JASON MORAN & THE BANDWAGON – Village Vanguard – New York, NY – November 26^th – December 1^st

It’s Thanksgiving week and time for the annual series of shows by Jason Moran & The Bandwagon at the Village Vanguard in New York City. Moran is once again joined by Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums.

I haven’t seen Jason Moran & The Bandwagon at the Vanguard during Thanksgiving week, but having seen him (and them) before, it’s no wonder this is an annual event. They are terrific.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LESLIE ODOM, JR. – THE CHRISTMAS TOUR – Multiple Venues – November 29^th – December 22^nd

Tony Award winner Odom, Jr. take sot the road to celebrate the holiday season with sixteen concerts starting in San Francisco and concluding in Detroit.

His 2020 The Christmas Album probably serves as the foundation for these concerts.

He’ll be at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco on November 29^th; Jacobs Music Center in San Diego on November 30^th; Walt Disney Concert in Los Angeles on December 1^st; Benaroya Hall in Seattle on December 3^rd; Elsinore Theatre in Salem, OR on December 5^th; Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver on December 7^th; Delta Hall at The Eccles in Salt Lake City on December 8^th; Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville on December 11^th and 12^th; Atlanta Symphony Hall on December 13^th; MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, MD on December 15^th; Hershey Theatre in Hershey, PA on December 17^th; Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville, VA on December 18^th; Southern Theatre in Columbus, OH on December 19^th and 20^th and Orchestra Hall in Detroit on December 22^nd.

Click on each venue’s name for tickets and more information.

GREAT PERFORMANCES: HENRY MANCINI 100 AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL – November 29^th (check local listings)

Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Peter Gunn Theme and The Pink Panther Theme are just four of composer Henry Mancini’s best-known works. They are amongst over a dozen songs performed in this celebration of the composer’s 100^th birthday at The Hollywood Bowl.

Performing Mancini’s songs are Michael Bublé, Dave Koz, Monica Mancini, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra led by Thomas Wilkins. Also appearing is Cynthia Erivo. 

If Wicked Part One had you flying high over Erivo’s performance, you won’t want to miss her heartbreaking version of Days of Wine and Roses plus two songs from the musical Victor, Victoria: Crazy World and Le Jazz Hot. The concert is hosted by Jeff Goldblum (who is also in Wicked).

You can watch this show on your local PBS station and/or on the PBS website. 

DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN – Metropolitan Opera – New York, NY – November 29^th – December 19^th

Richard Strauss’s 1919 opera is a showcase for a trio of sopranos and the Met has three terrific women lined up for this production: Elza van den Heever, Lise Lindstrom and the incomparable Nina Stemme.

Joining them are bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, tenor Russell Thomas and baritone Michael Volle. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

The production is directed and has sets, costumes and lighting design by Herbert Wernicke. His production debuted at the Met in 2001 approximately 4 months before his death.

Die Frau Ohne Schatten is a complex and challenging opera. With a cast this good, it’s impossible to miss. This marks the first time the opera has been performed at The Met since 2013.

For tickets and more information, please go here. If you won’t be in New York, you can listen to the November 29^th and December 7^th performances live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM.

Those are my Best Bets: November 25th – December 1st.

For those celebrating this week, Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Jason Moran and The Bandwagon at The Village Vanguard (Courtesy Music Works International)

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New In Music This Week: April 21^st has some outstanding releases for you to explore. 

My top pick is:

JAZZ: SILENT, LISTENING – Fred Hersch  – ECM Records

I’ve been listening to pianist/composer Hersch’s album for about two months now. I can’t stop listening to it. For nearly 51 minutes, I get to do exactly what Hersch implores us to do with his title:  be silent and listen.

Of course, he’s being relatively silent and is listening as well. Listening to his deepest thoughts and expressing them through what seems a largely improvised series of recordings.

He opens with the Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington composition Star-Crossed Lovers. He follows that with six exquisite originals before performing Russ Freeman’s The Wind. The album’s last three tracks are another Hersch original and songs written by  Oscar Hammerstein II and Sigmund Romberg (Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise) and Alec Wilder and Ben Ross Berenberg’s Winter of My Discontent.

There’s no discontent to be found here. This is a truly beautiful solo piano recording.

The rest of my selections for New In Music This Week: April 21^st are:

CLASSICAL: ALL THESE LIGHTED THINGS – Elim Chan, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra – Alpha Classics

The title of this album comes from a three-movement work by Elizabeth Ogonek that is sandwiched between Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2.

All These Lighted Things was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were Ogonek was Composer-in-Residence. It was there that she had her violin concerto In*Silence given its first performance under the baton of Elim Chan.

I really like All These Lighted Things. The nearly 15-minute work has three very different movements, but they coalesce nicely into a potent composition and recording.

Chan makes some interesting choices with Romeo and Juliet and her Daphnis et Chloé is equally convincing. But the highlight remains Ogonek’s work.

CLASSICAL: CHOPIN: ÉTUDES, Opp. 10 & 25 – Yunchan Lim – Decca Classics

South Korean pianist Lim plays these 24 works by Chopin with such dexterity that it seems impossible that he’s so young. Though it shouldn’t. In 2022 was the youngest person to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Études Op. 10 were published in 1833.  Chopin was only a few years older than Lim so perhaps these works, amongst the most challenging in the classical repertoire, are being performed by someone so young – though much older musicians still find these works challenging. It is worth noting that some of these études were composed when Chopin was a teenager. Two years later Études Op. 25 were composed. Each set has 12 études.

Lim has been widely praised for his seemingly effortless skills. This album is only going to further that reputation.

CLASSICAL: DELIUS: HASSAN – COMPLETE INCIDENTAL MUSIC – Britten Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia Voices, Jamie Phillips, Zeb Soanes – Chandos

This work was a discovery for me. Frederick Delius composed incidental music for a play by poet James Elroy Flecker. The work, whose full title is The Story of Hassan of Bagdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand, had its world premiere in 1923.

This recording, featuring narration by Soanes, has every note of music written by Delius and runs 80 minutes. In an interview published in the Christian Science Monitor in October 1923, Delius said, “At present my music is bound up with the drama for me that I cannot think of it apart from it.”

This recording would certainly have changed his mind. The narration (by Meurig Bowen) is never intrusive, but I found myself longing to get straight to the music. 

CLASSICAL: SORABJI: TOCCATA TERZA – Abel Sánchez-Aguilera – Brilliant Classics

Composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is not a household name. yet his deeply challenging compositions are clearly catnip for pianist Sánchez-Aguilera whose previous album was 2020’s Toccata Seconda per Pianoforteby Sorabji. 

Both works are lengthy (each over two hours) and require a level of playing that both works require. The Toccata Terza was composed in 1955 and was rediscovered in 2019 after it had gone missing.

I wasn’t familiar with Sorabji but the playing on this album and the compositions themselves mean I will be listening to more of his works. In the hands of Sánchez-Aguilera compositions that can seem dense and lengthy turn into fascinating explorations of the keyboard and all it can do.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: MAGNOLIA – Aleksander Dębicz – Warner Classics

Polish composer and pianist Dębicz first came to my attention with his 2015 album Cinematic Piano. Film music and Bach have been hugely influential to Debicz and his albums leading up to Magnolia have reflected that.

