Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise

Schoenberg at 150

 

Some twenty concerts are happening on the great man's birthday, according to the Schoenberg 150 website. Included are no fewer than four performances of Gurre-Lieder — in Montreal, Vienna, Milan, and Hamburg. (I'm now watching on an Elbphilharmonie stream of the last.) Especially notable is a pair of Schoenberg events at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine. The only American celebration listed at Schoenberg 150 is one at the Westside Conservatory in Los Angeles. Schoenberg's son Larry will be speaking, and Viennese pastries will be served. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

At the grave of George Mackay Brown

Stenness

A Mozart moment

A Murnau moment

From Der letzte Mann, 1924.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

Photo: Dmitrij Leltschuk.

The Cellist of Auschwitz, New Yorker website, Aug. 9, 2024.

Yuval Sharon to direct the Ring at the Met

The Met announced today that Yuval Sharon, the hugely inventive director of Hopscotch and various other theatrical wonders, will be in charge of the company's next production of Wagner's Ring. The first installment of the staging will appear in the 2027-28 season; the cycle will be presented complete in the spring of 2030. Lise Davidsen is slated to sing Brünnhilde, in her role début. This will come in the wake of Sharon's production of Tristan in the 2025-26 season, also featuring Davidsen. Given Sharon's thorough knowledge of Wagner – he has directed Lohengrin at Bayreuth, Die Walküre in Karlsruhe, and Götterdämmerung in Detroit — this Ring promises to be something quite different from the dramatically inert and intellectually vacant version that Robert Lepage inflicted on the Met some years back. Sharon develops his theatrical philosophy in his forthcoming book A New Philosophy of Opera.

Press releases are of no general significance, but it's worth noting that Met made the announcement in a rather curious fashion. The headline is about a contract extension for Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the company's music director; the Sharon Ring is mentioned in a sub-headline. "The extension encompasses a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle," it is stated — an actively bizarre way of framing the biggest project any opera house can undertake. Only two short paragraphs are devoted to Sharon; the rest consists of hype of Nézet-Séguin's activities. Davidsen is not quoted. Perhaps Nézet-Séguin will be singing all the other parts as well as conducting.

Carolina Uccelli's Anna di Resburgo

After Long Silence. The New Yorker, Aug. 12, 2024.

Das Fest des Nosferatu

Alas, no footage seems to exist of Ernst Lubitsch dancing at the Nosferatu Ball, which followed the unveiling of F. W. Murnau's vampire masterpiece.

Des Moines Metro Opera

Forbidden Desires. The New Yorker, Aug. 5, 2024.