Spring wildflowers remain, despite onset of June Gloom
Look for paintbrush, purple nightshade, coreopsis, sea fig, popcorn flower, and red monkey flower
noon, May 28
Classical Music
Reviews and previews of classical music performances and players. For a list of upcoming classical performances, visit our events section.
The Mainly Mozart is coming
I take my annual ride from borough to borough
Round about this time of year I begin to feel like a musical Paul Revere. Instead of riding from town to town shouting, “The redcoats are coming! The redcoats are coming!” I begin posting from ...
San Diego Symphony on Saturday night — the best concert ever
Yes. I’m going to go with that.
Well, I guess the May 20th concert by the San Diego Symphony was the best one I’ve heard them perform. Yes. I’m going to go with that. Charles Dutoit conducted the living fire out of ...
One-sided conversation at San Diego Symphony
Schumann’s themes tend to stick in the ear
Every concert is a conversation between the performers and the audience regarding a particular composer. This conversation isn’t quite fair, because the audience always has the last word. The audience’s response is the final verdict ...
I see your agenda
Concepts versus emotions in the arts and advertising
I recalled that graphic art and commercial art or logo design attempts to create a visual representation of an idea or a concept. This is why commercial art or corporate sculptures most often feel as ...
Time to take out the Eurotrash
A German part-time orchestra is attempting to improve US/Mexico border relations.
There is a practice in classical music which I find to be somewhat disingenuous. That practice is overtly politicized concertizing. As I've written in the past, almost every great opera has a political edge but ...
Ok, Gustav, I feel you
Some great singing and a map of consciousness from the San Diego Symphony
Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 has always been a riddle to my ears. The maniacal quality of the woodwinds in the first movement has barred my way to this music in the past. Imagine our old ...
Thug life — Mahler's 3rd @SanDiegoSymph
I want classical music to be accessible, but I also want people to suck less
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 is going down at the San Diego Symphony starting Friday, May 5th, 8:00 p.m, plus performances Saturday night (8:00) and Sunday afternoon (2:00). This is a biggie. How does one ...
PONY rides a new vision for live classical music
Movies, lights, but where is the social media presence?
Well, well, well. It looks as though an orchestra is making a serious effort to fling itself into the not so new century. The Philharmonia Orchestra of New York — which calls itself PONY — ...
Verdi is a deceptive bastard
SDO's La Traviata both solid and uneven
The value of a solid production is somewhat undervalued by the experienced opera aficionado. If you’re around opera long enough then you will have a handful of peak experiences by which you judge every other ...
La Traviata's cheap trick
Wait, I'm better. No, I'm not. The end.
Since La Traviata opened at San Diego Opera on Saturday, April 22, I’m going to use it as an excuse to float a theory about the final lines of the opera. Just before Violetta dies ...
Young singers still love opera
Audiences decline, but students keep studying voice
The challenges facing young singers are becoming ridiculous. The art form is in transition, but thousands of students continue to study the art of operatic singing. Why? Why does opera continue to resonate with a ...
Point Loma Opera Theatre's radio operetta
Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief is cheeky, clever, and sometimes funny
Having gone on an unscheduled rant about opera and higher education let us return to the performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief by Point Loma Opera Theatre. Director, Jordan Miller, ...
A room with a view of ignorance
How many students graduate with no idea what opera is?
The Old Maid and the Thief by Gian Carlo Menotti was originally written for radio broadcast and has now become a staple of opera workshops at colleges and universities across the country. Point Loma Nazarene ...
Elijah could have ended the drought
Mendelssohn's Elijah at First United Methodist Mission Valley
Where was Elijah when we needed him? I would say dead, but Elijah never died. He was taken up to heaven in a “fiery chariot” — ancient aliens. Why did we need Elijah? We needed ...
San Diego Symphony season revealed
The 2017–2018 season at San Diego Symphony
The 2017–2018 Jacobs Masterworks series has been announced by the San Diego Symphony. What wasn’t announced was a new music director. Neither was there any indication of a time table for finding a new director. ...