This album is the first album of solely his music. He is joined on Magnolia by horn player Konrad Gołda, guitarist Łukasz Kuropaczewski, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, folk flutist Michał Żak and cellist Marcin Zdunik,

Magnolia feels like a soundtrack to a film. But perhaps that was the point, to encourage us to create that movie in our own hearts and minds.  To sit with this beautiful music and let our imaginations run free.

If so, this is beautiful music to do just that.

JAZZ: ORCHESTRAS – Bill Frisell – Blue Note Records

Guitarist/composer Frisell has long accomplished so much with his choiceful consideration of musical partners. For this album his finest choice proves to by arranger Michael Gibbs who has partnered with Frisell to create concerts with two different ensembles that achieve huge success.

The first is with the Brussells Philharmonic led by Alexander Hanson. Frisell is joined by bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston for a performance that includes four songs written by Frisell, two by Gibbs and Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life.

The second album and concert is with the much smaller Umbria Jazz Orchestra. Two songs, Ron Carter’s Doom and Frisell’s Electricity are performed with both ensembles. It’s fascinating to hear the differences and the similarities in both performances.

Either way, this is a richly satisfying album that is a must-have for Frisell fans. Blue Note has also released a 3LP set that includes material note included from the concerts.

JAZZ: PERPETUAL VOID – Marta Sánchez Trio – Intakt Records

Drummer Savannah Harris and bassist Chris Tordini join pianist/composer Sánchez for a massively impressive album. The album tells you with the first track what to expect. I Don’t Wanna Live the Wrong Life and Then Die. 

Okay. We’re not taking things easy here. And they don’t, but the music is utterly compelling. Other titles include Prelude to Grief, The End of that Period and This Is The Last One About You might make you think this is all darkness. 

Sánchez is smarter than that and her musicians go along with the story here. This is Sánchez’s first trio album (having worked a lot in the quintet format). I hope there are more trio albums in her future. I wouldn’t mind be trapped in this perpetual void waiting for another trio album, but I hope I don’t have to.

OPERA: THE HOURS – KEVIN PUTS/GREG PIERCE – Renée Felming, Kelli O’Hara, Joyce DiDonato, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Yannick Nézet-Séguin  – Erato

I’ve written a few times about this wonderful opera based on Michael Cunningham’s novel. Now you can hear exactly what’s so special about it in this recording made live during a performance at the Metropolitan Opera.

DiDonato, Fleming and O’Hara a terrific in this story of three women in different times within the 20^th century. The whole cast is in fine form in this powerful opera. Fans of Virginia Woolf, the novel or the feature film will find this story being told in a unique and powerful way.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: April 21^st.

I hope you enjoy the music!

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This week’s top pick is:

JAZZ:  HOT HOUSE: THE COMPLETE JAZZ AT MASSEY HALL RECORDINGS (Live At Massey Hall/1953) – Various Artists – Craft Recordings

How’s this for various artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Max Roach. This recording from Toronto’s Massy Hall is believed to be the first and only recording by this quintet.

There are two hours of music on this incredible compilation. Within the 19 tracks on this incredible release are the tracks from the original Debut Records LP release from 1953. They feature overdubs by Mingus. (Worth noting that Debut Records was Mingus’ own label.) There are also the six quintet tracks without overdubs.

Also included from this concert is Max Roach’s Drum Conversation which is a four-and-a-half-minute drum solo. The trio of Mingus, Powell and Roach perform six additional tracks:  I’ve Got You Under My Skin; Embraceable You; Sure Thing; Cherokee; Hallelujah and Lullaby of Birdland.

This release is available on vinyl, CD and digitally. This isn’t just a historical recording, nor a 70^th anniversary opportunity to re-sell previous material, this is damn fine jazz from a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of jazz giants.

Here are the rest of my picks of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: November 17^th:

CLASSICAL: LETTER(s) TO ERIK SATIE – Bertrand Chamayou – Erato

There is a fragility to Erik Satie’s music that is, perhaps, unlike anyone else’s. Well, perhaps almost anyone else except perhaps John Cage. I know what you’re thinking, how could that be possible?

French pianist Chamayou makes a convincing argument by putting five works by Cage amidst many of Satie’s best-known works including the three Gymnopédies and the seven Gnossiennes. There’s also a sixth work attributed to Cage found amongst the papers of James Tenney who was a disciple of Cage’s.

As it turns out Cage was inspired by Satie. I was inspired by Chamayou making this connection in a stunningly beautiful album.

CLASSICAL:  BEETHOVEN: COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS – Dover Quartet – Cedille

In 2020, Dover Quartet (violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shaw) released a two-and-a-half hour recording of Beethoven’s Opus 18 String Quartets. In 2021 they released an equally long recording of Beethoven’s Middle Quartets.

In 2022 they completed the quartet cycle with the composers Late Quartets 

This release combines all 16 quartet performances by Dover Quartet in a box set that runs over 8 hours and spans 8 CDs. 

It’s not just a great opportunity to hear Beethoven’s complete quartets, but also to hear how this ensemble approached them as they went through the cycle.

CLASSICAL: MAESTRO: MUSIC BY LEONARD BERNSTEIN (Original Soundtrack) – London Symphony Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin/Bradley Cooper

Obviously this is the soundtrack to Cooper’s Maestro which opens in theaters on November 22^nd before streaming on Netflix on December 20^th.

This album does not just feature music by Bernstein. There’s also music by W.C. Handy, Gustav Mahler, Robert Schumann and William Walton. The album also features dialogue from the film.

What impresses most about this album is that Nézet-Séguin is conducting remarkably (as he usually does) and that Cooper and team have assembled some great artists to contribute to the album including Isabel Leonard and Tony Yazbeck. This appears to be the first recording of Bernstein’s music by the conductor since the live recording of Bernstein’s Mass with the Philadelphia Orchestra (released in 2018).

CLASSICAL: PROFESIÓN – Sean Shibe – Pentatone

This beautiful album of solo guitar performances by Shibe features music of three Latin American composers. Two of them are fairly well known: Alberto Ginastera and Heitor Villa-Lobos.  The third, Augustín Barrios Mangoré from Paraguay was unknown to me before this recording.

Shibe performs Mangoré’s best-known work, La catedral, on this album. Like most of the works on this album, each of the three movements is relatively short. But the beauty of each and every one shines through in these performances.

JAZZ: GRAND COMPANY – Ray Gallon – Cellar Music Group

If you want a straight-ahead traditional jazz trio album look no further than this recording by pianist Gallon joined by bassist Ron Carter and drummer Lewis Nash. Of the nine tracks on this nearly hour-long album, six are originals by Gallon.

The covers are Duke Ellington’s Drop Me Off in Harlem (which opens the album); Nardis by Miles Davis and If I Had You by Etta Jones.

The original run the gamut from ballads to Latin-infused rhythms. The highlight of the album is the final track, Old Folks, which Gallon chose in tribute to his lengthy collaborations with Carter (the song was written by Willard Robison). It is filled with respect, admiration and emotion.

VOCALS: RAIN – Nora York – Good Mood Records

This was another discover for me. York, who passed away in 2016, was described in her New York Timesobituary as “a singer and performed who intrigued with bold mashups of jazz, rock and other genres.”

This collection of ten songs features original compositions written by York, most of them in collaboration with Jamie Lawrence. They had worked on two music theatre projects which are the source of much of this material.

