| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 4-May-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | "I'm in love with Vienna": Renée Fleming and friends at Carnegie Hall |
 For the last concert of her Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, Renée Fleming assembled one of the least coherent concept programmes imaginable. Billed as “Vienna: Window to Modernity”, it was never clear what was specifically Viennese about the music on show, nor what was particularly modern, nor what windows had to do with anything. If this was about the fin de siècle and the turbulent culture that accompanied the collapse of the Austrian empire, then historians are going to have to redefine what a siècle might be, let alone a fin.Read full review... | |
| 19-Jan-2013 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Susan Graham and Renée Fleming stunning at Disney Hall |
 One would think that either Renée Fleming or Susan Graham alone would be reason enough to sell out a large venue such as Disney Hall. But everything is bigger in Hollywood, and the LA Phil brought both artists together for a one-night recital of French art song. But even that wasn’t enough. This was not an ordinary recital with neatly arranged sets of the typical repertoire finished off with a few predictable encores, concluded in two hours’ time. No, this was a thoughtful survey of French mélodies and their English-speaking muses, with slideshows, anecdotes, and stories.
Read full review... | |
| 27-Oct-2012 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | The Met's Otello in the cinema |
 The devil, they say, has all the best lines. In yesterday's performance of Verdi's Otello at the Met, the villain was simply sensational. Falk Struckmann's delivery of Jago's Credo in un Dio crudel (“I believe in a cruel God”) was a masterpiece of nihilism, combining power and richness of voice with a tone of pure, matter of fact evil. Throughout the opera, Struckmann avoided overacting: he simply let Boito's and Shakespeare's words do the talking, giving them weight and character through his singing voice.
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| 28-Jul-2012 National Theatre | Der Rosenkavalier at the Munich OpernFestspiele |
 Otto Schenk's production of Der Rosenkavalier is now four decades old but it still looks quite fresh, its opulence unfaded. If "traditional" is your thing, it may be the best around, and though the sets are ultra busy and detailed to the point where it can distract from the human intimacy that is key to this drama, it somehow manages to avoid the chocolate box kitschery of many other long-standing "traditional" productions.Read full review... | |
