Today’s issue (June 17) of the New York Times features their highlights of the year so far in the world of classical music and opera. The selection of recent productions and performances celebrates a handful of Wise Music Group composers and works which have caught the attention of the industry.
Innocence, Kaija Saariaho’s final opera arrived at the Met Opera in April, and is praised by author Joshua Barone for the magic trick accomplished by the score in maintaining the audience’s focus on the libretto whilst seamlessly guiding the traumatic story throughout. The multifaceted, award-winning opera continues to have a profound impact with each new presentation.
Ellen Reid’s Earth Between Oceans, a large-scale concert work for chorus and orchestra, also receives the seal of approval. The co-commission for the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics saw Gustavo Dudamel connect the two ensembles as he approaches the end of his tenure on the West Coast and the start of his time in the East. The rhythmic urgency of the work and its evocations of whole worlds within each season-based movement make the work a highlight of the season so far.
A collaboration between Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti, Vanessa opened at Heartbeat Opera in New York this Spring in a new, streamlined chamber arrangement by Dan Schlosberg with a production that brought the work’s “near-campy melodrama with expressionist shadow play, touches of noir and gripping immediacy” into the contemporary realm of the 2020s.
Back in February Opera Philadelphia premiered Complications in Sue, a new work with libretto by Michael R. Jackson and music by a selection of 10 independent composers all writing in isolation. Missy Mazzoli (scene 2) and Nico Muhly (scene 10) contributed as two of said composers to the great success of the risky project. Find out more about the work here.
Read the full article at the New York Times website.
