Love triangles are not rare in opera, but Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” — performed this week by Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra — presents a love rectangle.
David Raymond
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OPERA | ‘Così fan tutte’
Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” is the latest in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual concert opera performances, and a somewhat unusual choice to follow crowd-pleasers like “Carmen” and “La bohème.” The plot of “Così,” in which two sisters develop surprising affections for each other’s fiancés, was long considered morally distasteful. One translation of the title is […]
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OPERA | ‘Acis and Galatea’
For a couple of centuries, George Frideric Handel’s operas were virtually unknown, gathering dust in libraries — with one exception. The short but sweet “pastoral entertainment” called “Acis and Galatea” remained popular throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Pegasus Early Music winds up its season this Sunday afternoon with a semi-staged performance of this […]
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Theater review: ‘Hamilton’
One of the most exciting things about “Hamilton” is how it fits into the history of American musicals while drawing it forward. Lin-Manuel Miranda skillfully combines hip-hop and Broadway in this show, which seems to exist simultaneously in Colonial America and right now.
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CLASSICAL | RPO with Michael Francis and Yekwon Sunwoo
This week the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra offers a great, well-known piano concerto and a great, lesser-known symphony: not a bad deal. You may remember the 1996 movie about pianist David Helfgott,”Shine,” in which he battles through Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto — one of the virtuosic bruisers of the repertoire. Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medalist Yekwon Sunwoo […]
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CLASSICAL | Pegasus Early Music presents Bedlam
Renaissance lute songs may only call for one singer and one lute, but they cover the gamut of human experience: love, lust, religion, and everything in between. Lute songs are Bedlam’s specialty, and Pegasus Early Music presents this acclaimed, Eastman-trained duo — soprano Kayleen Sánchez and lutenist Laudon Schuett — this weekend in a program […]
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CLASSICAL | Rochester Oratorio Society presents ‘The Peacemakers’
The Rochester Oratorio Society’s next concert definitely qualifies as “an event”: Karl Jenkins’ “The Peacemakers,” an epic, 73-minute multimedia choral work first performed in 2012. The texts include excerpts from such great advocates for peace as Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela, and the music draws on a number of international influences and […]
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CLASSICAL | Publick Musick’s ‘Neapolitan Delights’
In the recent past, Publick Musick has taken us to 17th- and 18th-century Paris, Salzburg, and Leipzig. This weekend, the destination is Naples. Publick Musick uncovers a few “Neapolitan Delights” from imaginative Baroque-era composers, with guest soprano Yetzabel Arias Fernandez and recorder player Eloy Cortinez. Fernandez is featured in the cantata “Bella madre dei fiori” […]
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CLASSICAL | Madrigalia
Madrigalia is not a very large choir, but it’s an accomplished one, and its sound can easily fill a large space. That’s exactly what it will be doing in three different local churches in a program called “Music for Large Spaces” this weekend: Pittsford’s St. Louis Church; Church of the Incarnate Word, downtown; and Chili’s […]
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Classical review: RPO performs ‘Mahler 7’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra last performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in 1982. RPO Music Director Ward Stare is bringing Mahler’s Seventh Symphony back this week and Stare and the orchestra are doing a bang-up job with this huge, difficult work.
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Ward Stare leads RPO in Mahler, Shostakovich symphonies
Ward Stare returns to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra next week with two ambitious programs: On February 28 and March 2, he’ll essay Mahler’s enormous Symphony No. 7, and on March 7 and 9, he’ll highlight another 20th-century masterpiece, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10.
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CLASSICAL | Pegasus Early Music
According to Pegasus Early Music director Deborah Fox, a “fandango” is not just a Spanish dance, it’s also a party. That’s her hope in presenting this week’s Pegasus concert of the same name, a miscellany of song and dance from Baroque-era Spain and from its New World colonies, including Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico. One […]
