Latest Articles and Blog Posts

Soul of Salzburg: A Milestone for Riccardo Muti

August 21, 2010 at 3:00 pm

Riccardo Muti's concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic invariably stand out as red-letter dates on the calendar of the Salzburg Festival, so in a sense his epic performance of Sergei Prokofiev's film score for Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible on August 17 was merely business as usual. But as his 200th Salzburg appearance, the occasion called for more than bouquets, cheers, and the obligatory standing ovation. Sure enough, the festival brass trooped onstage en bloc to join the massed forces of the orchestra and the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera in the applause. The deluxe roster of soloists—the Russian opera singers Olga Borodina and Ildar Abdrazakov as well as the French superstar Gérard Depardieu, appropriately larger than life in declaiming the speeches of the ferocious hero—likewise joined the general adulation. And for a touch of pageantry, a banner scrolled down from the flies, inscribed with a text that began "Thank you, Riccardo." The "signatories" included not only the institutions represented by personnel on the stage but also every composer whose music he has conducted in Salzburg, from Haydn to Varèse and beyond.

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On a Quest To Offer Arias In English

August 19, 2010  •  The New York Times

Opera in translation—though not always in the language of the audience—was once commonplace everywhere. In the age of titles, many think the practice archaic. But not Peter Moores, a 78-year-old Englishman knighted in 2003 for his charitable services to the arts.

"It's not that opera in your own language is better," he said awhile back on a rare visit to New York. "It's that you can understand it."

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A Star Is Born: In the Wings with David Afkham, winner of the first Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award

August 15, 2010 at 5:00 am

His demeanor is unassuming, but his hands are Mephistophelean: long, gaunt, electric. His frame is lithe, like a dancer's, and the elasticity of his movements shows gracefully in the long Nehru coat he chose for his 11 a.m. debut concert at the Salzburg Festival yesterday. On the podium he seems far taller than he is.

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The French New Wave

August 2010  •  Opera News

At thirty-five, conductor Philippe Jordan, son of the esteemed Swiss maestro Armin Jordan, is heading into his second season as music director of the Paris Opera, the first to hold that title since Myung-Whun Chung, whose tenure, from 1989 to 1994, covered the company's inaugural season at its imposing second home, Opéra Bastille. (During Hugues Gall's time as general manager, from 1995 to 2004, James Conlon performed distinguished service in the post of principal conductor.)

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MAW: Sophie's Choice

August 2010  •  Opera News

Art is long, but life is short, as the saying goes, and audiences need to catch the last train home. Bowing to that necessity, Giuseppe Verdi cut Don Carlos for its Paris premiere in 1867. At the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in 2002, the libret­tist–composer Nicholas Maw refused to take the blue pencil to Sophie's Choice, which was running to three-and-a-half solid hours of music in four acts, with one intermission. What was management to do? They sent ticket-holders a letter suggesting they make special overnight arrangements.

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Books by Matthew Gurewitsch