The first was Water, Water Everywhere (which addressed climate change) and Jump (and adaptation of Tosca). To try to classify what genre of music any of these songs fits in would be pure folly. York was a one-of-a-kind performer/writer. If there’s any relative parallel to what she did it would be Ute Lemper, but even that isn’t a perfect match.

The album opens with Home Is Where the Heart Is, which is a beautiful song that is a great introduction to this singular talent. From there get ready for one of the most unique albums you’ll ever listen to.

That’s all for  New In Music This Week: November 17^th.

Enjoy the music and enjoy your weekend.

Main Photo: From the album cover for Rain by Nora York (Courtesy Good Mood Records)

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Our top pick of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: September 22^nd is:

CLASSICAL:  AMAZÔNIA – Camila Provenzale, Philharmonia Zürich, Simone Menzes – Alpha Classics

Floresta Do Amazonas, an 11-movement suite by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Metamorphosis 1 (from Aguas da Amazonia) by Philip Glass tell you right away what the theme is on this incredible album: the Amazon rainforest.  

Of course, any album that has a “cause” is only going to be effective if the music is good. This isn’t just good, this is a great recording. I hadn’t heard anything Menzes had done before, but if this is any indication we’re destined for a lot of great and thoughtful music in the years ahead.

As an added bonus the liner notes include a selection of photographs by Sebastião Salgado. If you don’t know his work, this is a great introduction to his gorgeous photography. 

Here are my other selections for New In Music This Week: September 22^nd:

CLASSICAL: ZODIAC SUITE – Aaron Diehl & The Knights – Mack Avenue Records

Composer Mary Lou Williams composed this 12-movement suite to reflect each of the astrological signs with each movement dedicated to a friend of hers born under that sign. It is perhaps best known as a work for a trio, but Williams also arranged a version for piano and ensemble in 1945.

Pianist Diehl has been performing the work in concert and now has recorded the full work in this first-ever professional recording of Zodiac Suite in this configuration.

Fans of mid 20^th-century American music will definitely want to check this out. You’ll also want to hear if the music composed for your astrological sign in any way mirrors who you might be.

CLASSICAL:  BACHEANDO – Plínio Fernandes – Decca Gold

This beautiful solo guitar album finds Fernandes playing works by Mario Albanese, Sérgio Assad, Johann Sebastian Bach, Paulinho Nogueira and Heitor Villa-Lobos. The mix of Brazilian composers with music by Bach may not sound like it makes sense on paper, but the arrangements make a convincing argument of the logic of this pairing.

Bacheando is a refreshing take on Bach’s music as well. I thoroughly enjoyed Fernandes’s playing and plan to listen to this album many more times.

CLASSICAL: FLORENCE PRICE: SYMPHONY NO. 4 – The Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Deutsche Grammophon

This is a live recording from the Philadelphia Orchestra who have been passionate advocates for Florence Price’s music. This symphony in D minor was composed in 1945 but never received a performance in her lifetime. 

Also on this digital only release is William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony which was composed in 1934 and revised in 1952. There are three movements:  The Bond of Africa; Hope in the Night and Oh, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!

This is not the first album of Florence Price’s music recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra and one hopes it won’t be the last.

CLASSICAL: RACHMANINOFF, A REFLECTION – Yekwon Sunwoo – Decca Classics

With so many celebrations of Rachmaninoff’s 150^th this year, I expected this to be a recording of the usual works by the composer. The only commonly performed work on this record is the Prelude in C-Sharp Minor. The rest are much lesser performed works.

These include the 23 Variations on a Theme of Corelli and the 10 Variations on a Theme of Chopin. Yekwon Sunwoo plays them all beautifully and it’s nice to hear music that, for the most part, is less-performed than the rest of Rachmaninoff’s works.

CLASSICAL:  MI PAÍS: SONGS OF ARGENTINA – Federico De Michelis and Steven Blier – NYFOS Records

We are accustomed to hearing art songs from the northern hemisphere, but this album allows us to explore those songs from well below the equator. In this case, a selection of music from Argentina.

Bass-baritone De Michelis is not someone with whom I was very familiar. His singing on this album will make me want to seek out more of his work. He’s joined by pianist Biler (who is also Artistic Director of New York Festival of Song) and at times Shinjoo Cho on bandoneon, Pablo Lanouguere on double bass; Sami Merdinian on violin and tenor César Andrés Parreño.

Amongst the composers whose work is performed on this album are Carlos López Buchardo; Carlos Gardel; Carlos Guastavino, and lest you think every composer Is named Carlos, there are also works by Mariano Mores; Astor Piazzolla; Ariel Ramírez and Héctor Stamponi.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: A PRAYER TO THE DYNAMO Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Daníel Bjarnason – Deutsche Grammophon

You can argue that this is mostly made of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s music written for films (The Theory of Everything/Sicario), but this is such a beautiful recording that if you didn’t know those details, it wouldn’t even occur to you these were film scores.

In the hands Bjarnason and the ISO, this is more than a soundtrack compilation or collection. Jóhannson was one of the most interesting composers of his time. Sadly he passed away in 2018 at the age of 48.

The last work on the album, A Prayer to the Dynamo, is not from a film score. This marks the first-ever recording of that 30-minute suite.

JAZZ:  DYNAMIC MAXIMUM TENSION – Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Nonesuch Records

This incredible album was actually released on September 8^th, but only recently was I introduced to it. This nearly two-hour work is massively ambitious and that ambition pays off from the opening moments of Dymaxion and never lets up until Mae West: Advice closes out the album.

Argue has incredible ability to write for a big band and his ensemble returns the favor with incredible playing. The album takes its name from the three words R. Buckminster Fuller used to create “dymaxion” a concept related to improving daily life.

Argue collaborated with Cécile McLorin Salvant on the song cycle Ogresse which I hope to one day see and hear. (You can hear here on the last track of the album). In the meantime, Dynamic Maximum Tension is an album I’ve already listened to several times and I am certain it will be at the top of critics lists at the end of the year. 

JAZZ:  WITNESS TO HISTORY – Eddie Henderson – Smoke Sessions Records

At 82 years young, trumpeter Henderson is still making great music. Witness to History, his latest album, comes half a century after Realization, his 1973 album that marked his first recording as a leader.

Joining him for the 8 tracks on this wonderful album are pianist George Cables, bassist Gerald Cannon, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison and drummer Lenny White. Mike Clark, also a drummer, joins for the opening track Scorpio Rising, which was composed by Henderson.

Eddie Henderson how not just been a witness to history, but part of it. This album continues him on that path.

MUSICALS: OKLAHOMA! COMPLETE ORIGINAL SCORE – Sinfonia of London – Chandos Records

Nathaniel Hackmann (currently appearing as Biff in Back to the Future: The Musical) sings Curly; Sierra Boggess sings Laurey; Rodney Earl Clarke (multiple roles in productions of Porgy and Bess) sings Jud Fry; Jamie Parker (now appearing in Next to Normal at Donmar Warehouse) sings Will Parker and Louise Dearman (first actress to play Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked) sings Ado Annie in this studio recording of the full score from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical.

John Wilson conducts the Sinfonia of London Orchestra in this wonderful recording that offers fans of this musical nearly 100 minutes of music. This recording of Oklahoma! is much more than just OK.

