The Classical Music Network (English) Sun, 28 Dec 2025 01:52:15 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
Attacca String Quartet (© David Goddard)


“Having music in the schools, having art in the schools, having art in your life, should not be heroic. It should be every day. Having things we’ve paid for years ago and that we depend on kept up–our schools, our political institutions–should not be a heroic act. It should be part of our daily citizenship.”
David Lang


“Folk melodies are the embodiment of an artistic perfection of the highest order; in fact, they are models of the way in which a musical idea can be expressed with utmost perfection in terms of brevity of form and simplici]]>... Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17358
(© Luciano Romano)


As a frequent traveller voyaging specifically for the love of opera, I optimize my time to see as many favourites as possible, in places that appeal most; Venice, Rome, Paris, Vienna and Madrid are but five preferred locations. For favourites or rarities, I’ll happily make an effort to travel even further afield.


With this in mind, I was delighted to learn that Naples, with its immense beauty and rich history, had programmed two compelling works, Medea and Partenope. The former, by Cherubini, wa]]>... Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17363
R. Ratoi (© Efremoff Studio)


“... the vile belchings of a lunatic accordion”
Arthur Honegger


“This program is a statement of my belief in the accordion’s boundless potential and my passion for elevating its voice on the concert stage.”
Radu Ratoi


Accordion-antagonists would look at the last four weeks in New York like malarial mosquitos.


Last month, Weill Recital Hall presented the Latvian virtuoso Ksenija Sidorova. Last night, Merkin Concert Hall ]]>... Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17344
S. Jakubiak (© Brescia e Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)


This season opening was one of the most spectacular inaugurations in La Scala’s history. Instead of a typical nineteenth century Italian opera, a monumental twentieth century Russian masterpiece unveiled the season. It was also notable for being Riccardo Chailly’s last as La Scala’s artistic director. With such a rich work at hand, Chailly and his orchestra didn’t shy from the score’s extremes of lyricism and brutality. Of what Stalin allegedly called “chaos rather than music”, La Scala’s forces drew out magnificently luminous sounds, with a brass band delivering biting sa]]>... Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17369
S. Radvanovsky (© Luciano Romano)


Premièred in Paris in 1797, Cherubini’s Médée was originally written in the language of Molière, and set to a libretto based on Euripides’ play from Greek Antiquity. At its première, the work was tepidly received and mostly forgotten for a hundred and fifty years, until Maria Callas single‑handedly revived its Italian version as a vehicle for her dramatic talent. That version, a 1909 translation of a German version (1855) with sung recitatives by Franz Lachner (1803‑1890), is more condensed than the French original, with a reduced presence for roles other than the pr]]>... Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17348
E. Jaho (© BBC Opera Rara/Russell Duncan)


An Opera Rara concert of Puccini’s not‑so‑loved opera at the Barbican Hall proved to be that rara avis, the perfect performance. La rondine had a shaky start in life: it was originally devised for Vienna but war put paid to that idea. Then Puccini’s publisher Ricordi wasn’t interested in it and although its eventual 1917 premiere in Monte‑Carlo was a success, it didn’t lead anywhere. The composer tinkered with it and created a second version that did make to Vienna in 1920, but obviously not satisfied he ploughed on and completed a third version in 19]]>... Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17334
W. Christie (© Richard Termine)


“Baroque music is a celebration of the beauty and diversity of the human experience.”
William Christie


“How greatly did I weep in thy hymns and canticles, deeply moved by the voices of thy sweet‑speaking church.”
St. Augustine


Had not the vile jealous Italian Jean-Baptiste Lully keep Charpentier away from Louis XIV, we would almost be singing the French composer’s magnificats as the most important composer of the French Baroque. (I say “almost” because nobody reading this should start singing af]]>... Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17331
(© Andrea Butti)


Despite being, according to many aficionados, the greatest bel canto opera ever, I puritani (1835) is today rarely performed due to the difficulty in assembling the required singers. This makes it all the more astounding that Cremona, a city of less than 100,000 inhabitants, would offer such a demanding work. This is possible thanks to OperaLombardia, an association joining creative teams in five cities in the regions of Lombardia, Brescia, Pavia, Cremona, Como and Bergamo. Through this brilliant initiative, these smaller cities, with populations between 100,000 and 250,000, synchronize t]]>... Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17333
D. Creciun (© Fabrizio Sansoni/Teatro dell’Opera di Roma)


Delibes’s Coppélia (1870) is a pivotal work of ballet. It was the last great French ballet, though Delibes wrote one other successful ballet, Sylvia (1876). Soon after, the great dancers of Italy and France started flocking to Saint‑Petersburg and Moscow, where they found better pay and conditions. Moreover, with Austrian immigré Ludwig Minkus (1826‑1917) and later Tchaikovsky (1850‑1893) in their midst, there was plenty of ballet creation and performance in Russia.


