A performer dubbed “the Irish Michael Bublé” — you’re already intrigued, aren’t you? — Nathan Carter is only 26, but in his native country he is a very big deal. He’s already produced three albums and two singles that have topped Irish charts. But while he is a star in Ireland, he’s an unknown quantity […]
David Raymond
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THEATER | ‘Wild Horses’
“We weren’t freedom fighters, we were freedom takers” is the tagline for Allison Gregory’s new play “Wild Horses,” a funny, emotional play about an adult woman reflecting on a teenage summer, how it changed her, and how it affected her search for identity and independence. “Wild Horses” was produced this summer at the Contemporary American […]
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Itzhak Perlman returns to Rochester for a cinema serenade
Itzhak Perlman’s appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, which date back to 1970, have included the great works of the concerto repertoire, like Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, Bartók, Tchaikovsky. This week, Perlman will return to the RPO — performing for the first time with Music Director Ward Stare — in a program of a different kind […]
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OPERA | ‘Tosca’
A melodrama with plenty of melodies and plenty of drama — that’s Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca,” which has been packing audiences in since 1900. Puccini’s operatic adaptation of a once-famous play by Victorien Sardou is full of romance, politics, and mayhem. The role of Floria Tosca has been the tempestuous diva vehicle of choice for star […]
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Pegasus Early Music stages its first opera, ‘Dido and Aeneas’
In the world of opera, good things often come in large, gaudily wrapped packages. Pegasus Early Music this weekend hopes to prove that small is good, operatically speaking, with a production of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas.” The opera will run this Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Jewish Community Center’s Hart Theater. “It’s been […]
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CLASSICAL | ‘When Love Goes Wrong’
The Finger Lakes Choral Festival is best-known for its summertime presentations of choral blockbusters, like the Berlioz and Verdi Requiems. The chorus, and its imaginative director Adrian Horn, will present something a bit different for their 2017 summer concert this Sunday at Hochstein Performance Hall. “When Love Goes Wrong” is a bouquet of fervent scenes devoted to […]
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CLASSICAL | LakeMusic Festival
Canandaigua’s LakeMusic Chamber Music Festival, around since 2005, gets more ambitious and more interesting each year. This summer’s featured performer is the Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, who has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center as well as in many festivals and with many orchestras. The LakeMusic Festival is […]
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CLASSICAL | Water Music NY
In July 1717, George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music” was given its first performance on boats traveling London’s Thames River. A century later, on July 4, 1817, construction began in Rome, New York, on the Erie Canal. This summer New York State is celebrating both events in a creative way: Water Music NY, a seven-day event […]
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CLASSICAL | RPO Around the Town
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra may perform less frequently during the summer, but it still gets around. In addition to summer concerts with the full orchestra (many of them conducted by Ward Stare), for four weeks starting next Tuesday, the City of Rochester will present RPO musicians in hour-long Around the Town ensemble concerts throughout the […]
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VOCAL | “Pure Imagination”
The Rochester Women’s Community Chorus has been part of the local choral scene for nearly 40 years, performing a wide variety of music from many genres, cultures, and traditions, from spirituals to Broadway and contemporary choral numbers with messages of peace, inclusion, and social equality. The group even has a signature song, “What’s Keeping You […]
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The RPO’s 2016-17 season in review
CITY’s classical music critics recap the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2016-17 season
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THEATER | ‘The Belle of Amherst’
“Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne’er succeed,” wrote Emily Dickinson in an early poem. Among the more successful interpretations of the enigmatic life, work, and personality of this great American poet is William Luce’s 1976 play “The Belle of Amherst,” which won a Tony Award for its star, the late Julie Harris. A 1990 […]
