Month: August 2009
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Who would’ve thought that there’s an up-and-coming conductor with a mop of Gustavo Dudamel-like hair who is younger than Dudamel himself? Well, the 26-year old Robin Ticciati is just such a fellow. Starting this fall, Ticciati begins his first season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since 2007, he has been the music…
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One of the loudest splashes at this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival (now in its 43rd year) was made with “A Flowering Tree,” an opera written by John Adams as a commission in 2006 by Lincoln Center for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Originally premiered at the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, Austria, this…
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The first cycle wrapped up last Friday. The second cycle started anew (rebirth?) last night. Before Twilight began on Friday, I talked with Christopher Budd about why Twilight of the Gods is his favorite, the Seattle Siegfried curse, and social media and opera. shaolin film hd download
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If you need to know something about the Ring Cycle, you probably shouldn’t ask Cassidy Brettler. She really doesn’t know anything about Richard Wagner’s masterpiece. If you want to know what will make the Seattle Opera’s staging of the 15-hour-long, four-opera cycle exhilarating, though, she is the perfect person to ask. By the time Seattle…
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Extraordinary weather and extraordinary playing marked this year’s Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, first at Lakeside School (for the last time) and for the past ten days at The Overlake School in Redmond. The programming was a little uneven, though no one can have too much Brahms (who was by some standards over represented).…
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“Gotterdammerung,” the concluding episode of Richard Wagner’s tetralogy, “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” is an arduous journey, impossibly lengthy and complex. At its best, it is thrilling and sublime, at its worst, boring and just long-winded. Seattle Opera’s production, its third in some 34 years, is nearly always riveting, making drama both visually and musically, and…
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Here is part two of my interview with Alex Lingas, Cappella Romana’s Artistic Director. film the the town
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Wednesday night at the Seattle Opera’s first Siegfried of August, Stig Andersen achieved a feat worthy of Wagner’s mythic Siegfried. Just before the curtain came up, Speight Jenkins edged his way onto the stage for an announcement. Stig Andersen, it seems, was plagued by a viral infection that had attacked his voice and sapped his…
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“Siegfried” is considered by many to be the most problematic opera in Wagner’s “Ring.” It is not the longest –“Gotterdamerrung” gets that prize, logging in at nearly five and one-half hours — but it has the fewest characters, all of whom, except for the Forest Bird, tend to make long speeches on a variety of…
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Because TGN has been extensively covering the Seattle Chamber Music Society summer festival and Seattle Opera’s 2009 Ring, I have created two new categories that will take you to every post on either music event. You’ll notice these two categories in the sidebar and at the bottom of relevant posts. Click the category, and you’ll…