OPERA: LA DIVINA: MARIA CALLAS IN ALL HER ROLES – Maria Callas – Warner Classics   

Is it too early to suggest holiday gifts? Because this embarrassment of riches is perfect for the Maria Callas fan in your life. This is a 131-CD box set that offers studio recordings, live recordings and staged performances. All in this has at least one recording of each of the 74 opera roles she performed over the course of her career.

This includes two studio recordings each of Bellini’s Norma; Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor; Ponchielli’s La Gioconda and Puccini’s Tosca. But don’t fret, there are live performances of those and many more.

The reason for this extraordinary collection is the 100^th anniversary of Callas’ birth on December 2, 1923. One wonders what the former Maria Anna Sophia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos would think of all this attention. (Of course she’d love it!)

MUSICAL/OPERA (adjacent): FRANK’S WILD YEARS / RAIN DOGS / SWORDFISHTROMBONES – Tom Waits – Island/UMe

In 1990 Tom Waits collaborated with director Robert Wilson on a play/musical/opera entitled The Black Rider. I saw it at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 2006. So forgive me for indulging my passion for Tom Waits by including the first three of five re-issues of albums by Waits in this week’s list.

Waits is one of our most fascinating and talented artists and these three albums serve as an excellent example of what makes him so incredible. These three titles were released on streaming and CD on September 1st, but I’m including them this week timed to the release of the new vinyl versions of each record.

Waits and his collaborator Kathleen Brennan oversaw the remastering of these releases. Two more albums, Bone Machine and The Black Rider will be released on vinyl on October 6th. Great news for Tom Waits fans! Obviously I’m one of them!

That’s the full list of New In Music This Week: September 22nd.

Enjoy the music! Enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: Part of the album cover of Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits

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My top pick is:

JAZZ: ANTHOLOGY – CHARLIE WATTS 

Best known as the drummer for The Rolling Stones, Watts was equally passionate about jazz. During a nearly two-decade period, Watts recorded songs such as  Long Ago (And Far Away), My Ship, Stompin’ at the Savoy and Take The “A” Train. He did so with both small and large ensembles and sometimes with an orchestra.

Theses recordings began in 1986 and this anthology includes a few never-before released tracks.

Watts passed away in August of 2021. This is a wonderful way of recognizing both his musicianship and his passion for music that extended well beyond rock ‘n’ roll. Trust me you’ll get plenty of satisfaction in this recordings.

The rest of my selections for New In Music This Week: June 30^th are:

CLASSICAL: CPE BACH: WÜRTTEMBERG SONATAS – Keith Jarrett (ECM New Series)

Pianist Jarrett recorded these sontas by Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach in 1994, but they remained unreleased until today. This is Johann Sebastian Bach’s son.  

The six sonatas on this recording were originally written for the harpsichord. Jarrett felt that a piano version needed to also exist. Also six sonatas were recorded by Jarrett on a single day.

This is 85 minutes of classical music you may not know well, but will not doubt find much to enjoy in this recording.

CLASSICAL: RACHMANINOFF SYMPHONES NOS. 2 & 3 AND ISLE OF THE DEAD – Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra  (Deutsche Grammophon)

The Philadelphia Orchestra continues their exploration of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s symphonic works with this second and final disc. As is made clear by the title, this recording has the composer’s second and third symphonies along with Isle of Dead.

Rachmaninoff was inspired by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin’s Die Toteninsel. There were multiple versions of the work by the artist between 1880 and 1886 and it was a very popular image. Rachmaninoff wrote the piece in 1909 and gave the world premiere performance in Moscow a mere two weeks after he completed writing it.

For those unfamiliar with this work, Isle of the Dead will be the biggest discovery on this terrific album.

FILM MUSIC: A SYMPHONIC CELEBRATION – MUSIC FROM THE STUDIO GHIBLI FILMS OF HAYAO MIYAZAKI – Joe Hisaishi (Deutsche Grammophon)

I don’t often include film music, but the work of composer Hisaishi is being celebrated in concert halls this year. As it should. He is to Japanese filmmaker and animator Hayao Miyazaki what Danny Elfman is to Tim Burton; Nino Rota was to Federico Fellini and Bernard Herrmann to Alfred Hitchcock.  In other words, the films wouldn’t be the same without this music.

Miyazaki is best known for such films as Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

This is music that perfectly complements each of these films, but hearing this beautiful music away from the films is just as enchanting. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs Hisaishi’s music.

JAZZ:  LUNA – Doug Beavers (Circle 9 Records)

Latin Jazz is front and center in this new record from trombonist and composer Beavers. Perhaps best known as a member of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Beavers has written 10 of the 11 tracks on this album that is destined to put you in a good mood.

From the opening track Luna (intro), it’s impossible not to find your hips moving and the smile getting bigger on your face. And you thought trombone music couldn’t do that!

JAZZ:  WALTZ FOR DEBBY – Bill Evans Trio (Craft Recordings)

This 1962 album is considered one of Evans’s most important recordings. This album was recorded live at the Village Vanguard in 1961 and features bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. 

The album opens with My Foolish Heart and immediately you are taken away to a simpler time with the ease in which Evans plays the opening lines of the song. The album also contains songs written by Leonard Bernstein, Miles Davis and George Gershwin. 

And if you’ve ever wondered who the Debby is for whom Evans wrote the waltz, it was his niece.

This is being released on 180-gram vinyl and HD audio.

THEATER: SAY, DARLING – Original Broadway Cast Recording (Stage Door Records)

In 1958 the play Say, Darling opened on Broadway. It played for 332 performances and featured Vivian Blaine, Elliott Gould, Robert Morse (who received a Tony nomination) and David Wayne. 

This was a comedy set in the world of musicals. So who better to write the songs than composer Jule Styne and lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

This deluxe edition of the Original Broadway Cast Album includes the 13 original songs plus a bonus track called Good Little Girls. The second disc features artists such as Perry Como, Blossom Dearie, Peggy Lee, Tony Martin and Dinah Shore performing songs from Say, Darling that were recorded around the time of the musical.  

This is a limited edition with only 500 units available.

That’s my list of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: June 30^th. What are you listening to? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Enjoy the music and have a great weekend.

Main Photo: Art from Keith Jarrett’s CPE BACH: WÜRTTEMBERG SONATAS (Courtesy ECM New Series)

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My top choice:

JAZZ:  COLTRANE’S SOUND – John Coltrane (Rhino High Fidelity)

Rhino launches a new vinyl series today with the release of this John Coltrane album from 1964. The six tracks on this record were recorded during the same sessions for My Favorite Things. Those tracks are The Night Has a Thousand Eyes; Central Park West; Liberia; Body and Soul; Equinox and Satellite.

Joining Coltrane for this record were Steve Davis on bass, Elvin Jones on drums and McCoy Tyner on piano.

I attended a listening party for this record earlier this week and can tell you that it sounds like you are in the recording studio with these musicians. There were only 5,000 copies pressed for this release and they are only available through Rhino’s website.

What else is New In Music This Week: May 19^th? Here’s my list:

BROADWAY: KIMBERLY AKIMBO OBCR (Ghostlight Records)

This highly acclaimed Broadway musical from Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire received eight nominations for Tony Awards including Best Musical, Leading Actress in a Musical (Victoria Clark), Featured Actress (Bonnie Milligan), Featured Actor (Justin Cooley) and nominations for Best Book for Lindsay-Abaire and Best Score for Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire.

