Giacomo Puccini

Latest Articles

Ye gods!

BLO’s Idomeneo, BU’s Susannah, Garfein’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Zander’s Stravinsky, and Pollini’s Chopin
Much beautiful music turns up in the 18th-century operatic form that’s probably most alien to a modern audience.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 28, 2010

In the swim

Guerilla Opera, von Stade’s farewell, the BSO, Handel and Haydn, the BPO, and that Tosca
My head’s swimming.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 14, 2009

Terpsichore's delight

A season of foot (and body) work
There's no end to variety to the fall's dance season, from a Boston Ballet classic to Hawaiian hula and "extreme action" acrobatics.
By DEBRA CASH | September 14, 2009

Play by play: July 24, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 22, 2009

Play by play: July 17, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 15, 2009

Play by play: July 10, 2009

Plays from A to Z
This week in Boston theater
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 08, 2009

Divine operas

USM shows off two Puccini one-acts
USM shows off two Puccini one-acts
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | March 18, 2009

Anniversaries and other occasions

Masur's Mendelssohn, Orfeos from Norrington and Levine, the Discovery Ensemble, and the Inauguration 'performance'
Anniversaries, however fabricated, can still be useful. This year commemorates the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, the 150th birthday of Victor Herbert (both recently celebrated with intensive "orgies" on WHRB), the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, and the 250th anniversary of Handel's death.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 27, 2009

Puccini goes punk

Faced with diminishing mainstream opportunities, Boston's young opera singers are going small and making the repertoire their own
Perched on the lid of a lace-draped baby grand, a bobblehead quivers along with Christine Teeters's vibrato as she powers through a Tuesday-night voice lesson in the Steinway Piano Building on Boylston Street.
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | January 23, 2009

Woof!

The BSO’s Carmina burana, the Cantata Singers, the Boston Camerata, and BLO’s Tales of Hoffmann
Probably most music lovers wouldn’t head their greatest-composer list with Carl Orff, despite the popularity of his violent, garish, sumptuously tuneful Carmina burana .
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 13, 2008

Channeling Shakespeare

Cardenio at the ART; King John at ASP
Cardenio , an early-17th-century play in which Shakespeare may well have had a hand, has been MIA since its debut and will doubtless remain so.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 19, 2008

Opera superstar 101

At 67, Plácido Dominingo makes his Boston concert Debut
Domingo put his arm around Martínez and whirled her around the stage, asking the audience to sing in their stead.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | April 17, 2008

Crossword: ''Box set''

Prepare to be bowled over
Prepare to be bowled over
By MATT JONES | March 26, 2008

Movie music

The BSO, Handel and Haydn, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Cantata Singers, David Daniels, and Teatro Lirico d’Europa’s Tosca
Classical music in 2008 Boston did not get off to a brilliant start.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 23, 2008

Dancing about architecture

Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise
If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as the famous saying suggests, then Alex Ross is the Lord of the Dance.
By EMILY PARKHURST | December 19, 2007

Low rent

Boston Lyric Opera’s latest La bohème; plus Collage’s Berio, and Markus Stenz at the BSO
With good singing, acting, and conducting, a stage director for La bohème can afford to keep out of the way, which is pretty much what Ocel does.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 06, 2007

Lorca without Lorca

Opera Boston’s Ainadamar, plus Ida Haendel, the BSO, and West Side Story
Is it possible for a work of art to seem both completely sincere in its intentions and at the same time counterfeit and manipulative?
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 30, 2007

The art of . . .

Bach at Emmanuel, Boston Baroque’s Cosí fan tutte, Kiri Te Kanawa’s farewell to Boston
Craig Smith’s Emmanuel Music began its season with Bach, the composer it’s best known for.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 16, 2007

World music

The BSO goes traveling, and Berlin comes to Boston
There’s more to Boston’s classical music scene than the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 12, 2007

Mr. Bean's Holiday

An uncalled-for sequel
He appears to be on a holiday of his own — from any faintly realistic notion about his audience.
By CHRIS WANGLER | August 22, 2007

An Italian feast

‘Signore + Signore’ isn’t just about the ladies
A group of performers — especially one unified by gender and culture — is an unconventional focus for a film series.
By STEVE VINEBERG | August 07, 2007

Lowbrow fun

Elemental Theatre’s wacky King Stag
Outdoor summer performances have so much going against them.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | July 06, 2007

Crossword: 'Here's your cue, Jay'

Two tough letters, one tough puzzle
Two tough letters, one tough puzzle
By MATT JONES | May 16, 2007

Anticipation

James Levine and Deborah Voigt, Collage New Music, Teatro Lirico’s Turandot
James Levine was back in front of the BSO after his Christmas break, and as good as at least one of the guest conductors.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 06, 2007

High Numbers

Elliott Carter at 85, Pavarotti at Boston Garden, plus Russell Sherman and the Boston Philharmonic
This article originally appeared in the March 19, 1993 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 16, 2006

Taking chances

Levine’s Beethoven and Schoenberg; BLO’s Madama Butterfly ; Kremer and Zimerman
The most extraordinary event at last week’s extraordinary Boston Symphony Orchestra concert was the one the fewest people heard.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 07, 2006

From Knoxville to Swan Lake and back

A chock-full season of classical music
As our most prestigious classical-music institution, the Boston Symphony Orchestra ought to be every year’s headliner, and once again, under the adventuresome direction of James Levine, it is.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 13, 2006

Stacked deck

The Royal Ballet’s Manon
Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon is Romeo and Juliet ’s ugly stepsister.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 21, 2006

New to Boston

Chorus pro Musica does Verdi’s Attila ; the Bostonians do Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande
Last year, Jeffrey Rink’s Chorus pro Musica gave us seductive belly wriggling; this year: “screams, rape, moans, blood, pillage” and the desire to “feast on limbs and severed heads.”
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 07, 2006

Sweet tooth

Boston Lyric Opera imports The Little Prince , the BSO premieres Yehudi Wyner’s piano concerto, and Renée Fleming
I hope the estate of Leonard Bernstein is collecting royalties for The Little Prince . Rachel Portman’s unremittingly sweet and relentlessly lilting score for this children’s opera based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous story borrows heavily from Bernstein’s Candide and West Side Story .
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 19, 2006