Rolando Villazón’s production depicts the village as strict and repressive, using minimalist sets and Alpine projections to contrast Amina’s sleepwalking freedom with societal pressures when awake. Nadine Sierra skillfully portrayed both her liberated and vulnerable sides, while the orchestra mirrored this with bright string tuttis for waking scenes and ethereal textures for dreamlike moments, emphasizing Amina’s innocence and marginalization.
Read MoreMason Bates hung speakers from the ceiling of the world’s largest opera house, which convinced someone who had enjoyed Detroit, German techno, or other electronica that a fine symphonic experience was the event. The sound filled the vast space of the Met. Met orchestra, including Wagner tubas, was layered with electronics. Speakers were positioned on both sides of the stage and from the ceiling, blending electronic sound as if to create a new species, resonance, and power in the orchestra. Whereas I usually find PA effects distracting, they were intricately integrated. For someone like me, who has enjoyed both classical and electronic music, it was a new sensation to experience The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay at the Metropolitan Opera.
Read MoreMozart’s masterpiece comes vividly to life. Emotion infused the score, where even a sigh became music, and the Met orchestra and singers revealed the complexity of human ties. Yannick Nézet-Séguin let Mozart’s voice emerge freshly, alive with individuality and truth.
Read MoreThe final scene of Act 1 of Don Giovanni. The women who have been deceived raise their voices: “Tremble, you villain! lightning bolt will strike above your head!”— leading into Act 2.
Read MoreBellini is a poet of melody. He places long, flowing lines over a restrained orchestra, expressing emotions and psychology to their utmost depth. La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) exemplifies this, with its melodies conveying both narrative and the subtleties of feeling.
Read MoreMet Opera will present Bellini and Donizetti, 19th-century Italian. Bellini was a poet of melody, writing long, flowing lines over a restrained orchestra to express emotion and psychology to the fullest. La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) exemplifies his style, where the melody drives the story and conveys lyricism and psychological depth. Donizetti, by contrast, was prolific across comedy and tragedy, blending melodic beauty with dramatic development and insight, condensing the flow of the story into the music. In La fille du régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment), he skillfully uses coloratura, choruses, and modulations to vividly depict comedic situations and romantic conflicts, merging melody and drama. After savoring Bellini’s poetic melodies, audiences can enjoy the theatrical drama that Donizetti created a decade later.
Read MoreThe Israel Philharmonic, born out of persecution and exile, dedicates a performance of Ben-Haim’s works, conducted by Lahav Shani, at Carnegie Hall. Ben-Haim masterfully integrated the musical traditions of different Jewish communities into Western structures, achieving a refined and richly expressive synthesis of ethnic elements.
Read MoreOn the way there, Mäkelä’s Berlioz is playing in my head. Yarn/Wire’s studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where they've been fifteenth year. The program began with Igor Santos’s living to fall [music and rain]. As fragments of video unfolded alongside live sound, the consciousness of the four performers made the images—rain, shattering glass—appear vividly.
Read MoreEven you rely on laws and rules for your protection, yet establish your freedom at the expense of others, this opera is for you. Because you will see yourself reflected in the human nature that Mozart portrays. Conductor Yannick brings difficult classical music to life in an accessible, discovery-filled way, revealing your treasure. Director Hove drives a wedge into your hardened heart, using the interplay of power and redemption to enhance the music. Now, let us go witness the filth of humanity that thrives in every age.
Read MoreThe season features new American operas and performances by major orchestras from Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Cleveland at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and David Geffen Hall. The Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard 415, Gidon Kremer, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Erin Morley, Louise Alder, Lise Davidsen, Joyce DiDonato, Asmik Grigorian, and Rosa Feola plan to come.
Read MoreThe latest works by Canadian composers Sarah Davachi and Igor Santos at Yarn/Wire’s studio in New York. Davachi’s Feedback Studies for Percussion (2022) creates a meditative soundscape using percussion and feedback, minimizing melody and rhythm while exploring resonance and overtones. Performers do more than follow the score, shaping sound in response to the acoustics, immersing listeners in the subtle shifts and flow of time. Santos’ living to fall [music and rain] (2022) blends sound and visual media around the theme of water, employing piano, keyboards, percussion, and visuals to evoke thunder and rain, symbolizing both violence and healing. Yarn/Wire delivers precise and expressive performances of both works, offering a profound encounter with the possibilities.
Read MoreIf one listens closely, the orchestration’s structure, the thematic content of each scene, and the musical context emerge, revealing the composer’s intentions. Moreover, the ingenuity of the librettist and production team, the conductor’s interpretation, and the performers’ expressiveness also become apparent. Why was a particular instrument assigned to a specific scene? Why does bassoonist Billy’s tone always shine so brightly, producing textures entirely different between Dead Man Walking and familiar Italian opera? Why is the Maroon unison always precise? Why is Silvio’s timing and reed work on the clarinet impeccable? Why can Yannick infuse infinite emotion into the violin tutti? The answers are evident when you watch.
Read More—“A continuous effort to illuminate the fragile, ever-evolving human form.”
It is a landscape I have been observing myself in. I remembered August 4th, the day tickets for Carnegie Hall went on sale—a launch day for boarding the “time machine” that spans three venues of the world. At the head of the waiting line were the usual Russian ladies.
Read MoreAttendance that were not in my previous reviews, including Aida at Met Opera, Nina Stemme, Soprano, and Roland Pöntinen, Piano, at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard415 and Lionel Meunier, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano at Carnegie Hall, Antony and Cleopatra at Met Opera, Evgeny Kissin and Friends at Carnegie Hall, Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Philadelphia Orchestra.The Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Read MoreAttended four concerts at the 2025 TIME:SPANS Contemporary Music Festival in NYC, featuring Ensemble Nikel, Christopher Trapani, Bekah Simms, and more, showcased cutting-edge sound art and offered a glimpse of the present and future of global contemporary music.
Read MoreMontreal's Red Theater merges poetry, sound, video, and performance into a total artwork. Takasugi and Huei Lin’s score, performed by seven vaudevillians, blends chaotic microtones with vivid visuals, dissolving illusions and evoking infinity. At Time: Spans 2025, the ensemble, led by Noam Bierstone, revealed mastery over time, space, and perception.
Read MoreBalse told me about Leica.
It captures shadows, not light.
In music, it can be said to reflect silence rather than sound.
And then, an old memory came back: when we lived in the same apartment and listened to Webern's Op. 7 (1910) together.
Read MoreA few years ago, I got a sudden phone call from a friend to tell me that a family member had passed away. I was very confused. For better or worse, any encounter with contemporary music begins with confusion. As I listen, I get used to it, and sometimes I can see it much more clearly than I do now. This is because the stimulation reaches parts of the brain that I haven't used before, activating my senses.
Read MoreAfter listening to Kreisleriana, I remembered Kurtág's "Martha Ligature," which I heard in April at Uchida's recital. Kurtág studied unity using as few materials as possible. He was also fascinated by Webern.
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