Director turnover at an area chorus isn’t necessarily big news. Our city has, at last count, a shit-ton of choruses, many of which are no strangers to administrative upheaval. The past few years haven’t been easy for The Maryland Chorus, The Washington Chorus, and Master Chorale, which saw liquidation, an acrimonious firing, and transition to [...]

Pianist Christopher O’Riley has been sneaking Radiohead into the classical music world for years. As host of NPR’s child-musician showcase From the Top, he gets to pick the music that gets played during station breaks. Rather than Chopin preludes, O’Riley would draw up piano transcriptions of pop songs, which he’d then play without preannouncing. It’s [...]

Fidelio is Beethoven’s only opera, so you’d think it would get performed more. But it doesn’t. The last time the National Symphony did it was 1970, though its rousing overtures periodically make it into Beethoven potpurri programs. So it’s a rare treat to see the whole thing at the Kennedy Center, if not fully staged, [...]

It’s too bad Korean cinema doesn’t get the attention it deserves, because every other cultural product coming out of South Korea gets way more attention than it deserves. Having already conquered the Asian market, K-pop has been making inroads in the U.S., winning over American audiences with its slickly produced, inanely catchy, and sexy-but-pre-teen-safe videos. So [...]

“This is my torture chamber,” says the namesake in Bluebeard’s Castle. “Your torture chamber is horrible!” exclaims Judith, his bride. Such is the libretto to Béla Bartók’s only opera. Its wooden dialogue and B-grade slasher plot would justifiably draw snickers were it actually staged. Thankfully, at the Kennedy Center this weekend, it isn’t: For an [...]

The Kennedy Center unveiled its 2012-2013 season today. The Book of Mormon is probably the most eagerly anticipated production—perhaps the timing of its D.C. debut is a harbinger for a President Romney?—but in terms of classical music, there are some other, non-Mormon performances worth considering.
Lang Lang, aka China’s Liberace or That Guy With the Hair, [...]

The first discrepancy you’ll notice in Jonathan Miller’s production of Così fan tutte, supposedly set in present-day D.C., is that nobody in D.C. dresses that well. Miller’s Washington is populated by strange, dapper creatures who wear waistcoats and match their socks to their ties, not GS-12 program officers in relaxed-fit khakis and lanyards. Flattering as [...]

Philip Glass’s vision of hell has Orpheus and Eurydice being grilled about their love life by judges holding tea cups. It looks a lot like marriage counseling.
This probably wasn’t the point Glass wanted to get across in Orphée, presented this weekend by the Virginia Opera at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts. Glass wrote [...]

At a time when early music is a hot ticket for chamber groups (in D.C., see Bach Sinfonia and Opera Lafayette), it’s nice to know there are ensembles that are as devoted to new music. Around here, no one is more devoted than the 21st Century Consort. Since its 1975 founding, the group has cherry-picked the [...]

Balls of steel. That must be what compels Opera Lafayette to stage an 18th century comic opera in its original French, then take it on the road to France, with a cast that doesn’t really speak French.
Opera Lafayette is a top-notch historical ensemble from D.C., specializing in baroque and classical operas performed with period instruments. [...]