Elisha West News
composer
- United States of America
Last update
2024-03-24
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2024-03-23 15:27:00
R.I.P. Maurizio Pollini (1942-2024)
[…] Nono—or Beethoven. Advocacy of Nono’s music took him and as Abbado beyond the concert hall and the opera house to the car factories of northern Italy. It would have been easier to glory in the world of ‘star performers’, but that was clearly never somewhere Pollini, however fêted, was ever at home. In many ways, his music-making was always a product of the ‘Years of Lead’ in which fascism, openly backed by much of ‘the West’, threatened to occupy much of Europe once again. Speaking in Bettina Erhardt’s wonderful film on Nono, A Trail on the Water, made after Nono’s death, Pollini recalled one incident in particular: There was a lot of tension in the air. We have to remember the situation in Italy back then. People were even talking about a possible Fascist coup. There was the example of the colonels in Greece. The fear of a turn […]
2024-03-15 16:06:00
Crouching composer, hidden dragon
[…] comprising more than 20% of the city's population. In another example of 'irresistible transformation', in 2021 Tibet's first McDonalds opened in a shopping centre opposite the Potala Palace, the Dalai Lama’s former residence. Buddha Passion is another example of the culture-washing that the classical industry and media so enthusiastically support, with reviews echoing Decca's PR speak using headlines such as 'Tan Dun’s message of love and compassion' - Guardian, and 'An immense work that straddles East and West' - Standard. Leaving aside all that unfortunate cultural baggage, sadly the music of Tan Dun's Buddha Passion rarely rises above the level of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, with one of the few dissenting voices, Marc Bridle at Opera Now, describing it as "A flawed work which isn't all it seems".Not one reviewer questioned the hidden Chinese dragon behind the Buddha Passion. Not one reviewer questioned Tan Dun's setting of the Heart Sutra in the penultimate […]
2024-03-14 14:53:47
Wilton’s Music Hall, LondonWith a dash of Monty Python and a sprinkling of Carry On, Charles Court Opera’s slimmed-down staging of the comic opera is pacy and entertainingImagine the Monty Python team making a foray into bel canto. Or perhaps a Carry On special set in an opera company with little budget but a ready source of Stetsons.
2024-03-09 21:38:20
Early years Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty)
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