The musical tells the story of Kim (Clark) who is a teenager from New Jersey. She does her best to fit in with the other kids at school, but the fact that she looks 72 doesn’t make things easy for her. That’s just the beginning of challenges she faces.

Clark won a Tony Award for her performance in The Light in the Piazza. Lindsay-Abaire won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Rabbit Hole. Tesori won the Tony Award for Fun Home and also collaborated with Lindsay-Abaire on Shrek: The Musical. (My favorite show of hers is Caroline, Or Change).

CABARET: THE JESUS YEAR: a letter from my dad – Matthew Scott (PS Classics)

Broadway star Scott lost his father at a young age. When the younger Scott was 13, his family found a series of letters his father had written to his four sons. They essentially served as life lessons his father had written because he was certain he wouldn’t live a long life. This show’s title, The Jesus Year, comes from the belief that a sense of rebirth that happens in your 33^rd year.

In the show Scott performs songs by Harry Chapin, William Finn, Ben Folds, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Yusef/Cat Stevens and an incredibly moving version of Children Will Listen by Stephen Sondheim.

Scott will perform the show at 54 Below on May 23^rd.

CLASSICAL: MAX BRUCH & FLORENCE PRICE VIOLIN CONCERTOS – Randall Goosby, Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Decca Classics)

Fast-rising violinist Randall Goosby performs Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor; Florence B. Price’sAdoration and her Violin Concerto No. 1 in D and Violin Concerto No. 2 on this, his second album.

Goosby has gotten a lot of attention in his brief career and this album is certain to widen the appreciation for his playing. 

Nézet-Séguin, who also leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is a deeply passionate conductor. I saw him lead the Philadelphia Orchestra in the marathon performance of all four of Rachmaninoff’s concerti plus Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Yuja Wang and was seriously impressed with his conducting and the playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Their recording of Price’s Symphonies No. 1 & 3 won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2022.

CLASSICAL: THE RITE OF SPRING – Spectre d’un songe – Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe (Pyroclastic Records)

Pianists Courvoisier and Smythe perform the two-piano version by Stravinsky of his The Rite of Spring. Anyone who knows this work – either in the symphonic version or in the two-piano version – knows this is a massively complicated and exhilarating composition. Courvoisier and Smythe perform it as if it was effortless for them (it certainly wasn’t).

Also on the recording is another track named The Rite of Spring which is an improvisatory exploration of Stravinsky’s landmark work composed by Smythe. It makes for a fascinating conclusion to this terrific record.

JAZZ: LIVE AT SMALLS JAZZ CLUB – George Coleman (Cellar Music Group)

Here’s a pairing of two legends in jazz. The first is saxophonist George Coleman who was a member of Miles Davis’ Second Quintet. He also recorded five albums as a member of the Chet Baker Quintet and six albums with Max Roach. 

The second legend is Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. Not the oldest of clubs in New York, but a significant one that first opened in 1994. They closed for 3-1/2 years in 2003 before reopening the first quarter of 2006. It’s small (giving the club it’s name) with room for only 60 people.

Coleman was 87 when this album was recorded last year with drummer Joe Farnsworth, bassist Peter Washington and pianist Spike Wilner (who also happens to own Smalls Jazz Club.)

There are eight tracks on this album including Four by Miles Davis, the standards At Last, My Funny Valentineand Nearness of You; Jobim’s Meditation and Kander and Ebb’s New York, New York.

This is a terrific record. Don’t miss it.

JAZZ: BIRD IN LA – Charlie Parker  (VERVE/UMe)

28  live recordings from 1945, 1946, 1948 and 1952 by Parker in Los Angeles comprise this box set available as either 4 LPs, 2 CDs or streaming. Amongst the musicians joining Parker in these performances are Chet Baker, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Slim Gaillard, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Frank Morgan and Buddy Rich.

The songs include Billie’s Bounce, Dizzy Atmosphere, How Hight the Moon, Night in Tunisia, Ornithology, Out of Nowhere and Salt Peanuts. There are fragments of other songs included. This is fascinating series of recordings sure to please any fan of Parker’s.

JAZZ: LEAN IN – Gretchen Parlato and Lionel Loueke (Edition Records)

Vocalist/songwriter Parlato and guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Loueke team up for this album of 12 songs – most of them composed by Loueke and Parlato. There are a couple of covers and perhaps the most surprising is Walking After You which was written by Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters. The song appeared on their 1997 album The Colour and the Shape.

These beautiful songs are sung in English, Portuguese and Fon (the indigenous language of Benin.)

Eight of the songs find just Parlato and Loueke together. Joining them for the other four tracks on this recording are drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Burniss Travis. Marley Guiliana, Parlato and Guiliana’s son, appears on one track. 

JAZZ: WEST SIDE STORY – André Previn and His Pals Shelly Manne & Red Mitchell (Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds)

Though Previn is best known as a composer, he was also a versatile jazz pianist. He’s joined by drummer Manne and bassist Mitchell for eight songs from the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical. 

They perform Something’s Coming, Jet Song, Tonight, I Feel Pretty, Gee Officer Krupke!, Cool, Maria and America. This album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance Solo or Small Group at the 3^rdannual Grammy Awards. (Trivia: both the 3^rd and 4^th annual Grammy Awards were not televised. They held private dinner ceremonies instead)

This re-release marks the first time this album has been released as an LP in over 30 years. (There is also a hi-res digital release).

Let us know what you’re listening to by leaving a comment!

That’s my list of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: May 19th. Have a terrific weekend and enjoy the music!

The post New in Music This Week: May 19th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Prima Facie – Golden Theatre – New York, NY

Jodie Comer stars in this play by Suzie Miller that is now playing on Broadway. Miller and Comer won Olivier Awards for Best New Play and Best Actress at this year’s Olivier Awards. Could Tony Awards all come their way?

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Good Night, Oscar – Belasco Theatre – New York, NY Sean Hayes stars in this play about Oscar Levant written by Doug Wright and directed by Lisa Peterson. The show originated in Chicago and received rave reviews for both the play and for Hayes.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

TRADE/Mary Motorhead – LA Opera at REDCAT – Los Angeles, CA – April 27^th – April 30^th

These two one-act operas by composer Emma O’Halloran and her librettist uncle, Mark O’Halloran, debuted at the Prototype Festival in New York earlier this year. Now they are in Los Angeles with original cast members Kyle Bielfield, Mark Kudisch and Naomi Louisa O’Connell in tow.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Dee Dee Bridgewater & Bill Charlap – SFJAZZ – San Francisco April 27^th – April 30^th

Rarely have two artists so perfectly melded their talents the way jazz singer Bridgewater and pianist Charlap do in concert. I’ve seen them twice and would go again and again given the opportunity. You have the opportunity to hear how great this duo is even if you don’t live in San Francisco. Their performance on April 28^th will be streaming live at 7:30 PM PT (with an encore showing on April 29^th at 11 AM PT).  

For in-person tickets and more information, please go here. For streaming tickets and information, please go here.

