Sunday, November 28, 2021
Our chief classical music critic remembers playing and teaching the unforgettable scores of “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park With George” and other shows.
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The composer Matthew Aucoin is deferential to Sarah Ruhl’s text, in a Los Angeles production that comes to the Met Opera next year.
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This country-western parody of the operatic epic is set amid dining tables at a Manhattan barbecue restaurant.
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This hybrid theatrical work, about a children’s book author and the story he hopes to finish, combines elements of opera, drama, puppet show and chorus.
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This production of the Leonard Bernstein 1956 operetta, which hovers between opera and musical theater, is a step toward a totally revamped City Opera.
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As he works on a new musical, Stephen Sondheim talks about the role of words in his work and how Oscar Hammerstein II influenced that.
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Ben Brantley and Anthony Tommasini weigh in on the debate set off by the Metropolitan Opera’s decision to forgo darkening makeup in its latest production.
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Thursday, July 9, 2015
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, has brought more theater directors into opera, which presents challenges but has resulted in inventive productions.
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Ms. Verrett, called the Black Callas, sang both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles, including Lady Macbeth, Carmen and Tosca.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PM“Summer and Smoke,” at the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, tells of two young adults who grew up together in a small town but whose desire for each other is never realiz…
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PMVerdi and Wagner were great students of Beethoven, and their operas have symphonic sweep, architectonic integrity and orchestral richness galore. In addition, you cannot discount their endur…
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PMThe sad truth is that until relatively recent decades, women have had severely limited opportunities within all the arts, especially music and, even more, composition.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PM"Anna Nicole," the new opera about the American sex symbol, proved a weirdly inspired work, an engrossing, outrageous, entertaining and, ultimately, a deeply moving improbable triumph.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PMRobert Lepage directed the Canadian Opera Company in works by Stravinsky. Largely based on fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, they incorporated water and puppets.
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A new production of “The Merry Widow,” directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, underlines the challenges of presenting spoken dialogue in the vast Metropolitan Opera hall.
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Sunday, September 7, 2014
“Here Be Sirens,” by Kate Soper, is a hybrid of opera, play and musical theater that presents these creatures as avian-humanoid femme fatales.
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Anthony Tommasini on this season’s musical theater songs that stood out and that have potential for independent afterlives.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:41PMThis season’s Broadway scores were clearly influenced by numerous musical styles, including country, gospel, jazz and the folk songs of other nations.
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A one-night-only performance of “Guys and Dolls” at Carnegie Hall on Thursday starred Nathan Lane, Patrick Wilson, Sierra Boggess and Megan Mullally.
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Five winners were selected in the finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York.
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The New York Philharmonic performed orchestral arrangements of suites from Sondheim musicals on Tuesday at Avery Fisher Hall.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
The fourth and final in a series of short videos I have made discussing some of my favorite magical moments in music.
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The third in a series of short videos I have made discussing some of my favorite magical moments in music.
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Following singers’ career arcs into their 70s and 80s, as Barbara Cook and Barbra Streisand deal with voice changes.
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The pianist Anthony de Mare performed pieces from his “Reimagining Sondheim” project in a concert at Symphony Space.
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