Thanks for the vote of confidence. Happy New Year! Back online next week: the autumn’s essays here.
December 16, 2008In a lovely, unexpected gesture for which I am sincerely thankful, Arts Journal’s blog Life’s A Pitch has nominated this journal as “Best New (in 2008) Music Blog.” If you wish to vote, Amanda Ameer, who leads the blog, will record it here. Meanwhile, holiday and other obligations compel a hiatus until the New Year: I wish a golden season to all, and eagerly await New York City Opera’s Anthony and Cleopatra, opening January 15th at Carnegie Hall.
December 15, 2008…of autumn’s journal. Here are thoughts on Later the Same Evening, Ainadamar, Doctor Atomic, Xenakis’ Oresteia, Bernstein’s Mass, Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, and Reich’s Music for Eighteen Musicians, as well as The Coronation of Poppea, Salome, and Le Damnation de Faust; an open letter to the erstwhile new director of City Opera, and an (imaginary, so far) announcement of its new stance, and season; notes from my classes on solo, recitative, and chorus from my opera workshop for ALT; an appreciation of the songwriter John Bucchino; and a birthday lyric for Ned Rorem.
December 13, 2008This pièce d’occasion is itself an occasion. Unique, tender, exquisitely worked, John Musto’s and Mark Campbell’s Later the Same Evening made its first visit to Manhattan courtesy of the eponymous School of Music Wednesday night, and to hear it was to feel nourished. read more »