THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Fures’ glacial, immersive tone poem THE FORCE OF THINGS contemplates a cosmic/microscopic/spiritual consciousness outside of the human experience

Last night, I caught Ashley and Adam Fure’s wordless immersive art installation cum contemporary music piece The Force of Things: An Opera for Objects at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Leonard Bernstein’s MASS is an audacious hybrid that’s messy, grandiose, and beguiling

Last night, I caught Leonard Bernstein’s audacious, rarely performed MASS – one of the headline offerings, and a mammoth undertaking, at this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival – at David Geffen … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – ERC’s TCHAIKOVSKY: NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART lets the tortured composer’s work do the talking, movingly

I recently took in a performance of Ensemble for the Romantic Century’s Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart, the company’s final production of its 2017-2018 season, at the Pershing Square Signature … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Charles Wuorinen’s highly anticipated, emotionally turbulent operatic adaptation of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN doesn’t fully satisfy

Last night, I attended the final performance of New York City Opera’s brief run of Brokeback Mountain, Charles Wuorinen’s operatic adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story (made famous by … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Is the age of avant-garde performance over?: Nikos Karathanos’s THE BIRDS and Meg Stuart’s UNTIL OUR HEARTS STOP

Are we living in a world in which the avant-garde is obsolete, a mere caricature of what it has historically been? Or have we simply been desensitized to a degree … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Joyce DiDonato leads a sparkling account of Massenet’s CENDRILLON at the Metropolitan Opera

Last night at the Metropolitan Opera, I caught American mezzo-soprano star Joyce DiDonato take on the title role in Cendrillon, Jules Massenet’s operatic version of the popular Cinderella fairytale. Quite surprisingly, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Anna Netrebko debuts a smoldering TOSCA at the Met

Last night, I caught the second cast of Sir David McVicar’s traditional new staging of Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. I had thought the opening cast – which featured … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Basil Twist’s genre-busting SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE returns, triumphantly

What’s the most compelling dance performance currently playing in town? Well, I’d place my bet on singular visual artist Basil Twist’s gorgeously handcrafted Symphonie Fantastique at HERE Arts Center. The thing is, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – ROCKTOPIA is a rock-meets-classical music collision that counts on your endorphins being released

Last night at the appropriately blandly-named Broadway Theatre, I caught Rocktopia, a tourist-friendly concert that mashes up rock with classical music. Although the production is advertised as an opportunity to hear the … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR & IL PIGMALIONE/PIGMALION: The Met and City Opera synergistically counterpoint each other

I had questioned the resuscitation of New York City Opera when they announced that a traditional production of Puccini’s war horse Tosca would be the vehicle for their return. However, since then, … Continue Reading →