Zachary Woolfe
Posts
At Bayreuth, the Work on Wagner’s Operas Is Never Done
At the festival that Wagner founded, a new “Parsifal” looks different depending on how you see it, and a workshop model refreshes revivals.
Has Scott Joplin’s ‘Thoroughly American’ Opera ‘Treemonisha’ Found Its Moment?
“Treemonisha” — brilliant, flawed and unfinished — is ripe for creative reimagining at a time when opera houses are looking to diversify the canon.
Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ at the Bayreuth Festival Experiments With AR
Cutting-edge technology has again come to the Bayreuth Festival, where Wagner premiered his final opera with the latest stagecraft in 1882.
‘Henri VIII’ Review: An Operatic Rarity
Saint-Saëns’s 1883 work is seldom performed today, but it is being well staged and excitingly sung at Bard College.
Review: Ted Hearne’s ‘Farming’ Is a Sweet, Sad American Elegy
“Farming,” a choral work that had its New York premiere at Caramoor, is a chaotically ambitious reflection on colonization, consumption and marketing.
Inside the Shed’s Sonic Sphere
A hanging concert hall at the Shed in Manhattan purports to offer something “experimental, experiential and communal.” Our critic climbs the stairs.
Review: A Composer’s ‘Lear’ Freshens a Shakespeare Evening
The Met Orchestra’s season-ending concert at Carnegie Hall featured the premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s “Heath (‘King Lear’ Sketches).”
For Riccardo Muti, a Grand Sort-of-Finale in Chicago
The eminent maestro is ending an acclaimed 13-year run at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But with his successor not yet named, he’s sticking around.
It’s the End of an Era at the Metropolitan Opera
As the 2022-23 season ends, the country’s largest performing arts institution looks ahead to a future of fewer titles.
The New York Philharmonic’s Season of Mixed Boons
The orchestra’s renovated hall and Gustavo Dudamel, its next leader, have kept ticket sales robust, but cool acoustics curb the music’s impact.