Some think of Coppélia as jinxed. It prem]]>... Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17341
(© Photo Studio U.V./Courtesy Donizetti Opera/Fondazione Teatro Donizetti)


The British label Opera Rara is preparing an important but neglected part of Donizetti’s prodigious output: his songs. Already several volumes have been released or announced; they feature such major artists as tenors Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Spyres, baritone Nicola Alaimo, soprano Ermonela Jaho and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Donizetti wrote over two hundred songs, yet few are known, even to bel canto and Donizetti lovers.


The singers at Bottega Donizetti, a training program for young artists, gave a concert presenting o]]>... Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17336
S. Denève/J.-Y. Thibaudet (© Jessica Griffin/Elisabeth Caren)


“I grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music: popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the life of the people always accompanied by music, the vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian songs and dances performed by folk bards [ashugs] and musicians such were the impressions that became deeply engraved on my memory, that determined my musical thinking.”
Aram Khatchaturian


“As a child, I lived in ancient Greece. The book of myths was my favorite and the world of jealous gods and god‑like hum]]>... Wed, 26 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17311
J. Holloway, D. Korchak (©  Fabrizio Sansoni/Opera di Roma)


When one experiences a catastrophic opera, it takes a superlative staging to cancel the unfortunate experience. Having endured a dreadful Lohengrin this past August in Bayreuth, Yuval Sharon’s atrocious debacle that featured Elsa and the people of Brabant as moths, a serious purge was badly needed. Damiano Michieletto to the rescue!


Michieletto is possibly the opera world’s most brilliant director, as demonstrated by his superlative productions of ... Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17342
M. A. Henry, K. Karnéus (© Vivien Gaumand)


Jenůfa was Janácek’s third opera and his first operatic triumph. Son of a schoolteacher from the region of Moravia, young Leos’ musical talent convinced his father to allow him a musical career. Never a conformist, he was by all accounts a gifted though perturbed student at the Brno Conservatory, and later the Leipzig Conservatory. An enfant terrible, he wrote a scathing review of his teacher’s conducting at the Brno Conservatory, which got him expelled (his teacher later relented, allowing his return). Later in life, another virulent review of an opera by Czech ]]>... Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17316
A. Rodrigues/V. Peterson (© San Francisco Opera/Courtesy of the artist)


“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong. The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges.”
George Washington


“Immigration keeps this country young, it keeps it dynamic, we have entrepreneurs and strivers who come h]]>... Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17298
A. Hadelich/D. Slobodeniouk (© Suxiao Yang/Elisardojm)


“Most composers bore me because most composers are boring.”
Samuel Barber


“I have always been interested in ritualistic and primeval things.”
Sebastian Fagerlund


The New York Philharmonic went totally retro this week, virtually anachronistic. And I loved every minute.


Here was music from Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund’s Stonework written 60 years after Boulez’ dodecaphonia. And Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, an update of the (then) 70]]>... Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17300
G. Benjamin/P.-L. Aimard (© Matthew Lloyd/Marco Borggreve)


“Music is a labyrinth with no beginning and no end, full of new paths to discover, where mystery remains eternal.”
Pierre Boulez


“"Suffering furiously", "whistling", "suffering, regretting with a harsh voice", "with an insane smile", "enthusiastically threatening", "with malignancy"”
Typical score directions, by Nikolai Obukhov


New York’s immense Nikolai Obukhov Fan Club turned out in force last night at the 92nd St Y. Or perhaps... just peut‑être, the blue‑ribbon aud]]>... Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17291
(© Studio U.V./Donizetti Opera - Fondazione Teatro Donizetti)


Il furioso all’isola di Santo Domingo could be described as an unexpectedly joyous surprise. Considering this unusual opera’s strange story, one expected an oddity of merely academic interest. However, in the end it was easily the most interesting work presented at this year’s Donizetti Festival.


