Interchanging Idioms

Makes Festival Appearances at Aix-en-Provence , Edinburgh , and London ’s BBC Proms After famously soldiering on after breaking her leg during a performance at London’s Royal Opera House, the irrepressible mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato continues her summer at some of Europe ’s most celebrated festivals. Before the opening of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden, DiDonato sang alongside a starry cast at the Royal Opera’s “soirée musicale” – among them baritone Thomas Hampson and tenor Joseph Calleja – accompanied at the piano by Antonio Pappano, the opera company’s music director. Among the star mezzo-soprano’s summer engagements is a surprise appearance at the Salzburg Festival on August 2, during which she will sing a solo concert of Handel arias from her recently released EMI recording Furore. On June 25, London ’s Independent newspaper bubbled over with enthusiasm for a “hurriedly prepared concert party” assembled from the remarkable talent on hand at Covent Garden when Dmi...

With Craig Wedren Performing Jefferson Friedman’s On in Love Tuesday, August 4 at 7pm (previously 7:30pm) Joe’s Pub 425 Lafayette Ave., NYC Tickets: $15 at www.joespub.org or 212.967.7555 Noguchi Museum’s Music in the Garden Featuring the world premiere of Caleb Burhans’ new string quartet Sunday, August 9 at 3pm The Noguchi Museum 9-01 33rd Rd., L.I.C., NY Info: www.noguchi.org or 718.204.7088FREE w/ $10 Museum admission “Jefferson Friedman is one of the increasingly plentiful young composers who have found ways to meld their classical music training with rock sensibilities, and his version of this blend is both sophisticated and appealing.” ­­– The New York Times New York, NY–ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble), led by cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, will perform two concerts in August at Joe’s Pub (August 4, 425 Lafayette Ave., NYC) and at the Noguchi Museum (August 9, 9-01 33rd Rd., Long Island City, NY). The New York Times describes A...

The editors of Opera News have chosen Style as the theme for the August 2009 issue, and are publishing a variety of viewpoints on the subject. In his cover article, critic Philip Kennicott points out that style is the subject of both daydreams and debate, and asks readers to ponder: “Is the opera house the last safe place to practice the pursuit of style?” The witty cover photo-illustration shows a young woman in casual clothes, daydreaming about a finely-costumed opera-diva version of herself, who is pictured floating in the clouds above her head. The late, beloved Wagnerian soprano Birgit Nilsson devoted almost an entire chapter of her memoirs, La Nilsson , to the experience of being stalked by a young woman, to whom she referred only as “ Miss N.” In “The Star and the Stalker,” author and actress Kathryn Leigh Scott reveals the fascinating story of Nell Theobald, the fan who tried to imitate a diva’s lifestyle, with tragic results. Colleen Hill focuses on costume design over ...

Festival Artists Include Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and Baritone Thomas Hampson SAN FRANCISCO, CA (July 15, 2009) - Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) celebrate the music of Gustav Mahler in a three-week festival September 16 – October 3 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco following the release of the final symphony in their Mahler recording project, Symphony No. 8 and the Adagio from No. 10, on August 25. Highlights of the festival include Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, Mahler’s Symphonies No. 1 and 5, Songs of a Wayfarer ( Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ) with baritone Thomas Hampson as part of MTT’s signature exploration into the composer’s evolution in a special program titled Origins and Legacies being filmed for the Orchestra's Keeping Score television series. Audio recordings of Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson’s performances will be captured for the SFS’s Grammy-Award winning Mahler recording cycle. Tickets f...

WRR Classical 101.1 FM Dallas / Fort Worth is losing their weekend host Matt Erikson. He has been offered the opportunity to pursue an exciting journalism opportunity in Los Angeles. In May, Matt was selected to receive a prestigious Annenberg graduate fellowship at the University of Southern California. These awards are highly competitive, and as an Annenberg fellow, Matt will be researching the latest communication and digital media technologies to create a project of value to the field of arts journalism. "I leave WRR with great sadness, as well as tremendous gratitude and respect for the station and how it contributes to the cultural life of the Dallas-Fort Worth area," says Matt. "I don't think that an arts journalist could have a better professional experience than reporting the Cliburn Competition with the kind of wall-to-wall, quality coverage that this station is used to providing its listeners." Kurt Rongey, Operations Manager for WRR, says "...

James Levine will conduct a program of Berlioz and Mussorgsky in a wonderful romantic romp. The program opens with Berlioz' Roman Carnival Overture . Then Steven Ansell joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Harold en Italie , for viola and orchestra, a lovely but seldom performed Berlioz piece. The second half of the program is devoted to Mussorgsky with Prelude to Khovanshchina , closing with the immensely popular Pictures at an Exhibition - although originally written for solo piano, Ravel's orchestrated version is perhaps the more famous version. Northern Italy is famous for its effect on visitors, and Berlioz was no exception. Berlioz was in Italy between 1831 and 1832 compliments of his success with the Prix de Rome . Although by this point Berlioz had already developed a distaste for Italian Opera, disgusted by the noise of the overly enthusiastic audiences, he did find the long trek from Naples to Rome to be very inspirational. During this trip he wrote of his e...

Time moves; things come and go and with it good things come to an end - or perhaps I should look at it like the Buddhists, "this too shall pass." But somehow that doesn't make writing this review any easier knowing that tonight was the last night for the Philadelphia Orchestra here at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. It was such an amazing concert. All the pieces fell into place. And yet I will have to wait until next year to hear the Philadelphia musicians back at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. Tonight's performance was conducted by Rossen Milanov. The opening piece was a modern composition Rainbow Body for Orchestra by Christopher Theofanidis. It is a melding of two ideas, a theme (or chant) by medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen and the Buddhist concept of obtaining enlightenment - where the body is transformed into light or energy. Milanov carefully crafted each entrance, as they each seemingly stand alone amid a soft wash of sound, an orchestra...