Concert Review: Still Frozen After All These Years

Christopher Dylan Herbert revives Winterize.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In the bleak midwinter: Christopher Dylan Herbert sings Winterreise
in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Photo by the author.

Four years ago, New York baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert gave the first performances of Winterize, a unique "movable" outdoor performance of the Schubert song cycle Winterreise. This morning, he revived his work among the bare branches of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Armed with portable radios playing the piano accompaniment to these twenty-four songs, audiences follow Mr. Herbert around the gardens, taking the "winter's journey" with him, a trip that starts with lost love and ends in hypothermia, madness and (presumably) death.

Opera Review: She’s Toxic, He's Slipping Under

Gotham Chamber Opera presents La Hija de Rappaccini.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pretty poison: Elaine Alvarez is Beatriz in La Hija de Rappacini.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2013 Gotham Chamber Opera.

The opera season may be at its end, but New York's opera lovers have a few more treats in store. On Monday night, Gotham Chamber Opera unveiled its al fresco production of Daniel Catán’s 1988 opera La Hija de Rappaccini (Rappacini's Daughter.) This Spanish-language opera is not new to New Yorkers, but this is a new production, presented on the Cherry Esplanade at the heart of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.