Champion – Met Opera Live in HD – Cinemas Worldwide – April 29^th – 12:55 PM ET/9:55 AM PT

This Saturday the Metropolitan Opera will present Terence Blanchard’s first opera, Champion, in a live transmission from the Met in New York City. Ryan Speedo Green, Eric Owens, Latonia Moore, Stephanie Blythe, Paul Groves and Eric Greene star in this opera based on the true story of boxer Emile Griffith. The production is directed by James Robinson with choreography by Camille A. Brown (both of whom were involved in the world premiere of Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.) Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

To find a theater near you, please go here.

Photo: Ryan Speedo Green in Champion (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Met Opera)

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2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rachmaninoff. Certainly orchestras around the world will be celebrating his sesquicentennial in a variety of ways. Wang set the bar very high indeed for those who follow.

The program opened with Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. This is perhaps the composer’s best known of his four concerti. The second movement served as the melodic line for the 1975 hit All By Myself from Eric Carmen. The third movement gave us the popular song Full Moon and Empty Arms which Frank Sinatra recorded in 1945.

Wang knows this concerto well. She recorded it with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for her 2011 album Rachmaninov (there are two common spellings for his name.) The same album featured the penultimate piece she performed, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

The moment this concert began you could feel the anticipation in the audience and the excitement of what we all hoped this marathon would bring. Then there was the unexpected drama.

Just as Wang had embarked on the third movement, with the briefest of pauses after concluding the second, a gentleman in the audience had a heart attack. At least I believe it was a heart attack due to the medical updates Nézet-Séguin sprinkled through the performance. The concert came to a stop for roughly twenty minutes. I wondered how that might impact Wang and her plans for pacing herself.

This interruption reminded me of a 1980 movie called The Competition with Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving. Near the end of the movie as Irving’s character is performing in, what else, a competition, a key on the piano turns out to be wildly out-of-tune. Upset by the circumstances she demands to change the concerto she was performing and get a different piano.

Yuja Wang appeared to have no issue at all. They resumed by re-starting the third movement. At that concerto’s conclusion the audience immediately leapt to their feet – something they would do repeatedly. But this ovation seemed distinctly different than those that followed. It was as if they were celebrating the tenacity of the musicians on stage and almost willing the gentleman to recover.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor was next after a scheduled 10-minute break. When Wang returned we learned that one main reason for the scheduled breaks in the performance was so she could change from one shimmering outfit to another. A longer intermission was scheduled after two pieces had been performed.

And the marathon continued…

Along with the Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 40 is another lesser-performed work. It’s also a concerto the composer revised twice – in 1928 and 1941. The 4th is how the second third of the concert began.

I should note that at no point did it seem like Yuja Wang was breaking even the slightest sweat. It’s as if the pressure of the marathon she chose to do was non-existent.

Leaving the monumental Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor as her final announced work, the Rhapsody was next. This is the sweepingly romantic music that found its way into the hearts of filmgoers who saw the 1980 film Somewhere in Time.

At the conclusion of the Rhapsody someone ran down the side of Carnegie Hall with a bouquet of white roses for Wang. Without hesitation she handed the roses to Concertmaster David Kim to show her appreciation for all that he and The Philadelphia Orchestra were doing.

The way this orchestra and Wang performed these works made each and every moment exciting. As we grew closer to the monster Rach 3 there was a palpable feeling building in the audience that we knew she would make it to the finish line in breathtaking form. We also knew we were experiencing a truly once-in-a-lifetime event. Since nothing like this has ever been done before, it is a first-time ever event.

What became clear as the afternoon turned into the evening was that you could definitely hear similar passages in each of the works. There was also an unmistakeable style to the way Rachmaninoff structured each composition.

It was time for the final intermission and the conversations around Carnegie Hall were often about what Yuja Wang might wear for her finale.

We took our seats for the last time for the mammoth undertaking that is the 3rd piano concert. You might recall Piano Concerto No. 3 as being at the center of the 1996 film Shine which landed Geoffrey Rush an Academy Award. It is intensely complicated and challenges even the finest pianists. It certainly must have challenged her, particularly after having performed four major works earlier in the concert. But if it did, she never made that noticeable to us.

What she did make clear was a sense of absolute elation when the marathon was over. Her embrace of Nézet-Séguin was long and felt like all remaining energy she had was finally free to leave her body. Each audience member found their own reserves of energy to give everyone on that stage a sustained ovation that dwarfed all that had come before.

But wait, there’s more. Yuja Wang being Yuja Wang, she performed a beautiful encore. But it wasn’t Rachmaninoff. It was Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits from his opera Orfeo ed Euridice.

I don’t know what Yuja Wang did after leaving the stage for the last time. But I know what I and many others did. Our blessed spirits were dancing our way out onto the streets of Manhattan.

All photos: Yuja Wang, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on January 28th, 2023 (Photos by Chris Lee/Courtesy Carnegie Hall)

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This interview originally ran in March when the Philadelphia Orchestra was giving a concert performance of The Hours. We have updated this story with more details about the Met Opera production, clips from the production and additional comments from composer Puts. We have also posted the complete interview up on our YouTube channel.

The Met Opera production stars Joyce DiDonato as Virginia Woolf, Renée Fleming as Clarissa Vaughan and Kelli O’Hara as Laura Brown. These were the characters played by Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore in the 2002 film. Both the movie and the opera are based on Michael Cunningham’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

If you read the book or saw the film you’ll remember The Hours is about three women from different time periods who all have a connection to Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway.

Also appearing in the opera are Kathleen Kim, Denyce Graves, John Holiday, Sean Panikkar and more. Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct all but the last Met Opera performance on December 15th. Kensho Watanabe will conduct that performance. The production is by Phelim McDermott (Akhnaten).

“The idea came to me from Renée Fleming,” says composer Puts. “She was thinking about it and she thought how interesting to have an opera that takes place in three different time periods all at the same time. It was on her mind because she had just had lunch with Julianne Moore..” That’s how The Hours began its life as an opera written by Puts.

Earlier this year I spoke via Zoom with Puts who won the Pulitzer Prize for his first opera, Silent Night. What follows are excerpts from that conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

Virginia Woolf once asked, “Why are women so much more interesting to men than men are to women?” Your opera of The Hours is based on a novel written by a man who was inspired by Woolf and is being created and directed by three men. What would you say to Woolf if given the opportunity to address her question?

I can’t answer why, but I would say for me women are more interesting as characters. I don’t know why. I love operas like Billy Budd, but these characters are fascinating and I like writing for the female voice very much.

Just before speaking with you I had the television on and I was flipping channels around and the movie Aliens was on. It’s the same thing, [director] James Cameron is fascinated with female heroines in his story. I don’t know exactly why.

My first opera was basically almost all men and now I’m starting to get my musical mind around having melodies that are essentially around middle “c” on the piano. That is a different kind of thing because then the harmony has to be in a different place, et cetera. I don’t like to get too technical, but it’s very natural for me to write for women’s voices. But that is a very Virginia Woolf thing to say and probably true as well.

You mentioned that, like the novel, your opera takes place in three different time periods. Musically how are those time periods reflected and is that necessary for an audience to stay on course with the story you are telling?

The piece has a very kind of otherworldly and kind of mystical feel to it. But definitely we want the audience to know what’s going on.

I didn’t have a real premeditated idea that there would be three different types of music, which would be extremely different and would signify the different characters. But I think it just happened naturally.

Virginia Woolf feels trapped in Richmond and she wants the wildness of the city. So there’ s a musical language and certain elements of that language which describe that for me. Then there’s her sort of manic desire for London. So there’s that kind of dichotomy in her music.

