Who would have thought back in 1966, the inaugural year of the Mostly Mozart Festival, that one of the hottest tickets in 2009 would be music by a composer born and bred not in Austria or Germany—like Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven—but here in United States. I refer of course to John Adams, who is still [...]

There are no doubt thousands of New Yorkers frustrated at being stuck in the city this summer; or weary after making it out of the city only to endure packed LIRR trains, beastly traffic, bad weather—or simply bad company.  If only they had gone to the theater this past weekend instead of the beach or [...]

Two titans of dance gone within a month. First Pina Bausch, and now Merce Cunningham at the age of 90. The effect of their deaths paralleled the nature of their work. Pina’s was surprising, traumatic, emotionally wrenching. Merce’s was, if not exactly expected, and just as sad, then logical—a final step into a dark pool [...]

In the summer, the art world reverts to a kind of school semester mentality. Galleries shut on Saturdays if they’re even open to the public (and even then, close altogether in August), and often mount group shows based on whimsical themes. Museums, however, are obliged to stay open and service the hordes of visitors, but [...]

The last time New Yorkers had a chance to see Boris Godunov was five years ago when the Met staged Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 operatic version.  In that well-known opera, the title character of Boris (a real historical figure: brother-in-law to the Tsar Fyodor, who succeeded him as ruler of Russia in 1598) is the central [...]

I’ve been obsessing over and worrying about one of my favorite subjects lately: how to get more arts stuff for free. (I’ve written about this topic at SundayArts before: here and here and here and here.) With the economy in its current state, “free” of course is a big topic this year—just look at all [...]

Ariane Mnouchkine/Théâtre de Soleil’s Les Éphémères, which closed this last Sunday, July 19th, is one of those productions that elicits from New Yorkers periodic European theater awe. Much of it is from the mise-en-scène, the overall set-up of the working space on and offstage, contained inside the hulking Park Avenue Armory, co-presenters with Lincoln Center [...]

Radio station WQXR has found a buyer. In the rough-seas economy we’re in, this news might qualify as a small miracle. On Tuesday afternoon came the announcement that 73-year-old all-classical radio station WQXR—owned by the financially-troubled New York Times—has been sold to public radio station WNYC. The plan is for WNYC to continue broadcasting in [...]

In the shadow of American Ballet Theatre’s season-closing performances of Romeo and Juliet, a few weeks after New York City Ballet ended its spring season, it’s time to take a deep breath. The trope that while NYCB has the rep, ABT has the dancers still holds true to some extent, although it is eroding on [...]

I’ve been kicking myself for having missed a number of music events in New York this spring featuring ETHEL, the New York-based amplified string quartet. They don’t do a huge number of gigs—like all working musicians they have packed schedules filled with other musical things, and don’t exclusively devote themselves to ETHEL-ing. So as it [...]