Created in 1833, a mere six months after L’elisir d’amore (1832) and almost a year before his finest opera, Lucrezia Borgia (1833), Il furioso all’isola di Santo Domingo is almost as musically rich as these. At the time ]]>... Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17329
Brandenburg Ensemble (© Doug A. Pupp)


“I have in accordance with Your Highness’s most gracious orders taken the liberty of rendering my most humble duty to Your Royal Highness with the present Concertos, which I have adapted to several instruments; begging Your Highness most humbly not to judge their imperfection with the rigor of that discriminating and sensitive taste, which everyone knows Him to have for musical works, but rather to take into benign Consideration the profound respect and the most humble obedience which I thus attempt to show Him.”
J.S. Bach in dedication of his Brandenburg Concert]]>... Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17282
(© Studio U.V./Courtesy Donizetti Opera - Fondazione Teatro Donizetti)


Founded in 1981, the Donizetti Festival, which takes place each November in Bergamo, the composer’s native city north east of Milan, revives many of the bel canto composer’s more obscure operas while reestablishing his better known works in definitive editions. One of the performances at this year’s edition was a double bill of two one‑act works, Il campanello (1836) and Deux hommes et une femme (1841).


Both short operas are bittersweet comedies involving matrimonial complications. Though the former takes]]>... Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17323
(© Studio U.V./Courtesy Donizetti Opera - Fondazione Teatro Donizetti)


Despite being in my estimation one of Donizetti’s finest operas, Caterina Cornaro (1844) is now rarely performed. In the second half of the twentieth century, it was a vehicle for two great sopranos, Spain’s Montserrat Caballé (1933‑2018) and Turkey’s Leyla Gencer (1928‑2008), both of whose 1970s live recordings are legendary. Given their excellence, Caterina Cornaro has acquired a reputation as one of Donizetti’s best works. As it’s so rarely performed, Bergamo’s production was eagerly awaited by bel canto lovers.
]]>... Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17322
(© Cory Weaver)


The Monkey King, by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, had its world premiere at San Francisco Opera on November 14. The production is spectacular—an imaginative fusion of Chinese opera’s distinctive makeup, masks, stylized singing, and gesture with the narrative and vocal traditions of Western opera. The work draws on the journey archetypes embedded in Mussorgsky, Vaughan Williams, and especially Wagner, yet The Monkey King feels like nothing you’ve seen or heard before.


Hwang and Huang Ruo are a proven team. Hwang has pared down and shaped the early ch]]>... Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17287
J. Pratt, R. Barbera (© Michele Monasta/Maggio Musicale Fiorentino)


Lucrezia Borgia, premiered in 1833, is considered by many as Donizetti’s best opera seria. Felice Romano’s excellent libretto is based on Victor Hugo’s Lucrèce Borgia, created earlier that same year. Hugo’s well‑written play certainly makes for an effective opera. Unusual for bel canto, Lucrezia Borgia has no love story. Rather, the central themes are friendship between Gennaro and Orsini, and the maternal love of Lucrezia for her son Gennaro. Rumored to have slept with her brother Cesare and her father Pope Alexander VI, t]]>... Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17284
(© Mattia Gaido)


Since the turn of the last century, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail has ceased to be produced with the same frequency as in earlier decades. This is despite the fact that after the three Da Ponte operas (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte) and Die Zauberflöte, it’s his fifth most popular opera. Even his Graeco‑Roman operas, Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito, appear more frequently at opera houses worldwide. The reason is due to the relative triviality of the subject matter and to stereotypes that are now deemed politically incorre]]>... Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17296
N. Ulivieri (© Umberto Favretto)


Massenet’s Don Quichotte (1910), premiered two years prior to the composer’s death, was his fourth to be commissioned by Raoul Gunsbourg (1860‑1955), the ingenious Romanian‑born impresario and Director of the Opéra de Monte‑Carlo. Under Gunsbourg, the principality’s opera house enjoyed its golden age early in the twentieth century, hosting premieres of operas by Massenet, Mascagni, Saint‑Saëns and even Puccini (La rondine, 1917), performed by the likes of Mary Garden, Geraldine Farrar, Claudia Muzio, Benjamin’s Gigli, Tito Schipa, Georges Thill, Titta Ru]]>... Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17294
(© Paula Lobo)


“El que come y canta, su mal espanta.” (“He who eats and sings scares away his woes.”)
Mexican proverb


“While composing Kauyumari, I noted once again how music has the power to grant us access to the intangible, healing our wounds and binding us to what can only be expressed through sound.”
Gabriela Ortiz


As the great composer Gabriela Ortiz intimated above, sound can become magical. And in this extraordinary hour of discovery, words, even words with no literal meaning can have the same effect.


To ce]]>... Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17271