Author Archives: Alan Rich

PACKAGES: Naxos of America has become the most active, and thus the most interesting, source of home media, both compact disc and DVD, as an outlet for a number of associated European labels. That number seems to be growing; it … Continue reading →

THE PAST IMPERFECT Who doesn’t remember Leon Levich? If there are three of you in a room, Leon tuned two of your pianos, and hocked you a chainick all afternoon about his own music and why it never gets played. … Continue reading →

TOO HOT TO HANDLE? My editors at Bloomberg News had suggested weeks ago that the following item would be worth my attention. I never asked why. I fulfilled my obligation last Tuesday with my usual celerity and dispatch. On Wednesday … Continue reading →

A FURTHER NOTE ON THE UPCOMING WORLD’S END: URBANA, Ohio (AP) — A defendant had a hard time facing the music Andrew Vactor was facing a $150 fine for playing rap music too loudly on his car stereo in July. … Continue reading →

THE GRIM WEEPER Joseph Kerman, whose “Opera as Drama” contains the immortal phrase “’Tosca,’ that shabby little shocker,” comes down somewhat more gentl y on  “Madama Butterfly.”  Taking careful note of the opera’s “coarseness of sensitivity,”he concedes brownie points to … Continue reading →

Some week! The financial leaders in Washington formulate their notion of the end of the world, while the cultural leaders in gray, dismal Cleveland accomplish much the same for theirs. Surely you’ve seen the news. Don Rosenberg, music critic for … Continue reading →

BRAVE SOULS: A good-sized crowd showed up at Zipper last Friday and were well rewarded; this was the preview concert of the Carlsbad Festival, which actually ends up in Carlsbad this weekend (Friday and Saturday nights, Sunday afternoon). I like … Continue reading →

A weekend in San Francisco involved delayed departures with 90-minute sojourns on airport tarmac in both directions, plus another hour on the return end as maintenance personnel were called in to –- honest! – change a light bulb. On the … Continue reading →

POOR BRUNDLE-FLY The bad news from Paris, earlier this year, was fair warning; The Fly, which had first taken flight at the Chtelet Opera, is     one big turkey. At the press conference in Mrs. Chandler’s Pavilion, a week or … Continue reading →