Laura Brown, the middle period character, was living outside of Los Angeles after World War II. WIth her husband and her three-year-old son, she feels trapped in sort of an alien domestic world that is not natural for her. So there’s a way of describing the world that she can’t fit into, which has its own language.

Clarissa, Renée Fleming’s character, has a kind of musical language that is characterized by Clarissa’s eternal optimism and radiance. She thinks everything will be fine if we just have the perfect party and we get the flowers exactly right.

I really do think of them as musical environments. They’re not leitmotifs, but they’re languages that I think are associated with the different characters and their situations.

This opera has been in the works for quite some time with Fleming, O’Hara and DiDonato attached. Did that allow you to write specifically for their voices?

It was very much written for the three of them because we hadn’t started writing yet. So I knew who we were writing for. I knew Renee’s voice very well having done a couple of projects with her. And I knew Kelli O’Hara’s voice from musical theater. I was talking to her a lot and finding out that she actually has an incredible range and she can sing the lyric soprano roles. And, of course, I knew Joyce DiDonato’s voice. The piece will continue to be written for the three of them over the next several months.

I really think that’s crucial for an opera to make sure that the principles really feel like they can deliver with their parts. It’s funny how minute the changes can be and sometimes that makes a big difference to them. It’s easy for me and actually really satisfying for me to develop these roles within the parts of their voice that work given the situation.

How did Greg Pierce become the writer you wanted to adapt Cunningham’s novel and create the libretto?

Greg had only done one opera, Fellow Travelers, which is a really successful opera with Gregory Spears. I read the libretto and I really liked it. I also liked the fact that he hadn’t done a lot of operas. He had done work in other areas: screenplays, et cetera. He showed me some poems that he wrote. I knew there would be a poetic element to the language. It’s what inspires me. I think that there has to be some poetry in the libretto. His enthusiasm for The Hours was clear. He had been thinking about it for years as a possibility as an opera. In our first conversation I felt like we were already writing it. It just felt natural once I met him.

In the spring of 2021 you had a workshop of the music with Cincinnati Opera. What did you and Greg learn from that session and how did it inform the subsequent work you’ve done on The Hours?

My score was marked in red. I just went to work immediately. Once you figure out what you need to do you just want to forget the past like it never happened.

I think that one of the really crucial scenes in the opera was entirely re-written. It’s a complicated scene actually. A couple of scenes between Clarissa and Richard. I need to work really hard at dialogue. I feel like it should all feel like part of a seamless musical flow and there should be real singing in the dialogue. It should flow naturally like a conversation that kind of ebbs and flows. So those scenes, in some ways, require the most work.

How did that work in the middle of the pandemic?

That was a heroic thing that they did. We were all in a massive ballroom and there were twelve singers – all of the masked in little separate booths with microphones. The pianist and the conductor were in the middle of the room and none of us could approach each other. But we got through the entire opera and we learned a ton from it.

Given that Mrs. Dalloway is so revered, as is the language of Virginia Woolf and that The Hours is revered both as a book and a movie for the language that Cunningham and screenwriter David Hare used, what challenges do you face in continuing with a successful telling of this story?

I think it always is the case when you’re working with a property that’s really known. It’s inevitable. They’re going to be reactions like “well, it’s not like this. And I love the book and it’s too bad that it’s not this way and that way.” It was certainly true of The Manchurian Candidate, my second opera. It was the same kind of challenge.

But I felt like when I began composing that I was doing things on my own terms. It just feels different – just the nature of the piece. I feel like it’s its own thing and it’s not going to feel like the book. It’s not going to feel like the film. The music has its own personality, I hope. But yeah, that’s definitely a challenge. I hope that people will listen to it on its own terms.

The nice thing is the book and the film will still exist independent of the opera.

As soon as Renée mentioned the book I started thinking about the possibilities that can happen on an opera stage that cannot happen in a film. You can’t split the screen in three ways. These stories can begin to intermingle and overlap and they can sing duets that transcend time. That was what was really exciting about it for me because with the language of music and harmony it’s possible to do that. So that’s why I wanted to do it.

I think about that all the time. What’s the point? But I think with this I really thought there was a point.

Michael Cunningham said in an interview when the novel was released that he felt that he entered into some kind of maturity with The Hours and that it was something only he could have written. I’m wondering if you could compare your own thoughts about your perspective of having written this opera at this point in your life and whether you’ve reached a certain kind of maturity and if only you could have written this.

I don’t feel that I’m the only composer who could have written this. But I do think that the way I like to approach opera is well suited to this story. The emotional situations; I live for these these things as a composer. I live for the moments when I can let these situations wash over me and let music come out. This is why I do it.

I think as far as maturity, I feel like now I understand how to not only how to write for voice and how to set the English language and the way I want to that really extracts all the musicality that’s possible out of it. i really love to set English as a language. But also I feel like I’ve kind of tempered my, what is often described in Silent Night, as a kind of a poly-stylistic approach. I’ve tempered that in a way that feels like it’s more cohesive and more kind of all me, even though there are references to different stylistic things that occur in the piece. So yeah, I feel like it was a good time for me to write this opera.

To see the full conversation with Kevin Puts, please go here.

Main Photo: Composer Kevin Puts (Photo by David White)

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The productions being shown this week feature a mix of openly gay performers (Jamie Barton, Michael Fabiano, David Portillo, Patricia Racette), a conductor (Yannick Nézet-Séguin), a director (David McVicar) and two openly gay composers (Thomas Adés and Benjamin Britten).

Being streamed for the first time is the 1996-1997 season production of Britten’s Billy Budd. You’ll find that opera on Saturday, June 26th.

Since the Met is re-running productions as the bulk of their weekly streaming schedule, I’m going to mix in interviews with the performers and creators in place of clips to avoid the redundancy of showing the same few clips available. Let me know your thoughts!

All productions become available at 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST and remain available for 23 hours. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

The Met is heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and the planned resumption of performances in the 2021-2022 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions on the Metropolitan Opera website. 

If you read this column early enough on June 14thth, you’ll still have time to see the 2017-2018 season production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller that was part of Happy Father’s Day week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 67 at the Met:

Monday, June 21 – Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel – 4th Showing (Strongly Recommended)

Conducted by Thomas Adès; starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn and John Tomlinson. This Tom Cairns production was from the 2017-2018 season.

British composer Adés’s opera, based on the Luis Buñuel film from 1962, had its world premiere in Salzburg in 2016. Tom Cairns, who directed this production, wrote the libretto.

The Exterminating Angel depicts an elaborate dinner party where all the attendees suddenly and mysteriously cannot leave the room. As the hours turn into days, they lose any sense of privilege and pretense and are reduced to more animalistic tendencies.

If you’ve seen the composer’s The Tempest you know that Adés is one of our most compelling and intriguing composers. 

Feel free to check out Anthony Tomassini’s review in the New York Times. I’ll just give you the last sentence from his review: “If you go to a single production this season, make it this one.” I’ve seen it and wholeheartedly agree.

Tuesday, June 22 – Dvořák’s Rusalka – 3rd Showing

Conducted by Mark Elder; starring Kristine Opolais, Katarina Dalayman, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich and Eric Owens. This Mary Zimmerman production is from the from the 2016-2017 season.

