SINCE 1999 A LIVE REVIEW SITE FOR OPERA, BALLET, CONCERTS, BROADCASTS, AND THEATRE
All the Seen and Heard Interviews
Gregor Tassie talks to visual artist Grégoire Pont
One of the unexpected highlights of the George Enescu International Festival was a Sunday matinee concert of French music for children at the charming Odeon Hall (review here). If the music by Poulenc and Ravel was well known, the artwork by the French illustrator Grégoire Pont was a pleasant surprise.
Questions on the road for conductor Dalia Stasevska
Ukrainian-born Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska (currently principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra) will be returning to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra 20-23 November in a program that features Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony and La Noche de los Mayas by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. Busy schedules prohibited the conductor and Seen and Heard International critic Mark Sebastian Jordan from finding an ideal time to speak in person, so they devised a correspondence interview that would allow Stasevska to work on her answers whenever she found a stray moment between family, study, rehearsals, performances and travel.
Gregor Tassie talks to conductor Giancarlo Guerrero about Shostakovich and his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District
From my review of a recent performance of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District: ‘Guerrero’s masterly analysis of the score and his authority in guiding this excellent orchestra of Romanian Radio was at the centre of the evening – the orchestra unveiled world class virtuosity with the brass group in particular evincing the often ribald brutality of Shostakovich’s orchestration, with the woodwind matching them with the quirky intonation of the composer’s frequently piquant and satirical score. At significantly dramatic moments, Guerrero brought out the expressive passages on the violas which was another eloquent and impassioned element of Shostakovich’s orchestration.’
Robert Beattie previews NIO’s new production of Sondheim’s Follies
Anna Clyne on the upcoming NYC premiere of PALETTE on 18 September
Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green on the Ring road to Wotan
In the nine years since a book about Ryan Speedo Green told his story of a troubled African-American youth redeemed by opera, the bass-baritone has risen from short opera roles to a career that has made him a star at the Metropolitan Opera. His latest triumph is an astonishingly mature portrayal of Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre at Santa Fe Opera [click here].
An interview with violinist Miranda Cuckson who will perform in Anthony Cheung’s the echoing of tenses at New York’s Alice Tully Hall on 16 July
