"Your Mind is Blank and Empty"

Or: how to review a performance of a piece you've heard too many times.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

No that is not my head. I have hair.

When you leave off the inherent challenges in being  compensated for one's creative work, the lot of the professional classical music and/or opera critic is a pretty good one. We get to hear a lot of performances, of operatic and orchestral masterpieces that have survived into the fairly small club that is known as "the repertory." Occasionally we experience delicious rarities, epicure works by composers that we've heard of but have never seen played live. And finally, we occasionally get to hear and write about something new and genuinely innovative.

On Crossing Barriers and Finding Escapes

Reflecting on ten years of Superconductor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The office.

Tonight, Monday night. I was walking across Lincoln Center Plaza on route to the Metropolitan Opera to go see second performance of The Exterminating Angel, the new opera by Thomas Àdes.
This is the story of a group of wealthy individuals who find themselves trapped in a particular living space after a very strange dinner party. It got me thinking about the original purpose of this blog and how Superconductor started at now however ten years into existence where the blog maybe going.

Allan Kozinn Demoted at The New York Times

Veteran Times critic to become "cultural reporter."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

New York Times writer Allan Kozinn. Photo from his Facebook page.

In a fast-breaking story on Norman Lebrecht's blog Slipped Disc, it appears that respected New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn has been "demoted" to the post of "cultural reporter."

Full details are available on Mr. Lebrecht's site.