The Feast of Seven: The Best Opera Performances of 2018

Seven great opera performances from a strange and turbulent year.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The year that was: 2018 in opera.

What a year. James Levine was fired from The Metropolitan Opera, which also crowned a new music director. I listened to seven recordings of Carmen. And Placido Domingo tried his hand at....comedy? On to the highlights.

Concert Review: Talkin' 'bout Their Generation

The Cleveland Youth Orchestra at Severance Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Youth movement: Conductor Vinay Parameswaran at the helm of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
Photo from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra website © 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra.

For this New Yorker, it is unusual to attend a concert at Cleveland's lush, elegant Severance Hall and not see the familiar musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra on the stage. But last Friday night belonged to the next generation: the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in one of its three subscription concerts at the venue this season.

Concert Review: A Totalitarian Eclipse of the Heart

Jakob Hrůša leads the Cleveland Orchestra behind the Iron Curtain.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Jakob Hrůša in action.Photo by Andreas Herszau from the artist's website © 2016 Andreas Herszau. 

The music of Eastern Europe in the mid-20th century was, for the most part written in an oppressive climate of fear and government control. On Thursday night at Severance Hall, conductor Jakob Hrůša and the Cleveland Orchestra took out their crowbars and lifted the Iron Curtain with a program that shed some light on what music-making was like in a totalitarian (and proletarian) regime.

The Bitter Fruit of Obsessive Love

Some thoughts on Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Detail from a caricature of Hector Berlioz by Anton Elfinger.
The caption read: "Heureusement la salle est solide... elle résiste." © 1982 University of Chicago Press.

If you've read Superconductor since the beginning you know that this blog has spent a lot of column length on the music of Hector Berlioz. Berlioz was an author and a music critic (much like your humble narrator.) He was also a revolutionary and romantic composer who cut an eccentric but fearless path through the cutthroat world of the Paris music scene in his lifetime. His Symphonie-fantastique, which burst upon the world in 1829, was one of the reasons for the rise of program music in the 19th century. Even more revolutionary was his use of a recurring motif or idée-fixe, whose development over the course of five movements predicted the Wagnerian idea of leitmotif.

Great Opera Performances: Spring 2018

Here's the best of the best from the second half of the season.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

This was an incredibly busy and fascinating few months in the New York opera community. Big houses like the Met sailed forth with good efforts even as they found themselves in a swirling sea of scandal. The Prototype Festival had a strong showing, and a performance of Tristan und Isolde gave compelling reasons to travel to Cleveland, Ohio. Here's the best of 2018 so far.

Opera Review: It's Almost Like Love

The Cleveland Orchestra presents Tristan und Isolde in concert.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Walking the parapet: Gerhard Siegel and Nina Stemme as Tristan und Isolde at Severance Hall.
Below, Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra.
Photo by Roger Mastroianni © 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra.

Tristan und Isolde is not an ordinary opera. Wagner's work stripped almost all the action and plot away from the legend of the medieval knight and the Irish queen and their illicit affair. Aside from one sword-thrust, there is very little action. Everything is internal in this mysterious opera, with turbulent swirls of chromatic orchestration bringing the psychological inner life of the characters to vivid life. In other words, as the Cleveland Orchestra proved on Thursday night, this is a perfect opera for the concert hall.

Concert Review: Listening to Ecstasy

The Cleveland Orchestra plays Messiaen.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ecstasy: Franz Welser-Möst (on podium, back to camera), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (left) and Cynthia Millar (right)
and the Cleveland Orchestra play the Turangalîla-symphonie.
Photo by Roger Mastroianni © 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra.

The music of Olivier Messiaen has never been an "easy sell" to the average concert-goer. Performances of his works remain infrequent, partially because of his own status as an outlier among the creative minds of the 20th century and partially because of the massive demands these pieces place on both performers and audience. It is a state of unfortunate neglect, one that the Cleveland Orchestra corrected on Wednesday night with a performance of Turangalîla-symphonie, the huge ten-movement piece commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1949.

Concert Review: Welcome to FarmVille

The Cleveland Orchestra turns Haydn's The Seasons.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Photo by Roger Mastroianni © 2017 The Cleveland Orchestra.