Rusalka was Antonín Dvořák’s ninth opera and was based on fairytales. Poet Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto. Rusalka had its world premiere in Prague in 1901.

In essence, this is the same story told in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. A water sprite, Rusalka, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human prince and wants to join him in his world. He asks her to see a witch who gives her a potion to join the prince, but there are conditions: Rusalka will no longer be able to speak and she loses the opportunity to be immortal. More importantly, if the Prince does not stay in love with her, he will die and Rusalka will be damned for all eternity. This is definitely not a Disney version of the story.

Zimmerman’s production was a certified hit. The director won a Tony Award for her production of Metamorphosesand critics raved about both the look and approach to Dvořák’s dark opera. She didn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the story.

Wednesday, June 23 – Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda – 4th Showing

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Elza van den Heever, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, Joshua Hopkins and Matthew Rose. This David McVicar production is from the 2012-2013 season.

Mary, Queen of Scots, is the central figure in this opera written by Donizetti that had its world premiere in Milan in 1835. The libretto Guiseppe Bardari, was based on Friedrich von Schiller’s play, Mary Stuart, from 1800. 

Elisabetta, the Queen of England, has her cousin, Maria Stuarda, the Queen of Scotland, in prison. Elisabetta is in love with the Earl of Leicester, Roberto, but he wants to help Maria with whom he is in love. His suggestion to Maria that a reconciliation take place between the two cousins only leads to greater animosity and ultimately Maria’s execution.

Of DiDonato’s performance in the title role, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times said:

“Ms. DiDonato’s performance will be pointed to as a model of singing in which all components of the art form — technique, sound, color, nuance, diction — come together in service to expression and eloquence.”

Thursday, June 24 – Puccini’s Tosca – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Riccardo Frizza; starring Patricia Racette, Roberto Alagna and George Gagnidze. This revival of Luc Bondy’s 2009 production is from the 2013-2014 season.

It is quite likely that Puccini’s Tosca was the first opera to premiere in 1900. Its first performance was on January 14 in Rome. Based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 play of the same name, Tosca‘s libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

The setting for Tosca is Rome in 1800. The Napoleonic wars were raging and political unrest was omnipresent. The opera takes place over the course of slightly less than 24 hours. Floria Tosca (Verrett) is the object of Chief of Police Baron Scarpia’s (MacNeil) lust. He uses suspicions that her lover, Mario Cavaradossi (Pavarotti), aided a political prisoner who has escaped as an opportunity to get him out of his way which will leave Tosca for himself. After capturing Cavaradossi, Scarpia says that if Tosca doesn’t become his lover, he will have Cavaradossi killed.

Met Opera fans and critics were bitterly disappointed when Bondy’s production replaced the beloved long-standing production by Franco Zeffirelli. Perhaps in an effort to woo over their patrons, the Met revived that production every year since its debut leading up to this revival. Whether it become more embraced or simply tolerated, is in the eye of the ticket holders. Let us know what you think of this production.

Friday, June 25 –Puccini’s Turandot – 4th Showing

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Christine Goerke, Eleonora Buratto, Yusif Eyvazov and James Morris. This revival of the 1987 Franco Zeffirelli production from the 2019-2020 season.

Puccini’s opera had its world premiere in 1926 in Milan. The libretto was written by Guiseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. The composer died two years before its premiere and the opera was completed by Franco Alfani.

Set in China, Turandot tells the story of Prince Calaf who has fallen in love with the title princess. She, however, isn’t very interested in him. In order for any man to marry Turandot, he is required to correctly answer three riddles. Should any answer be wrong, the suitor is put to death. Calaf is successful, but Turandot remains opposed to their marriage. He strikes a deal with her that will either lead to their marriage or his death. 

Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times about this production:

“Mr. Nézet-Séguin led an exciting and insightful account of Puccini’s Turandot, a revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s glittering, over-the-top and popular 1987 production. The strong cast was headed by the blazing soprano Christine Goerke as Puccini’s icy Princess Turandot, the ardent tenor Yusif Eyvazov as Calaf, and the plush-voiced soprano Eleonora Buratto as Liù. The chorus, during the crowd scenes, sounded superb.”

Saturday, June 26 – Britten’s Billy Budd – FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by Steuart Bedford; starring Philip Langridge, Dwayne Croft and James Morris. This revival of the 1978 John Dexter production is from the 1996-1997 season.

Herman Melville’s short novel, Billy Budd, left unfinished by the author and published in 1924 (33 years after Melville’s death), serves as the inspiration for Benjamin Britten’s opera. 

Billy Budd, the opera, had its world premiere in London in 1951. Novelist E.M. Forster (A Passage to India) and Eric Crozier wrote the libretto. Billy Budd is a rare opera in that it features no female roles. Even the chorus is all-male.

The opera tells the story of a young sailor who is newly recruited to join the HMS Indomitable. He possess great beauty and charm. The Master-at-Arms, Claggart, finds himself inexplicably drawn to the young man. Uneasy with the feelings Budd instills him, Claggart seeks to do everything he can to destroy him.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini pointed out the challenges of playing the title character and praised Croft for his performance.

“Hardly anyone in the opera refers to Billy without calling him a ‘beauty.’ The old seaman Dansker, with fatherly affection, even calls him ‘baby.’ So looking right in the role is critical, and Mr. Croft did, youthful and limber, with tousled blond hair.

“Yet Billy cannot be self-consciously sexual. He is innocent of his own attractiveness, painfully awkward and encumbered with a bad stammer. Mr. Croft movingly captured these qualities through his affecting portrayal and warm, robust singing. Matters of rhythm and phrasing were handled with musicianly skill. Since his debut in 1990, Mr. Croft has been increasingly important to the Met. Billy Budd may be his finest work yet.”

Sunday, June 27 – Verdi’s La Traviata – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Michael Fabiano and Thomas Hampson. This is a revival of the 2011 Willy Decker production from the 2016-2017 season.

Alexandre Dumas fils (the son of the author of The Three Musketeers) wrote the play, La Dame aux camélias on which Verdi’s opera is based. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto for La Traviata which had its world premiere in Venice in 1853.

In the opera, Violetta, who is in declining health, throws an opulent party. At this party she is introduced to Alfredo by her lover, Baron Douphol. When signs of failing health get noticed by Alfredo, he encourages her to give up her lavish lifestyle. He also admits his great love for Violetta. A love triangle is now in play. From there the opera tells the story of a woman who sacrifices everything to live life on the edge.

Zachary Woolfe raved about Yoncheva in the New York Times after seeing this production.

“Ms. Yoncheva is now the one I’d seek out, no matter what she does. (And she does most everything: This Traviata comes in the wake of both Bellini’s mighty Norma and a Handel album.)

“A few years ago, Ms. Yoncheva had an essentially slender soprano focused enough to penetrate the vast Met. Now she fills the opera house more easily, with a tone that’s simultaneously softer and stronger, less angled and more rounded. New strength in the lower reaches of her voice anchored Addio del passato, the final-act lament of the doomed courtesan Violetta.”

That’s the end of Week 67 at the Met celebrating Pride Week. Next week, with Independence Day falling on Sunday, the theme will be Celebrating American Composers.

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas! Happy Pride!

Photo: Michael Fabiano and Sonya Yoncheva in La Traviata (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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