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Alexandra Ivanoff

Alexandra Ivanoff

Alexandra Ivanoff is an American journalist who, after singing for five seasons with the San Francisco Opera, lived for eight years in Istanbul, where she began her career as a music journalist with Time Out magazine and Today's Zaman newspaper in that city. After one year in Berlin and now in Budapest, she reviews from various cities and festivals in Europe, as well as Istanbul, New York, and Los Angeles. She has degrees in music from the Eastman School of Music in NY and Yale University Graduate School of Music.

Author:Alexandra Ivanoff

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Hungarian State Opera's slow-motion The Queen of Sheba verges on La Sonnambula

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 18 May 2017

The score of Goldmark's opera is filled with lovely orchestral surprises, in addition to stunning arias, but is often filled with an abundance of slow tempos.

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Hungarian State Opera's slow-motion The Queen of Sheba

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Péter Eötvös' Love and other demons: music for martyrs in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 27 January 2017

The Hungarian State Opera offered up a belated Hungarian première by one of its native sons, Péter Eötvös – his 2007 opera Love and Other Demons.

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Péter Eötvös: music for martyrs in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Pietari Inkinen’s finely-wrought Russian landscapes poke history’s ribs

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 13 January 2017

A pair of Soviet Cold War classics featured in Pietari Inkinen's Budapest debut at Müpa.

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Inkinen’s finely-wrought Russian landscapes

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Camille Saint-Saëns: Várdai and Vigh unveil musical treasures in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 14 December 2016

István Várdai delivers a knockout punch in Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto no. 1 at the Franz Liszt Music Academy.

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Várdai and Vigh unveil musical treasures in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Znaniecki's directorial success in Budapest: Kodály’s The Spinning Room

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 01 October 2016

Polish opera director Michał Znaniecki created a new version of Zoltán Kodály’s 1927 The Spinning Room, a short one-act which is basically a collection of 21 Hungarian folksongs that Kodály had selected from the Székely region.

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Znaniecki's directorial success in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Paris Impressions: Fischer and Feng’s foray into French repertoire in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 23 September 2016

A master at clever programming, Maestro Iván Fischer surrounded Dutilleux with well-known pieces by Debussy, Ravel and Satie as part of the week-long French Days segment of the Bridging Europe 2016 series at Budapest’s Müpa.

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Paris Impressions: French repertoire in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Jerusalem's International Chamber Music Festival: secret lair of great pianists

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 03 September 2016

Where does one go to hear some of the world’s greatest pianists? To Jerusalem. More specifically, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the annual ten-day musical delight in the Holy City in early September.

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Jerusalem's International Chamber Music Festival

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Newly-minted Festival Academy Budapest debuts first edition with feisty fare

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 24 July 2016

Playing repeatedly in my mind as I walked home on 24 July was the spine-chilling orchestral performance of the "Dance of the Knights" from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet in the Franz Liszt Academy’s superb Solti Hall.

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Newly-minted Festival Academy Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Kagel’s Trios foretell the future of “Terra Nova” at Lockenhaus

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 14 July 2016

Kagel's startlingly vivid piano trios proved this composer is worthy of a lovingly curated retrospective.

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Kagel Trios at "Terra Nova", Lockenhaus

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Whimsical Tempest takes Budapest by storm

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 21 May 2016

Hungarian State Opera mount a successful première of Thomas Adès's take on Shakespeare, with the show stolen by Laure Meloy's Ariel.

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Whimsical Tempest takes Budapest by storm

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Kálmán’s The Duchess of Chicago beguiles Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 23 April 2016

This exhilarating remake of Kálmán's 1928 operetta gem is worth booking a trip to Budapest to catch it.

*****

Kálmán’s The Duchess of Chicago beguiles Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

17th-century L'Orontea in Budapest goes millennial

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 17 April 2016

Opera director András Almási-Toth’s whimsical updating of an early Baroque opera by Antonio Cesti switches the composer’s L'Orontea from 1656 to 2016.

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17th-century L'Orontea in Budapest goes millennial

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Budapest Spring Festival opens with rapturous rendition of Bartók’s Viola Concerto

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 08 April 2016

Julian Rachlin steps in at the last moment and scores a win on a winning score.

*****

Budapest Spring Festival opens with rapturous rendition of Bartók

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Dohnányi’s Der Tenor a star vehicle for Attila Fekete in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 27 February 2016

Hungarian composer Dohnányi's fourth and last opera is a comic delight, especially in the hands of the team at the Budapest Opera.

*****

Dohnányi’s Der Tenor a star vehicle for Attila Fekete

By Alexandra Ivanoff

An Aida in Budapest that could be re-named Amneris

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 27 February 2016

Known for her powerful interpretations of the blockbuster Italian mezzo roles, the great Hungarian diva Ildikó Komlósi dominates the new production of Aida in Budapest.

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An Aida in Budapest that could be re-named Amneris

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Budapest rolls out the red carpet for Kurtág on his 90th

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 19 February 2016

Budapest rolled out the red carpet for its legendary composer György Kurtág, who, amidst a celebratory week, was the honoree at his splendid 90th birthday concert.

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Budapest rolls out the red carpet for Kurtág

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Sparkling Mitteleuropa fare with Enescu, Vajda and Dvořák in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 03 February 2016

Composer-conductor Gregory Vajda’s Clarinet Symphony glows with extraterrestrial timpani and two clarinets in its world première.m

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Sparkling Mitteleuropa fare with Enescu, Vajda and Dvořák in Budapest

By Alexandra Ivanoff

New York’s SONIC festival breaks sound barriers

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 20 October 2015

Held from 15-23 October, SONIC programmed works by over 80 young composers, presenting their works in 11 venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

New York’s SONIC festival breaks sound barriers

By Alexandra Ivanoff

A benevolent shepherd for young singers: Istanbul’s Leyla Gencer Competition

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 11 September 2015

In the wide world of impersonal, take-a-number singing competitions, Istanbul’s Leyla Gencer Voice Competition stands out for its unusual TLC of young singers. And its generous selection of prizes.

A benevolent shepherd for young singers

By Alexandra Ivanoff

Destination Lockenhaus: mecca for lesser-known musical gems

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 09 July 2015

Discovering Enescu through the lens of his folkloric genes was the beginning of the musical adventure that awaits listeners in the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria.

Destination Lockenhaus: mecca for lesser-known musical gems

By Alexandra Ivanoff