Monthly Archives: November 2002

Bright Prospects, Even Without Havergal

I was accosted at a recent concert by a well-dressed chap of a certain age. My mission, he informed me, was to throw the weight of my words behind his campaign to convince the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s management that the … Continue reading

Posted in A Little Night Music | Comments Off on Bright Prospects, Even Without Havergal

TURANDOT AND ITS NOT-S0-HAPPY ENDINGS

No abandoned orphan draws the tears and the frustrations as does Turandot, Puccini’s final work, left incomplete at the composer’s death  in November, 1924 and rushed into completion by lesser hands soon afterward. True, the formidable Arturo Toscanini cut his … Continue reading

Posted in Opera News | Comments Off on TURANDOT AND ITS NOT-S0-HAPPY ENDINGS

Mixed Blessings

It was wise local politics, if less wise music making, for the Master Chorale to deliver the first official (i.e., ticket-selling) concert at the new cathedral. It suggested the outline of a cultural enclave downtown, from the cathedral at the … Continue reading

Posted in A Little Night Music | Comments Off on Mixed Blessings

The Slick Road Project

Photo by J. Henry Fair IF YO-YO MA WERE TO RE-DRAW the map of this planet, its land mass would consist of a large blob with no boundary lines. He’s a supremely gifted musician of extraordinarily broad passions, this smiling, … Continue reading

Posted in A Little Night Music | Comments Off on The Slick Road Project

The Adams Family

There is hope for us yet. In the eight days that began with Golijov‘s St. Mark’s Passion and ended with John Adams‘ Naive and Sentimental Music, it was easy to feel good about music’s future — about the creation of … Continue reading

Posted in A Little Night Music | Comments Off on The Adams Family

“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” at the LA Opera

The hoodoos that have bedeviled Dmitri Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk almost since its premiere, performed double duty in Los Angeles this past October. As with the seesawing fortunes of the composer himself, however,  the final notes were of triumph … Continue reading

Posted in Opera News | Comments Off on “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” at the LA Opera