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Classical

Opera Boston's Béatrice et Bénédict, plus Masur at the BSO, Boston Baroque's Creation, and Andréas Scholl

Merry war
Opera Boston began its season of relative rarities (two of them based on Shakespeare) with Berlioz's enchanting last opera, Béatrice et Bénédict, centered around the two most compelling characters in Much Ado About Nothing — witty antagonists who, in their "merry war," renounce love, until they are forced to admit they love each other.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 27, 2011

Yo-Yo Ma at the BSO, Gidon Kremer at Longy, Ilya Kaler with the Boston Philharmonic

Stringing along
For a moment, it seemed as if the Boston Symphony Orchestra was back in its full ripeness.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 19, 2011

Anne-Sophie Mutter, Susan Davenny Wyner, and Courtney Lewis

Popularity contest
The season-opening concerts I've been going to have made me think about two kinds of musicians: those whose performances become transparent, who allow the listener into the heart of the music; and those for whom their own abilities — technical marvels — seem an end, not a means to a higher end.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 06, 2011

Photos: Huntington Theatre Company's Candide

At Boston University Theatre through October 16
This production of Leonard Bernstein's ambitious satirical operetta is three hours of fun with bite.

By: HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY | September 29, 2011

Emmanuel Music's B-minor Mass; Lexington Symphony's Debussy and Holst

Celestial voices
Johann Sebastian Bach wasn't the first composer to recycle previous material, but he might have been the first to put together his own greatest-hits album.

By: JEFFREY GANTZ | October 03, 2011

Huntington's Candide hits more than just the high notes

Candidissimo!
How could a musical with a dazzling score and a perfect cast have been such a dismal flop on Broadway?

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 05, 2011

Guerilla Opera's Loose, Wet, Perforated

Huh?
Australian born, Harvard-educated Nicholas Vines is a compellingly original composer, and his new Loose, Wet, Perforated (through September 25) is full of fascinating music.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 20, 2011

The 10 can’t-miss classical concerts of 2011

From Boston Baroque to the Discovery Ensemble: More classical concerts than you’ll know what to do with
Here are 10 classical events I'm particularly eager to hear--just the tips of our many musical icebergs.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 03, 2011

Boston Midsummer Opera's The Italian Girl in Algiers

Dream Girl ?
This year Drew Minter and BMO gave us the young Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers , composed when he was 21 (it was his 11th opera!). It's an energetic comedy about a wily young woman who outwits the warlord who wants to add her to his harem.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 02, 2011

BOC's delightful Falstaff and Michael Endres playing Schubert at Newport

The essence of youth
Boston Opera Collaborative is, in its own words, "a non-profit membership organization dedicated to providing opportunities for emerging artists." Its members share in both the artistic and administrative work. Now in its sixth year, it has created a stir.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | July 25, 2011

The BSO opens its summer home without Levine, but with Mark Morris & Yo-Yo Ma

Tanglewood report
It was especially sad that Levine, who cancelled his entire Tanglewood season and then resigned as BSO music director as of September (he just underwent another major surgery on his spine), couldn't lead this particular program.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 10, 2011

Three pianists, and some impressive chamber music

Prestidigitation
Three remarkable pianists who couldn't be more different from one another have made some major appearances in the past few weeks.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 29, 2011

Jordi Savall and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra

Living traditions
"The Celtic Viol" — the title of the Boston Early Music Festival concert Catalan gambist Jordi Savall gave yesterday evening at Jordan Hall — looks like an oxymoron, since Irish and Scottish music is almost by definition traditional and popular and the viol is associated with "serious" early classical music.

By: JEFFREY GANTZ | June 17, 2011

report by Jeffrey Gantz from the Boston Early Music Festival

The Boston Early Music Festival Exhibition

Crumhorns calling
What with the operas and the big-name visitors and the demonstrations and mini-classes and workshops and symposia and society meetings, to say nothing of the Early Music America Conference and Young Performers Festival, it would be easy to overlook the Boston Early Music Festival's Exhibition.

By: JEFFREY GANTZ | June 17, 2011

Steffani's Niobe opens the Boston Early Music Festival; plus, Richard Conrad's farewell

Coming of age
This is the Baroque opera production I've been waiting for.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 16, 2011

Boston Baroque's Rameau, Opera Boston's Donizetti, BSO's Berlioz, the Met's new Walküre

Something old, something new
As the season wound down, one of the most applauded concerts was Boston Baroque's semi-staged version of Jean-Philippe Rameau's early 18th-century extravaganza, the "opéra-ballet" Les Indes galantes (roughly, "The Romantic Indies").

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 25, 2011

BLO does Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream

plus Dawn Upshaw, Natalia Gutman with the BPO, and Simon Trpceski at the BSO
After last season's The Turn of the Screw, Boston Lyric Opera has returned to Benjamin Britten with A Midsummer Night's Dream, an adaptation of Shakespeare (at the Shubert Theatre through May 10).

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 11, 2011

St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Dubravka Tomsic, and Emmanuel's Rake, plus BSO visiting conductors

No substitutions
Three recent musical high points in Boston actually went on as originally announced: no changes, no cancellations, and nothing to do with James Levine, who had his own triumphs out of town, leading Berg's Wozzeck at the Met and a concert with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 26, 2011

Adès, Tetzlaff, and Kissin at the BSO; Matthew Polenzani's Schubert

Tempestuous
After too many weeks of watching the Boston Symphony Orchestra scramble to replace maestro James Levine, both in Boston and on tour, we finally got a concert that went as planned.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 06, 2011

Tod Machover's Death and the Powers, plus Norrington's C.P.E. Bach and the Cantata Singers' B-minor Mass

Robotics
In her director's note for the American premiere of Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera , Diane Paulus, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, wrote that this "work of music-theater . . . has brought together artists from the widest range of disciplines — from theater and film to modern dance and the cutting-edge technology of the MIT Media Lab."

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 25, 2011

Handel from BLO and the Cecilia, musicals at the conservatories, and Teatro Lirico's farewell

Play on
Boston Lyric Opera is presenting (at the Shubert Theatre through March 22) Handel's first hit opera, Agrippina, a black comedy about ruthless power, lust, and the shreds of nobility. Anyone who still thinks Handel is unrelievedly solemn should rush to the Shubert for a big surprise.

By: LOYD SCHWARTZ | March 16, 2011

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