Opera Review: The Pigs Take Over

The NY PHIL BIENNIAL unveils Gloria--A Pig Tale
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The thin line between love and sausage: Alexander Lewis (with knife) and
Lauren Snouffer in Gloria: A Pig Tale at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2014 The New York Philharmonic.

Opera is a serious art. Unless its perpetrator is H.K. Gruber, the imaginative Austrian composer whose Gloria--A Pig Tale is the second new stage work to have its New York premiere in the early days of the first NY PHIL BIENNIAL. This new production was a collaboration between New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert, director Doug Fitch and AXIOM, a Juilliard-based ensemble devoting itself to the interpretation of contemporary music.

Concert Review: As the Puppets Dance

The New York Philharmonic presents A Dancer's Dream.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The puppets dance in Petrushka as Alan Gilbert conducts A Dancer's Dream.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2013 New York Philharmonic.

All the viral videos, cross-marketing and pre-event hype in the last two weeks from the marketing department of the New York Philharmonic failed to capture the brilliance and breadth of imagination present in A Dancer's Dream, seen on Thursday night at Avery Fisher Hall. This is the third and most recent collaboration between the orchestra and Doug Fitch, the director and puppeteer behind the Brooklyn-based theater company Giants Are Small.