Category: music
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Le Quatorze Juillet
My favorite moderate revolutionary, if that is not too oxymoronic a concept, is André Chénier, widely considered the greatest French poet of the 18th century. Chénier was a constitutional monarchist, a middle of the road position, but his satirical verses, attacking and ridiculing extremists on both sides, were scorching, and he…
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Wagner’s Imaginary Friends
This isn’t exactly a happy-birthday post, since Wagner, by all accounts, was a first-rate jerk, and anyway, he’s been dead for nearly a century and a half. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a grand old time celebrating the products of his genius.
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Viva el Cinco de Mayo
Feliz Cinco de Mayo, everybody! If you look up the holiday on the internet, you’ll find a lot of know-it-alls telling you that everything you think you know about it is wrong. It’s not Mexico’s Independence Day; according to The Washington Post, “Instead, it refers to a famous military victory…
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Dreaming of Spring
The theme of spring has inspired countless compositions, some of them as bright and joyful as blossoms and birdsong, some as prone to disillusionment as the average weather forecast.
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Good Friday Spell
The Good Friday paradox is one aspect of Christianity (possibly the only one) that Wagner gets right.
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The Irish Tenor
The sound this honorary Irishman’s soul longs for on St. Patrick’s Day is the inimitable, ineffable, indelible voice of John McCormack.
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Black Voices Matter: The Spirituals
Black History Month is over, but my ears are still ringing with the sound of the great Black voices that have enriched our American musical heritage. In researching those voices, I was struck by how many of them began their vocal journeys in churches and gospel choirs, and how many…
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La Forza della Davidsen
If you are a lover of the human voice — or even if you’re not yet a lover of the human voice but would like to become one — run, don’t walk, to the Metropolitan Opera House to hear Lise Davidsen in La Forza del Destino. If you’re a lover…
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Black Voices Matter, Pt. 4: The Lower Echelons
The first black man to sing a leading role on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera was baritone Robert McFerrin. (Yes, folks, he is related to the Bobby McFerrin of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy Fame” — and to the indie singer/songwriter Madison McFerrin, both of whom you can explore on…
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Black Voices Matter, Pt. 2 1/2: More Mezzos
Hilda Harris, a lyric mezzo from Warrenton, North Carolina, began her career as a recording-studio backup singer for the likes of Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack and juggled classical voice lessons with appearances on Broadway, including 110 in the Shade and Golden Boy. Her opera debut as Cherubino…
Louise T. Guinther 