You don't hear the Haydn oratorios much.

The father of the symphony and the string quartet wrote two late ones for his London audiences following the success of his cycle of late symphonies. Of the two, it is the first The Creation that shows up on the occasional choral program. On Wednesday night, Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra made their case for The Seasons (German title: Die Jahrezeiten) with a concert performance of the piece on the big stage at Carnegie Hall.

Concert Review: Treachery, Faith and the Great River

The Cleveland Orchestra sails into Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

White tie and tails: Franz Welser-Möst.
Photo by Michael Pöhn for IMG Artists

The River Danube flows through southeastern Europe for 1,780 miles, from its source in Germany down into the Black Sea. It has captured the imagination of composers for centuries, who have used its waters as the inspiration for their art. On Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra and its music director Franz Welser-Möst gave the first New York performance of Stromab by the young Austrian composer Johannes Maria Staud alongside the autumnal and always challenging Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler.

Concert Review: Revenge of the Nerds

Andrés Orozco-Estrada debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Talk to the hands: Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada
made his Cleveland Orchestra debut this week.
Photo by Werner Kmetitsch courtesy the artist's website.

Things are changing at Severance Hall, the staid Egyptian-inspired concert hall that squats, temple-like at the side of the lagoon in eastern Cleveland, Ohio. On Thursday night, the lobby of Severance was decorated with a bright neon and incandescent sign: the word NERDS blazing red and green, inviting concertgoers to take selfies with this work of pop art.

Concert Review: The Glittering Sound of Another Age

Jane Glover conducts the Cleveland Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor and period performance expert Jane Glover is in Cleveland playing
Mozart and Haydn. And Superconductor is there too. Photo © 2016 janeglover.co.uk

The Cleveland Orchestra is one of the finest and most unique ensembles in North America, playing all kinds of repertory with a professionalism and polish that evokes the legendary ensembles of central Europe. On Thursday evening, British conductor Jane Glover visited the orchestra in its home building of Severance Hall, leading a program of symphonies by Haydn and Mozart flanking a rare double concerto by the latter composer.

Concert Review: Sad Tales, Best for Winter

The Cleveland Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst led the Cleveland Orchestra on Sunday night at Carnegie Hall.
Photo by Steve J. Sherman © 2015 Carnegie Hall.

The arrival of the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Sunday coincided with the first brittle snow to land on New York this winter, a glittering and skittering fall that made the air sharp and cold and footing treacherous on the sidewalks. That made getting to the Hall that Music Built for Sunday evening's concert an effort. Those who made the trek were well rewarded by one of the most ambitious concert programs of this new year: a new work paired with Shostakovich's under-performed Symphony No. 4 in C minor.

Concert Review: The Private Lives of the Great Composers

Beethoven and Strauss at the Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dr. Richard Strauss at the piano in 1903.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

The concept of the "program symphony," where multiple movements tell some kind of coherent story or evoke a time and place originated with Ludwig van Beethoven and the Symphony No. 6, known as the Pastorale. On Friday night, the Cleveland Orchestra played the third of four concerts this week at the Lincoln Center Festival. Music director Franz Welser-Möst paired the Pastorale with the Symphonia Domestica, a stellar example of the genre written a century later by Richard Strauss.

Concert Review: The Birds are the Word

The Cleveland Orchestra plays Messiaen and Dvořák.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.
Photo by Stephanie Berger © 2015 Lincoln Center Festival.

At first glance, there is no existing connection between the music of French twentieth century mystic Olivier Messiaen and the nineteenth century Bohemian rhapsodies of Antonín Dvořák. But, as was so ably demonstrated Thursday night by the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of music director Franz Welser-Möst, the music of these two very different men has a number of common points.

Opera Review: It's Not Easy Bein' Green

The Cleveland Orchestra brings Daphne to Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst (right) conducts Regíne Hangler and Andreas Schager (left) in a scene from Daphne.
Photo by Stephanie Berger © 2015 Lincoln Center Festival.

