Simon is a writer based in Washington DC with a background in English literature and theatre. A lapsed pianist, Simon is a graduate of Harvard College, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Particular interests include piano, opera and Stephen Sondheim.
In program notes, Christoph Eschenbach, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, calls Parsifal “the culmination of Wagner’s work”. For his orchestra’s recent celebration of Wagner’s bicentennial at the Kennedy Center, Eschenbach programmed a concert performance of Act III of the composer’s final opera: the culmination of the culmination, one could say.
The arrival of Show Boat at the Washington National Opera this month, after stops in Chicago and Houston, has provoked a certain amount of consternation in operatic circles.
The title role of Bellini’s Norma is one of the most challenging roles in the female repertory. It has been called the most profound portrayal of womanhood in all of opera. It demands a dramatic coloratura soprano with immense vocal power, rare agility, a wide dynamic range, a broad palette of vocal coloration, and instinctive theatricality.
It’s Richard Wagner’s bicentennial year, and everyone is getting in on the act. 22 different productions, by one count, of the complete Ring cycle will be seen worldwide, not to mention countless other celebratory evenings put on by sundry ensembles.
For pianist Jeremy Denk, Ligeti’s Études have been a kind of musical calling card. On tour, he has paired the Hungarian composer’s revolutionary studies in virtuosic pianism with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, while Denk’s latest recording presents Books I and II of the Études as bookends to Beethoven’s final piano sonata.
Gloria Cheng is an uncommon artist. A specialist in contemporary piano literature, she has made a career championing new music and performing programs of adventurous (which is to say, esoteric) works. She is a frequent collaborator with some of the leading lights of contemporary music, including Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Before embarking on a much hyped tour of South America, Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra concluded their Kennedy Center season with a crowd-pleasing program of Romantic favorites.
