Laura Genero served 20 years in senior government positions, including Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, and spokesman for the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
This season, the Metropolitan Opera has attracted a lot of attention with edgy productions of controversial modern operas like Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. But those nostalgic for the old Met—productions with sumptuous period sets, real ballet, and recognizable hit tunes—will find some relief in the Metropolitan Opera’s current […]
This week, the Metropolitan Opera revived Graham Vick’s production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the 1934 opera that infuriated Stalin, and nearly cost the composer his livelihood and his sanity. The opera is a dark tragic-comedy, about a bored and brutalized housewife who murders her father-in-law with rat poison, and strangles […]
With exquisitely bad timing, and amid furious protests, this week the Metropolitan Opera premiered a new version of John Adams’ controversial opera, The Death of Klinghoffer. The opera focuses on the 1985 murder of a disabled American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, by Palestinian terrorists during the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. Klinghoffer was shot […]
For the past 25 years, the Bard Summer Music Festival has offered classical music lovers a unique way to spend summer vacations: two weekends in August packed with concerts and lectures focused on the life and work of one composer. This year, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Bard staged a Schubert Olympiad, featuring 17 concerts […]
Once again, the Bard Summer Music Festival has lived up to its reputation for giving classical music lovers a chance to hear lesser known or underperformed gems of the operatic repertory. This summer it has taken on one of German romantic opera’s most controversial masterpieces—Carl Maria von Weber’s Euryanthe (1823). In introducing the work to […]
Just in time for the Sochi Olympics, the Metropolitan Opera has premiered a new version of Alexander Borodin’s sweeping historical opera, Prince Igor. Based on a medieval Russian poem about a military campaign against hostile tribes from the Steppes, it is one of Russia’s most popular operas. Despite a ravishing score, it is infrequently performed […]
British impresario Matthew Bourne brought his dance juggernaut, New Adventures, to our nation’s capital this past week with Sleeping Beauty, one of his latest attempts to rework classic ballets for contemporary audiences. The company is touring the U.S. and, leaving aside what the marketing tell us, the first thing to understand about Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is this: it is not a […]
The Washington National Opera is celebrating Verdi’s 200th birthday with a glitzy new production of the composer’s La Forza del Destino, conceived and directed by the company’s new artistic director, Francesca Zambello. On opening night, the first tip-off that this was going to be an unconventional production was the main curtain, which featured a giant […]
The Metropolitan Opera opened its new season on Monday night with a star studded production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, which was enlivened by a spicy cocktail of celebrities, politics, and protesters. At times, there seemed to be more drama off stage, than on it. Met opening nights are now red carpet events, attracting actors, celebrities, […]
After a few weeks of summer, the usual diversions — beach, theme parks, sight-seeing — begin to wear thin. For those looking for a different kind of adventure, here’s another idea. Try the Bard Music Festival, located on the college’s beautiful campus overlooking the Hudson River in upstate New York. Currently in its 24th year, […]
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