When the Romanian theater director Andrei Şerban produced Gounod’s Faust at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005, he took an opera that thrives on intimate encounters and recast it as non-stop spectacle, a wild carnival of excess and distraction. It was a striking contrast to his quarter-century old production of Puccini’s Turandot, which turned one [...]
May 17, 2009
Bach on the Harp
Some people hear music through the strangest of portals. There are opera lovers who love only one voice, and they will love any music that voice sings. And there are orchestra fanatics who can’t abide solo recitals or chamber music or–heaven forbid–an evening at the opera. But the oddest of these single-minded creatures are [...]
