In search of Rossini’s ‘Otello’

 
Maria Malibran as Desdemona.
One of the things that has kept me very busy over the past few months is freelance writing for various publications, one of them The Miami Herald.
For the Herald, I did a piece about Jose Carreras, the Catalan tenor most well-known as a member of The Three Tenors. I’m probably one of [...]

‘Vertigo Years’ explores century’s vast changes

 

I’ve mentioned several times before in the course of this blog and others that the root causes of World War I escape me, and they get more mysterious the more I look into them.
But a book I finished reading earlier this month has been quite helpful in that regard, even though it was written with [...]

Loss of music store means loss of healthy serendipity

 

Wanted to make a brief note about the closing of the Patelson music store in New York, which I never was able to visit, but which has engendered much talk from musicians living up there.
Here’s Frank Oteri’s take at New Music Box, and the Sequenza 21 version has fascinating comments from well-known musicians who weigh [...]

Pergolesi points the way for Mozart

 

As I mentioned before, I think, in a blog about the International Music Score Project, that service of uploaded public domain music has been quite valuable in getting ready for concert reviews.
Most of the time I know the pieces I’m going to be hearing, but I always learn something by studying them. So yesterday afternoon, [...]

Site offers people’s classical concert hall

 

Although the technological revolution has given us access to virtually the entire history of recorded sound at our home computers, it’s often harder to reach people than it used to be because of all the choices people have.
It might be that a few stalwart brands can establish themselves and be the places to which consumers [...]