In bringing the Cleveland Orchestra to play Daphne at the Lincoln Center Festival, conductor Franz Welser-Möst has declared his intention to one day restore this potent and moving Richard Strauss opera to the repertory. On Wednesday night, Mr. Welser-Möst may well have succeeded in getting the opera back on the radar of New Yorkers who may know Rosenkavalier and Salome but have ignored not to delve into the considerable riches of the later Strauss catalogue. In this performance Daphne proved to be  an engrossing, enchanting 100-minute opera, a feast for the ears and an unheralded example of this composer's fertile late style.

A Symphony Should Be Like the World

Some essential Mahler grooves.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gustav Mahler, out for a walk.

July 7 marked the 155th birthday of composer, conductor and former Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic music director Gustav Mahler. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Mahler is now revered as the father of the 20th century symphonist, a forward thinker whose death at the age of 50 robbed the world of his own unique, driven genius. In celebration of his birth here are my favorite recordings of each of the ten Mahler symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde, a symphony in all but name.

Concert Review: Don't Let Them Be Misunderstood

The Cleveland Orchestra returns to Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.
Photo by Stephanie Berger for the Cleveland Orchestra © 2008.

Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra have been absent from Lincoln Center since 2008 when they presented a five-day festival pairing the symphonies of Anton Bruckner with music by John Adams. On Monday night, conductor and orchestra returned to Lincoln Center for another combination of classical and modern composers: in this case Ludwig van Beethoven and Olivier Messiaen. This unusual, but effective pairing was a major concert of this year's White Light Festival, the performing arts center's annual Fall exploration of the numinous in the lively arts.

Festival Preview: De-Lux Aeterna

A look at Lincoln Center's month-long 2013 White Light Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anna Caterina Antonacci performs Era la Notte as part of the 2013 White Light Festival.
Photo by Magalie Bouchet © 2013 courtesy of Lincoln Center.

The White Light Festival has become the signature fall offering of Lincoln Center. Once again, New York's biggest performing arts center invites artists from all over the world and from different genres and disciplines to participate in an exploration of music, spirituality and the soul.

White Light 2012 was marred by the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. That devastating storm that destroyed and shut down whole swathes of New York. (The performances went off, but the minds of New Yorkers may have been on other things than spirituality and contemplation of the soul.) This year's Festival offers a promising slate of artists, and hopefully more clement weather. The month-long offering starts with a free performance on Oct. 24 (at the David Rubinstein Atrium) and continues through Nov. 19.

The Superconductor Interview: Out of the Wilderness

Contemporary composer Sean Shepherd is ahead of the curve.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mountain man: composer Sean Shepherd is inspired by the great outdoors.
Photo by Jamie Kingham. © 2013 SeanShepherd.com

The Spring of 2013 is a big season for Sean Shepherd. The Brooklyn-based composer, a fast-rising star in the field of contemporary concert music, has two premieres scheduled. On March 3, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble will play Quintet, a new chamber piece. On April 18 at Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, the Cleveland Orchestra will unveil Tuolumne, a triptych of tone poems based on the Yosemite photographs of Ansel Adams.

Concert Review: Countdown to Ecstasy

The Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Franz Welser-Möst (on the podium) leads the Cleveland Orchestra.

A visit to New York by the Cleveland Orchestra is always anticipated. On Tuesday night, Franz Welser-Möst and the orchestra that he has directed for 11 years offered Carnegie Hall listeners a program designed to challenge and expand their musical horizons, combining Beethoven with works by Alexander Scriabin and a New York premiere by  contemprary composer Matthias Pintscher.

The concert opened with Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. This sunny work was unusually somber in the hands of Mr. Welser-Möst. The conductor took an expansive approach to the first movement in a seeming effort to elevate the piece to a new level of Beethovenian heroism. The effect was to make this bucolic, energetic music strangely somber in tone, an interpretation that was bold and individual, but strange to the ear.

The slow second movement was more elegaic, with a tense, springing rhythm in the low strings from which the main theme slowly unwound. The brass and wind playing here was very fine, underlining Beethoven's rhythmic message. Mr. Welser-Möst found the Dionysian spirit in the second half of the work, in the famous, Haydn-esque minuet and the Mozartean last movement.