Gathering Note
Notes from the concert hall
Tag: Review
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Originally published at Seen and Heard International As the overture of Ferdinando Paër’s Leonora filled the historic Studebaker Theater, the audience for Chicago Opera Theater’s opening opera of the season experienced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness an important – yet sadly overlooked – early 19th century opera. In fact, calling this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity may…
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Violinist Randall Goosby, who has been dazzling audiences since his debut with the Jacksonville Symphony at the age of nine, took center stage with the Seattle Symphony for a recent series of concerts. Goosby’s smooth and warm tone, reminiscent of an earlier era of violin performance – which is not surprising from a former student…
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Ludovic Morlot impressed again this week with a program that featured the smartly chosen Ameriques of Edgard Varese and Stravinsky’s classic ballet the Rite of Spring. As Morlot pointed out in the open rehearsal earlier in the week — Varese is to Stravinsky the way Beethoven is to Haydn. Ameriques’s homage to the Rite is…
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By R.M. Campbell Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” is a fairy-tale set in an exotic land with good and evil clearly laid out and all sorts of magic generously sprinkled throughout the piece. It has held the stage steadily since its premiere in Vienna in 1791. The production closes the company’s current season. The first two…
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Cornish College is fast becoming Seattle’s center of daring, modern classical music performances. It is a rapid turn around for a college and a music program which identifies itself readily with John Cage, a composer critical to the growth of avant garde music in the United States. The school doesn’t boast a resident student orchestra…
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By R.M. Campbell George Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of the most enduring, and magical, ballets in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s repertory. It never wears out its welcome. And so it was revived this weekend at McCaw Hall. The ballet had its local premiere in 1985 and over the next decade was frequently performed.…
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By R.M. Campbell It now has become a commonplace to note that the Northwest has been particularly fertile ground for choreographers. Robert Joffrey, Merce Cunningham and Mark Morris have powerful Seattle roots. The city would like to claim the fourth, Trisha Brown, but somehow she managed to skip Seattle on her way from her hometown…
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By Philippa Kiraly Mozart knew what he was about when he chose the Don Juan story for his opera “Don Giovanni.” The character lives, today as much as he has through the ages, the seductive rake without conscience or regard for the consequences of his actions. The opera is invariably popular. The current production, mounted…
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By Philippa Kiraly We don’t often have the opportunity to hear either of the great Bach Passions, so we owe a big vote of thanks to the Early Music Guild for bringing us a stellar performance of the St. John Passion by Portland Baroque Orchestra, Les Voix Baroques, and Cappella Romana, Sunday afternoon at Town…
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By R.M. Campbell A 101 years since its premiere in Monte Carlo, Massenet “Don Quichotte” finally made its way to the exotic Northwest where Seattle Opera opened a new production of this “heroic comedy” this weekend at McCaw Hall. Although the company has traversed a good share of the Massenet canon, plus a couple of…