Clips & Articles: Music
I review the Seattle and Portland operas, and smaller opera companies, for Portland-based Oregon ArtsWatch and Artslandia, and for Classical Voice North America, the official web site of the Music Critics Association of North America, of which I am a member. I write about classical, chamber and jazz music for Oregon ArtsWatch, Classical Voice North America, and previously, for Oregon Music News, concertonet.com and Northwest Reverb. For more stories and music reviews, check the archives at www.columbian.com between 1995-2006. My 2005 National Endowment for the Arts and Columbia Journalism grant helped immensely in music coverage.
“X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at Seattle Opera
SO co-produced the revival of the 1986 Anthony Davis opera, revised and re-premiered in 2022 by Detroit Opera.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch March 2024
SEATTLE — It’s about time that Seattle Opera got in on staging a Black-composed opera with its current co-production of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.
Black operas have stormed the stages in the past several years with riveting productions, a sea change in programming. Count among them Blue, The Central Park Five, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Omar and Champion, several of which we’ve seen in the Northwest. The operas have been compelling and deeply shocking, showing slices of life and pockets of terror that most of us, if we are white, never experience. Read More
Moments of companionship: Saxophonist Donny McCaslin and the Blackstar Symphony perform David Bowie’s final album with Oregon Symphony
McCaslin, also the touring show’s artistic director, discusses his time recording with the singer and working to bring “Blackstar” to the symphony.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch February 2024
It’s old news that David Bowie’s final album Blackstar came out in January 2016, two days before Bowie died of cancer at 69 years old. Of course, his swansong LP, which Rolling Stone called his “best ever,” never spun out live concerts. Bowie kept his declining health a secret until the end of his life, so who knew there would be no more Bowie appearances? And why is “Blackstar” the album’s name? Is it a word associated with mortality and immortality? Perhaps the best explanation came from Blackstar producer and longtime Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti, who called the album “a parting gift” – and a gift that keeps on giving with the run of Blackstar Symphony. Read More
Unspeakably sad yet somehow uplifting: San Francisco Opera’s ‘Omar’
The Pulitzer-winning opera by Rhiannon Giddens & Michael Abels makes its way across the country.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch November 2023
SAN FRANCISCO – More and more, stupendous operas such as Omar, the 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winner, are taking us on real-life journeys through America, many of those journeys unspeakably sad yet somehow uplifting. These searing operatic travels are based on true stories and histories worth bringing to life, to the stage, and to our understanding. Read More
Lifesize Bright: Dan Balmer’s latest album ‘When the Night’
The Oregon jazz guitarist discusses his background, his love for Pat Metheny and for education, and his new album on Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble Records.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch December 2023
Virtuoso jazz musician Dan Balmer will open the 2024 PDXJazz Festival concert starring Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage on Feb. 28 at Portland’s Revolution Hall. A generation or so younger than Balmer, the innovative Lage has a reputation for “impeccable technique, free association, and the spirit of infinite possibility,” according to his press materials. Read More
Forever and ever, amen: Handel’s ‘Messiah’ with Portland Baroque Orchestra, Cappella Romana, Enrico Lagasca, Camille Ortiz, Hannah Penn, John Reese, and guest conductor John Butt
The evergreen seasonal oratorio received a stellar complete performance from choir, soloists, and period instruments at First Baptist Church.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch December 2023
Growing up, the “Messiah” was a sure sign of Christmas. My mother put the well-worn LP of Handel’s three-hour sacred oratorio on the turntable and cranked up the stereo as loud as she could. Even the neighbors could hear it. I loved it. It was thrilling.
But.
Read More
‘Performance is 100 percent integrated with movement’: Violist Paul Laraia and the Catalyst Quartet at The Old Church
The Grammy-nominated quartet’s “¡Viva la Música!” program November 30 (part of their CMNW residency) made the most of the group’s Latin roots, featuring music by Paquito D’Rivera and Astor Piazzolla alongside Ravel, Gershwin, and Shaw.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch December 2023
It’s been said before: The viola is under-appreciated. The violin, the cello, even the harp and the double bass these days, attract more attention among the string family.
The instrument deserves more praise, especially when played as dazzlingly as it was by Paul Laraia of the phenomenally creative and well-honed Catalyst Quartet Nov. 30 at Portland’s The Old Church. The sound of the viola’s velvety alto in talented hands makes your heart beat harder and faster. Read More
Magic and logic, working together: PSU Opera’s charming production of Evan Meier and E.M. Lewis’ ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant’
Cast and crew from Portland State’s School of Music & Theater gave the staged premiere of Meier and Lewis’ opera with style.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch December 2023
Portland State University Opera’s Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant was a charmer. The four performances Nov. 25 through Dec. 3 (the opera I saw) were sold out in the 84-seat Lincoln Hall Studio Theater. And for good reasons. The production hit the right chords: original, playful, an ideal length at 100 minutes in two acts, and family-friendly. Read More
Are we a jazz town? The 1905 closes.
Financial difficulties for the 1905, which has just gone out of business, raise larger questions about the history and future of jazz in Portland.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch November 2023
In mid-October, music fans received an email announcing that the snug beloved 1905 jazz club in North Portland’s Mississippi neighborhood was on the brink of financial disaster. The final show would be that night. Read More
Portland Opera’s colorful, comedic, costume-rich ‘Figaro’
PO kept its sixth production of the 238-year-old Mozart opera fresh with superb singing, tight conducting, agile staging, and new, historically-informed costumes.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch November 2023
If you’re new to opera, The Marriage of Figaro is usually a guaranteed good ticket. If you’ve seen several Figaros, as I have, its playful charm and tuneful music, when well conducted, rarely lets down even a jaded critic partial to contemporary pieces. Among the 10 most produced operas, the 1786 Mozart hit remains one that companies can’t resist staging over and over. Read More
A 21st-century reboot: Seattle Opera’s gender-bent ‘Alcina’
SO staged the Handel opera with six singers (including one countertenor), modern set design, and haute couture costuming.
Originally Published in Oregon ArtsWatch October 2023
SEATTLE – George Frideric Handel’s operas don’t amass a lot of stage time in the United States. Seattle Opera has presented only four in its 60-year existence.
The fourth, which continues through Oct. 28 at SO’s McCaw Hall, is Alcina–and what a playfully sexy choice it was, cleverly stage-directed by British-born Tim Albery, known for his taut, poetic presentations. The production should convince the opera world to give Handel a 21st-century reboot. Read More
