As a Metropolitan Opera violinist Erica performed with James Levine, Leonard Bernstein and countless opera luminaries. Now an award-winning author, screenwriter and lecturer, Erica’s opera presentations include Wagner Societies in California, New York and Boston. Her thriller novel Murder in the Pit, the first in her ‘Operatic Mystery’ series, authentically reflects her experiences in the Met Orchestra. Her latest novel, Staged for Murder, was recently released. Erica’s personal website is here.
The Seattle Symphony continues its “Music Unleashed” series with spirited works by youthful composers, focusing on a perennially popular violin concerto.
A look at the succès de scandale that was Strauss first operatic hit, Salome, placing it in the context of his early tone poems Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration.
Composer Daniel Schnyder and librettist Bridgette A. Wimberly, both in their Seattle Opera debuts, have done a creditable job of conveying the jazz artist’s lifework.
Seattle audiences welcomed Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison to Benaroya Hall this past weekend with the west coast premiere of his work, What Do We Make of Bach? for orchestra and obbligato organ.
In yet another intriguing programming maneuver, Seattle Symphony music director Ludovic Morlot devoted this weekend’s performances to the subject of heroism.
If Principal Guest Conductor and Music Director Designate Thomas Dausgaard wore his array of conducting posts as a series of medals on the lapel of his tux, it would weigh him down considerably.
“Leave your hoop skirts and swords at home,” the audience was advised, in order to avoid overcrowding when Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin in 1742.
Both of these works are united in their depiction of love gained and lost, and embodied Berlioz’s take on love and music, which the composer called, “the two wings of the soul”.
The Seattle Symphony, under the outstanding leadership of guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, overcame the absence of their maestro and gave a worthy reading of the monumental work.
