Posts by Ken Herman
SummerFest’s Sublime Spiritual Journey
Saturday’s La Jolla SummerFest program, “Songs of Heaven and Earth,” clustered major sacred works by J.S. Bach, Olivier Messaien and Gustav Mahler, a combination of composers I cannot recall appearing together on a previous SummerFest program, Both the musical progression and the spiritual journey proved unusually compelling.
Read MoreSummerFest Boldly Mixes George Crumb and Maurice Ravel with Rachmaninoff on Sunday’s Program
Sunday afternoon, SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan matched Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s virtuoso, arch-Romantic Sonata in G Minor for Piano and Cello, Op. 19, with George Crumb’s rarely performed 1971 “Vox Balaenae” (“Voice of the Whale”) for amplified flute, cello and piano, and Maurice Ravel’s “Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.”
Read MoreOpera NEO Festival’s Opening ‘La Cenerentola’ Glows in the Golden Triangle
San Diego’s Opera NEO opened its 2019 summer festival slate of operas on Friday, August 3, with a commanding production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola in the Four Flowers Theater at La Jolla Country Day School.
Read MoreOpera NEO’s Captivating Cabaret in Encinitas
Opera NEO presented Cabaret at the Encinitas Library on July 26 & 27, 2019, featuring some 30 young, promising opera singers in short scenes from grand opera to operetta to musical theater.
Read MoreSan Diego Pro Arte Voices in Concert: Serious Yet Sublime
The San Diego Pro Arte Voices under the musical direction of Patrick Walders opened its seventh season Friday offering a dependable array of off-the-beathen-path, sophisticated repertory sung with precision and verve
Read MoreOpera NEO’s Annual Aria Avalanche Buries Allied Gardens in Operatic Glory
We know that the Opera NEO Summer Workshop and Festival is truly under way when Artistic Director Peter Kozma stages his annual Aria Marathon. Sunday, July 14, each of the 28 singers from this year’s festival offered their favorite aria, accompanied by the accomplished festival staff pianists, at Palisades Presbyterian Church in Allied Gardens.
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