Richard Dyer

Latest Articles

Let's rock

The BSO, the Cantata Singers, Discovery Ensemble, and BCMS
WGBH radio has ended its 58-year tradition of live Friday-afternoon BSO broadcasts, and it doesn't seem that public outcry is going to change that.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 25, 2010

From Mozart to milonga

All kindsa dance hits the stage
We Bostonians may swathe ourselves in sweaters and lock our doors against the blustery weather, but once the music begins, dance performances can help us shake off the shivers — and often transport us to more temperate climes.
By DEBRA CASH | December 29, 2009

Phenomenal!

Elliott Carter turns 100
Living for a century is still a milestone; for a great and still-productive artist to do so is virtually unheard of.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 19, 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

Lorca without Lorca

Opera Boston’s Ainadamar, plus Ida Haendel, the BSO, and West Side Story
Is it possible for a work of art to seem both completely sincere in its intentions and at the same time counterfeit and manipulative?
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 30, 2007

Rise and fall

Opera Boston does Mahagonny; the BSO and the Boston Philharmonic do Sibelius
With its production of the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Opera Boston consolidates its position as this city’s most exciting opera company.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 13, 2007

Cornucopia

The BSO, the Cantata Singers, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Celebrity Series
The year 2007 didn’t begin on the highest note.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 23, 2007

Dancing across the city

Between the opening of the new ICA and Bank of America's de-funding of Celebrity Series, will Boston be a city on the move or on the make in 2007?
The ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, with its sprung wood dance floor and wrap-around windows framing the harbor, is positioned to become Boston dance’s most significant venue.
By DEBRA CASH | December 27, 2006

Winter harvest

Emmanuel’s memorial to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; Angelika Kirchschlager at Jordan Hall; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and El Niño at the BSO
"I don’t want to be here,” soprano Susan Larson lamented in her moving eulogy to her old friend and colleague Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 12, 2006

Ralph Hamilton

1946–2006
My lovable, impossible friend of more than 30 years, the artist Ralph Hamilton, died on February 19, of complications from diabetes. He was only 59. It’s a very sad loss. He was one of Boston’s most original and searching painters and had been doing some of his most ambitious and moving work.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 09, 2006

Globe-al anxiety

The Boston Globe is going through its biggest shake-up in 30 years. What will it mean for the paper, the editor, the remaining staff, and the city itself?
There were more lumps of coal than holiday cheer at 135 Morrissey Boulevard this Christmas season.
By MARK JURKOWITZ | January 14, 2006