin
Santa Fe Opera Update
The current issue of the Times Literary Supplement (UK) includes my review of this summer's Santa Fe Opera season, featuring a terrific Tales of Hoffmann and further evidence of artistic health. It reads: John Crosby founded the Santa Fe Opera in 1956. He situated his open-air opera house seven miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a vast polychrome landscape fringed by the … [Read more...] about Santa Fe Opera Update
Did Dvorak Compose “Deep River”?
Though there are some historians of American music who dispute the crucial importance of Dvorak, and many more who simply ignore him, that the impact of his short American sojourn (1892-1895) remains incalculable was driven home afresh during the recent "Dvorak and America" NEH teacher-training institute in Pittsburgh. After World War I, the iconic American spiritual was "Deep … [Read more...] about Did Dvorak Compose “Deep River”?