What opera comes with an advisory that the production features nudity, violence, mature themes and adult language? (Spoiler: it’s not The Magic Flute.) But that’s exactly the advisory you’ll get ahead of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s new opera, Anatomy Theatre.
“When...
“The fact that it starts at 3 p.m. and goes to 10:45 p.m. seems like a long time,” George Lopez says of the Playboy Jazz Festival. (He’s allowed to comment—he’s the MC.) “It amazes me how fast that amount...
Anne Sofie von Otter is no stranger to collaborating. The Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano has an impressive list of creative cohorts, including jazz pianist Brad Mehldau (they worked on the album Love Songs) and Elvis Costello (they teamed up on For the...
When you see “commissioned by” written on a concert program, you can bet that the name of a performing arts or philanthropic organization will follow, since those are the groups that typically support the creation of new pieces of...
Let’s throw it back to April 1, 1981 for a moment: It was two days after the attempted assassination of President Reagan. It was the day that Isuzu started selling automobiles in the United States. Blondie was topping the...
According to pianist Jason Moran, jazz legend Fats Waller “was a party animal.” Waller, who wrote classics like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose,” died young, but he left behind a piano style and a catalog of music that has...
“The thing about doing concerts,” Brian Stokes Mitchell says, “is that it’s doing a live show. It’s on my schedule, it’s songs I want to sing, it’s saying what I want to say, it’s working with the people I...
After making a name for herself playing Sally Bowles in a French production of Cabaret in 1987, singer-actress Ute Lemper was encouraged to make an album featuring songs from that show and other pop and Broadway tunes. The CD was...
"To really give yourself over to that world is a really big commitment. I read it twice through before we started writing. All the chapters that irritated me at the beginning are now my favorites—those side chapters not involved in the plot.”
"I wanted people who felt like they had a connection to Sondheim’s work or who were influenced by and felt strongly about it. Some know the canon of his work much better than others."