VIEWPOINTS – 2018’s Best in Opera

2018 was a relatively strong year for opera in New York. The year was pretty well balanced in terms of worthwhile new works, new productions, and revivals. Although I mostly found myself at the Metropolitan … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – William Kentridge’s monumental, sprawling spectacle THE HEAD AND THE LOAD at the Park Avenue Armory was an unsettling, poetic epic

Earlier this month, I caught South African artist William Kentridge’s monumental The Head and the Load at the appropriately massive Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory. His visceral, collage-like aesthetic … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Weeks 7-11: Memorable highlights include the dramatization of Joan Didion’s THE WHITE ALBUM and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s visceral opera GREEK

Weeks 7 through 11 of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival showcased to BAM-goers a wide variety of genres in its three distinct spaces (the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Harvey, and BAM … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Kaija Saariaho’s haunting ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS, directed by Peter Sellars, is of a single fabric

Last night, I caught the New York premiere of  Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, by way of Lincoln Center’s White Light … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – At the Met, Robert Carsen’s striking production rescues Boito’s rarely-performed MEFISTOFELE from weirdness

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Robert Carsen production. Earlier this week, that dry spell was broken when I attended a performance of the important Canadian director’s striking, rightfully-acclaimed … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Week 6: A banner week featuring Philip Glass’s SATYAGRAHA & Sasha Waltz’s KREATUR

After taking two weeks off from attending performances at the Next Wave Festival, I was eager to reengage in BAM’s flagship festival once again last week. Even before Week 6 commenced, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s THE SIX BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS audaciously attempts to trump Bach

Last night, I caught a performance of iconic contemporary dance choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s The Six Brandenburg Concertos at the Park Avenue Armory. Ever since my first exposure to Ms. De Keersmaeker’s … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – ERC’s languorous BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP uniquely attempts to conjure Emily Dickinson’s inner life, via music

It’s difficult to critique a production like Ensemble for the Romantic Century’s Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter with Emily Dickinson, which opened Off-Broadway last week at the Pershing Square Signature … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mazzoli and Vavrek’s compact, bleak PROVING UP investigates the American Dream, disturbingly and profoundly

One of the most dramatically and musically potent new operas I’ve come across in recent years was Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves (which I encountered at last year’s Prototype Festival), … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mark Morris Dance Group soulfully closes out Mostly Mozart 2018 with a trio of dances

Last week, this year’s edition of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival came to a close with a short run – I attended Sunday afternoon’s final performance – of a bill … Continue Reading →