La Scala's "Don Giovanni': second helping

What's the matter with Anna?

I was highly critical the first time I saw director Robert Carsen's admiring characterization of the title character in La Scala's new Don Giovanni. On second viewing, I saw new cause for concern in the miscasting of Anna Netrebko.

Steve Cohen

Dec 31, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Recalling Etta James and "At Last'

One immortal song, and one mortal woman who dragged us out of the '50s

“At Last” had been covered by a handful of artists, but the song became immortal in 1961 because of Etta James, who died January 21; and because of her, it's the icon of a poignant era in American music.

Kile Smith

Dec 31, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Philadelphia Orchestra's "Sound of Christmas'

Opportunities seized, and missed

The Philadelphia Orchestra's Christmas program missed some golden opportunities to peddle the Orchestra's wares to people who don't normally attend Orchestra concerts.

Tom Purdom

Dec 20, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

The Met's new "Faust'

The devil to pay

I'm all for tinkering with Faust, Gounod's beautiful but unwieldy relic of 19th-Century French grand opera. But it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that America's atomic scientists were cutting a deal with the devil. That honor belonged more appropriately to Hitler's scientists.

Steve Cohen

Dec 18, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

AVA's "Evening of Russian Romances'

The Cold War is over, thank God

Russian opera singers like Anna Netrebko and Marina Poplavskaya have entered the mainstream. But Russian arias get little exposure. That's our loss, as AVA's recent sparkling Russian concert demonstrated.

Steve Cohen

Dec 18, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

La Scala's "Don Giovanni' in HD-TV (1st review)

Missing the point about Don Giovanni

Director Robert Carsen is so besotted with Don Giovanni's protagonist that he overlooks the opera's other fascinating characters. There's much more to Mozart's opera than one man's energetic sex life.

Steve Cohen

Dec 13, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Suburbanites and the Orchestra

On saving the Orchestra: The view from the suburbs

BSR readers have heard from a music professor and a 20-something about how to save the Philadelphia Orchestra. Let me speak for another underserved and potentially huge Orchestra constituency: suburbanites.

Victoria Skelly

Dec 13, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Yannick conducts Higdon and Yuja Wang

Yannick the peripatetic

Energy was the operative word at this weekend's Philadelphia Orchestra concerts, in more ways than one: The wunderkind Yannick Nézet-Séguin was conducting in two cities almost simultaneously.

Steve Cohen

Dec 10, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Marin Alsop's elegant simplicity

Less bombastic, but thoroughly convincing

Marin Alsop conducts the classics much the way she dresses: unfussy, simple and elegant.

Steve Cohen

Dec 06, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Samuel Hsu: A polymath's giant shadow

The world was his classroom

The polymath Dr. Samuel Hsu, who died last week, was a pianist and musicologist who spoke eight languages and was conversant in linguistics, philosophy, science, theology, history, fine arts, archaeology, literature, ice hockey. He was a Presbyterian elder who was steeped in Buddhism and Judaism. He was elite but never elitist.

Kile Smith

Dec 06, 2011 · Articles · 6 minute read