Tag Archives: Thomas Adès

Sounds like hell Mr Adès: Looking in the mirror of The Exterminating Angel

I wasn’t sure I’d have the nerve to go through with it, watching an opera that seems to show us exactly the predicament we face. Based on the surreal film from Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel was today’s free Metropolitan … Continue reading

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Thomas Søndergård leads the TSO

Tonight was the second of two consecutive concerts of the Toronto Symphony conducted by Danish maestro Thomas Søndergård, a spectacular program devoured by an eager audience showing off the strengths of the orchestra: Thomas Adès: Dances from Powder Her face … Continue reading

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Ten Questions for Mark Shulgasser

Mark Shulgasser is a librettist especially known for his collaborations with composer Lee Hoiby.  They created several operas together, until Hoiby’s passing in 2011.  One might call Shulgasser a champion for Hoiby’s work, except that I believe Shulgasser is still … Continue reading

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Egoyan: teaching us how to hear

I was certainly ready for the concert I attended tonight at Glenn Gould studio, to launch Eve Egoyans CD 5 .  Work had drained me, and yes, i’d been listening to her CD a great deal. I found myself thinking … Continue reading

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Adès contra Parsifal

Ever notice that conversations can reinforce and honour contrary positions? When you sit down with someone over latkes, beers or (name your pleasure), the celebration and enactment of community & indeed, communion, makes the points where you diverge immaterial. You … Continue reading

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Adès Conversations

I am thinking a lot about the nature of criticism.  On a recent trip I sat on the airplane reading a fascinating book that’s called Conversations with Tom Service.  How fascinating could such a book be? Ah but it’s a … Continue reading

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Adès, Oakes, Lepage

Watching and hearing the Metropolitan Opera high definition broadcast of The Tempest, I wonder “whose” Tempest to call it. If you listen to Joseph Kerman—who says the composer is the dramatist–you’d say it belongs to Thomas Adès: the composer A … Continue reading

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