by Robert Rollin
Last Saturday evening, November 25 at Sts. Peter & Paul Church in Youngstown, The Cleveland Opera presented Two Portraits, a lightly staged, costumed performance of Robert Schumann’s song cycles, Dichterliebe, Op. 48 (Poet’s Love) and Frauenliebe und –leben, Op. 4 (Woman’s Love and Life). Artistic Director and soprano Dorota Sobieska, credited with the concept, staging, set design and costume co-design, gave the 50-minute performance of 23 songs theatrical continuity and visual interest. [Read more…]
“Pictures at an Exhibition” was the title of the Akron Symphony’s concert in E.J. Thomas Hall on Saturday evening, November 18, but there were more pictures on the wall than those by Victor Hartmann that inspired Mussorgsky’s famous musical stroll through a gallery. The other two artists whose work was projected on either side of the stage were Charles E. Burchfield and Matthias Grünewald, their art the catalysts for pieces by Morton Gould
It’s not unusual these days for instrumentalists, especially string players, to play period and modern instruments or to engage in the practice of free improvisation. However, it is rare for an ensemble to combine the three disciplines during a single performance. On Saturday, November 4 at Zygote Press, Time Canvas — violinist Chiara Fasani Stauffer, guitarist and theorbist Joshua Stauffer, and cellist Roland Gjernes — did exactly that during their stunning 70-minute program titled “Silence, Space & Sound.”