Month: February 2023

At just twenty-two years old, Richard Strauss made a bold decision to shift his compositional focus away from traditional forms such as symphonies. At around the same time, heeding the advice of Johannes Brahms, Strauss traded in his cold North European surroundings for the temperate climate and impetuous lifestyle of Italy, where inspiration struck. It was there that Strauss composed his early work Aus Italien, which broke away from the two conservative symphonies he had produced to date. Each of the piece’s movements is programmatic, foreshadowing many of Strauss’ future works, including his first “hit” Don Juan. However, Aus Italien still adheres to a traditional, symphonic structure with four movements, with the tone and temper of the German symphony. 

Continue reading Tianyi Lu leads the Seattle Symphony in shapely performances of Strauss’ Aus Italien and Mendelssohn’s E Minor Violin Concerto

This review was originally published at Seen and Heard International

The last time Camille Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson and Delilah was heard in Seattle in 1965, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House and Seattle was basking in the afterglow of hosting the World’s Fair two years prior, with its new Space Needle adding a distinctive touch to the cityscape. That 1965 run featured a husband-and-wife duo: James McCracken in the role of Samson and Sandra Warfield as the temptress Delilah, whose vindictive quest ultimately devastates Dagon’s temple. Their performance was for more than half a century the Seattle Opera’s sole production of this lurid work — that is until General Director Christina Scheppelmann revived Saint-Saëns’ biblical epic as a concert performance for the 2022–2023 season.

Continue reading J’Nai Bridges and Yonghoon Lee lead a thrilling concert performance of Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah at the Seattle Opera