opera

Metropolitan Opera unions say they are being forced to strike

July 18, 2014 By Mark Gruenberg

Deep salary cut demands, which its unions say are unjustified, and a company threat to close down are combining to force members of the 16 unions to plan to strike, if necessary.

Thaïs: Religion versus sexuality on an epic scale

May 30, 2014 By Ed Rampell

Jules Massenet's Thaïs is a tale of religion and sexual repression, with baritone Plácido Domingo as Athanaël, a meddler of epic proportions, masquerading as a monk to hide his inner psychological conflicts.

“The Death of Klinghoffer”: controversial history in opera

April 4, 2014 By Ed Rampell

Composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman specialize in expressing 20th century historical events in opera The rarely staged Death is the most controversial, dogged by criticism and cancellations.

“Billy Budd”: sex, revolution and sea in jaw-dropping opera

March 4, 2014 By Ed Rampell

In 1888 Herman Melville began the philosophical novella Billy Budd. Perhaps one could say that composer Benjamin Britten and his librettists E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier "completed" it with their adaptation.

Go see Duke Ellington’s sweet, tangy “Queenie Pie”

February 14, 2014 By Eric A. Gordon

Ellington was one of the most versatile figures in music of the 20th century, but most people do not know that from the 1930s on, Ellington worked intermittently, all the way up to his death in...