Gluck: Alceste, Orchestra and Chorus Teatro Real, Ivor Bolton (conductor), Teatro Real, Madrid, 4 & 8.3.2014 (JMI).
Gluck’s Alceste at Teatro Real While Remembering Its Artistic DIrector, Gerard Mortier
Stan
A Profound Relationship to a Marimba—and Plastic Tubing
United States Alex Mincek: Alex Mincek (saxophone), Talujon Percussion, Greg Chudzik (bass), Avant Music Festival, Wild Project, New York City. 28.2.2014 (DS)
Relishing a Golden Decade of Russian Music
United Kingdom Tchaikovsky, Borodin: Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra / David Curtis (conductor), Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, 8.2.2014. (RJ)
Reliable Work, If Not Quite Fantastique
United States Prokofiev, Berlioz: Julia Fischer (violin), San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor), Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 6.3.2014 (HS)
A Light Hearted Romp with an Appearance by Dame Kiri
United Kingdom Donizetti, La Fille du régiment: Soloists, Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Yves Abel in Laurent Pelly’s 2007 production: designs by Chantal Thomas. Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. 9.3.2014. (JPr)
Te Kanawa as La Duchesse de Crackentorp
(c)Catherine Ashmore/ROH
Visitors from Vienna Do More Than Just Waltz
United Kingdom Kodály, Rachmaninov, Beethoven: Barry Douglas (piano), Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada (conductor), Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 9.3.2014 (SRT)
Handel’s Samson: Larger than Life
United States Handel, Samson: Soloists and Chorus of the American Classical Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan (Conductor), Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, 4.3.2014 (SSM)
“Concept Opera” Production Does Macbeth No Favours
United Kingdom Verdi, Macbeth (1865) (sung in Italian with titles in English): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North / Tobias Ringborg (conductor), The Lowry Theatre, Salford Quays, 6.3.2014. (RJF)