Category: Music
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Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” is a French-styled “Total Work of Art”
The “hero’s welcome” for composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at the opening night performance of the L.A. Philharmonic’s production of Debussy’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” hit with a refreshing coolness of modesty; with an apropos absence of fanfare perfectly suited to the production at hand. Salonen so casually enters while other philharmonic members are still trickling in that…
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Age and Sex Trends of Contemporary Classical Music Composers, Using Current Popularity Data
This study determined which contemporary classical music (CCM) composers were more popular amongst avid consumers of CCM, when categorized as either: alive or dead; young or old; and female or male.
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Music in Time, Spoleto Review 2001
Conductor John Kennedy and Pianist Sarah Cahill, and others, team up for an amazing Spoleto performance of contemporary classical music. (Photo credit — hinnk — of Ms. Cahill performing at Berkeley Art Museum.)
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Music in Time, Spoleto’s Contemporary Classical Music Showcase, a Preview
2001 Archives My interview with John Kennedy. Every Spoleto, I was most reliably excited by Kennedy’s curated contemporary classical music series. For this year, 2001, we got to hear music by Ruth Crawford Seeger, in honor of her centennial, including Nine Preludes for Piano, Music for Small Orchestra, and Three Songs, as well as some…
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Laurie Anderson’s Moby Dick, Spoleto Festival Review 1999
“Up front, like Ahab guiltily admits in the beginning of Laurie Anderson’s Songs and Stories from Moby Dick, “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never read the book! It’s too big!” … Unfortunately, the show’s not much more than that: a “reading’s cool” PSA for technophiles.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives, 1999.
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Kurt Weill’s Die Burgschaft, Spoleto Festival Review
“Die Burgschaft is the story of Mattes and Orth, two men in the mythical land of Urb who witness the gradual and tragic degradation of their trust in one another because of the dividing and corrupting influence of money and power.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives, 1999.
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Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Spoleto Review 2001
Many in the audience seemed truly touched by this “jewel of Western opera repertoire,” as Director Chen Shi-Zheng has called it.
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Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Spoleto Review 2001
“For all the kitsch and Brecht, what I would’ve loved to see was a critique of this dopey and insulting take on women….”
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Stephen Sondheim’s Company, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Preview
The musical “Company,” by Stephen Sondheim, is being revived by the Footlight Players for Piccolo Spoleto due to its outstanding success in January. “Company” is considered a “concept” musical due to its non-linear form of storytelling. It washes over you with a collage of relationships, giving you a better understanding of what it’s like to…
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Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Review
Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” was made for “firsts”, it seems. The concert at the Angel Oak last weekend marked the first time the 1,400-year-old tree has been used as a venue by Piccolo Spoleto, and the first time the Charleston Ballet Theater has performed their magnum opus to live music.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston…
S.E. Barcus 