Giuseppe Verdi

Latest Articles

The show goes on

Soprano Renée Fleming visits the PSO
Soprano Renée Fleming visits the PSO
By EMILY PARKHURST | February 11, 2009

James Levine brings us Verdi's Simon Boccanegra ; plus Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes
For the first time since James Levine became music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, this acclaimed Verdi specialist conducted the BSO in a Verdi opera.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 03, 2009

Ring in the new

Haydn trios, Kirchner's 90th-birthday concert, Cantata Singers' Britten, Teatro Lirico's Aida
If 2009 lives up to the grace and power of some of the concerts that began it, we can look forward to a vintage year.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 20, 2009

Lift every voice!

Classical goodies for 2009
Opera is the big word for 2009.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 30, 2008

Epic undertaking

Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the BSO; Opera Boston attempts Verdi’s Ernani
The act four sequence of quintet, septet, and love duet is non-stop musical orgasm.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 12, 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

Singers’ delight

Spring Arts Preview: Opera and vocal works lead the season
The season may be starting to wind down, but there remain some events music lovers have been waiting for all year.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 10, 2008

A Violetta to die for

Teatro Lirico I at the Majestic Theatre, March 2, 2008
Ukrainian soprano Marina Viskvorkina gave an extraordinary performance as the consumptive courtesan Violetta Valéry.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 04, 2008

Lloyd Schwartz: the beat goes on

Letter from the Executive Editor
Classical-music critic Lloyd Schwartz recently marked his 30th year as a Phoenix contributor.
By PETER KADZIS | January 30, 2008

Country for old men

Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, BMOP, Marc-André Hamelin, and Sasha Cooke
A youthful 80-year-old Sir Colin Davis was back in front of the Boston Symphony Orchestra last weekend with one of the pieces he loves most.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 29, 2008

Magic moments

Festival Ballet’s “Up CLOSE, on HOPE”
Dance fans who come to Festival Ballet Providence’s “Up CLOSE, on HOPE” series expect to see a wide variety of works and a few breathtaking moments.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 06, 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

Send in the clowns

Chorus pro Musica’s verismo duo; the Boston Early Music Festival; and Carousel at the Pops
Boston newcomers proved that even without scenery or traditional costumes, these operas can pack a wallop.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 19, 2007

Classic love

Romantic performances statewide
Classic summer starts with a rock-and-roll fundraiser?
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | June 13, 2007

What’s in a phrase?

The Cantata Singers’ season finale; Leon Fleisher and the Emerson String Quartet
There are lots of references to heaven in Bach’s Passions and cantatas, but one of his most heavenly pieces has no words at all.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 22, 2007

Love and death

Boston Ballet's "Classic Balanchine" has all the basics
“Classic Balanchine” as opposed to . . . “Jazz Balanchine”? “Porno Balanchine”? What was the alternative?
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 09, 2007

Contact!

Emmanuel Music’s Alcina , André Previn at the BSO, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Music lovers had a tough decision to make last Saturday between two great operas that are rarely performed here.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 24, 2007

Unmasked

Boston Lyric Opera’s Un ballo in maschera ; Scott Wheeler’s The Construction of Boston
It would be fun to report that in the same weekend Bostonians got to hear two operas from two different centuries that take place on their home turf.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 05, 2007

Hunting season

The Dear Hunter set their sights on opera, Boston, and the Receiving End of Sirens
"Any shows in Boston feel like home," says Casey Crescenzo.
By SAM MACLAUGHLIN | December 28, 2006

Erwartung . . .

Classical goodies for 2007
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA music director James Levine will be back in February to continue his survey of Beethoven and Schoenberg with Metropolitan Opera diva Deborah Voigt in Beethoven’s “Ah! perfido” and Schoenberg’s Erwartung (“Awaiting”), along with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and Eighth Symphony (Symphony Hall, February 1-3).
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 28, 2006

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

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

Opera, opera, opera

At Santa Fe and Tanglewood and in New York
Every performance at Santa Fe was packed, and few subscribers left unhappy.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 15, 2006

Crossword: 'Not so great'

Water you looking at?
Water you looking at?
By MATT JONES | August 02, 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