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Classical classics
As the Globe 's Jeremy Eichler pointed out in his review of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's season-ending concert — called "Apollo's Fire" — referring to the program note by the BSO's Assistant Director of Program Publications Robert Kirzinger, the term "classical music" has become so all-inclusive that it doesn't have much at all to do with ancient "classical" art.
Higher definition
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece about the Met in HD, the low-cost screenings of live Metropolitan Opera productions in movie theaters around the world.
Plugged in
Sometimes you know it the minute you hear it, sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it never happens at all.
High art in high definition
Given the high cost of productions and, therefore, the high price of tickets, opera companies have a hard time staying in business.
Plus, Boston Conservatory’s The Apple Tree , Charles Strouse at Longy, and Helen Grime at the Gardner
By an odd coincidence, two recent events included two of Boston's best-loved singers in non-singing roles, artists who've been teamed in some of Boston's most memorable opera productions: baritone James Maddalena and soprano Susan Larson, essential members of the great Peter Sellars/Craig Smith stock company.
Making a comeback
Leon Kirchner's Lily, wasn't the only opera to have a disastrous premiere (some now-indispensable Verdi and Puccini were opening-night failures).
Thinking big
As the BSO season continues without a music director, each new conducting debutante (according to Webster's, usually refers to a woman) raises the larger question of who Boston's next major music director will be.
Cutting it close
In his program note for the Boston Lyric Opera production of Rossini's effervescent The Barber of Seville (Shubert Theatre, through March 18), music director David Angus asks us to listen extra carefully to this irresistible score, however familiar it may be.
Plus guest conductors at the Handel and Haydn Society and the BSO, and Benjamin Zander with the Boston Philharmonic
What an amazing array of music we've had lately.
Getting serious
This past winter, gossip seems to have risen to the surface of our musical life like the foam on chicken soup.
Beams of light and fright
What better place for an opera set mostly at a lighthouse than in a room with a vast curved window looking out onto Boston Harbor?
French music at the BSO; French opera at Boston Conservatory; plus, Peter Wispelwey, Judith Gordon, Russell Sherman and Frank Kelley, and Collage New Music
French music is tricky. It has an unmistakable accent, inflection, scent.
Hello, Helios!
There's a new group in town doing Baroque opera — not an easy ambition.
Pain and pleasure
What a turbulent time we've been having in Boston's musical life.
Fat Lady Sings Dept.
Fat Lady Sings Dept.
Musical chairs
There's lots of music to look forward to as we approach the end of winter.
Valedictions and salutations
Classical news good and bad.
Three guys who love Schubert
Three guys. Not singers, but they sing. Not pianists, but they play the piano.
Hi-Def
In his second week with the BSO, Ludovic Morlot led another stunning program originally designed for James Levine.
Grand Opera and Anti-Opera
To celebrate the forthcoming 25th anniversary of the opera Nixon in China , its three creators gathered last Tuesday afternoon on the stage of Harvard's Loeb Drama Center (home of the A.R.T.) to discuss their landmark opus.
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