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. The recently released sequel, Death by Opera, takes place at Santa Fe Opera, and the next sequel is planned. Erica’s personal website is here.
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.
Music Director Ludovic Morlot, known for his intriguing programming, outdid himself with a summery breeze of a program that enchanted from beginning to end.
“Love, love, love… that is the soul of genius,” said Mozart. In no other work does he demonstrate this affirmation more compellingly than in his forever-beloved opera, Die Zauberflöte.
Debussy provided a scintillating introduction to Hilary Hahn’s glorious rendering of Bruch’s Violin Concerto no. 1 in G minor and Prokofiev’s fiery Fifth Symphony.
To open the new year, Seattle Symphony music director Ludovic Morlot chose a standard work, Beethoven’s Ninth, prefaced with an unusual one by French composer Olivier Messaien.
Sibelius' Violin Concerto remains one of the true tests for violinists, and was performed with great emotional depth in Seattle by young Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan.
