The Chautauqua Opera Company cast of La Tragédie de Carmen takes a bow after their final dress rehearsal in Norton Hall. HG Biggs/Staff Photographer Andrew Druckenbrodguest critic A condensed version of George Bizet’s masterpiece, Peter
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performs a evening program titled “Mozart and Haydn,” led by Music Director and Principal Symphonic Conductor Rossen Milanov Thursday in the Amphitheater. Jess Kszos/Staff Photographer Andrew Druckenbrodguest critic For the monarchy,
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performs Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major under the baton of Maestro Rossen Milanov Tuesday in the Amphitheater. HG Biggs/Staff Photographer Andrew Druckenbrodguest critic Rarely are artistry and personality
Chanticleer, a vocal chamber ensemble from San Francisco, performed in the Amp as part of the “Labyrinth” tour. Brett Phelps/Staff Photographer Andrew Druckenbrodguest critic That magnificent gravitational pull of Chautauqua Institution brought another superb group
ANDREW DRUCKENBROD - GUEST CRITIC Tutti. The term for all musicians to play together is fitting for this entire Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra season, and particularly last week. After losing the 2020 season to COVID-19, followed
ANDREW DRUCKENBROD - GUEST CRITIC The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra wind section, under the baton of Music Director Rossen Milanov, presents “Wind Serenades” on Tuesday in the Amphitheater. MEREDITH WILCOX / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER If you ran
Review by Andrew Druckenbrod: Think of the volume of a typical orchestral fortissimo and then double it. Then double it again. Now you have a good sense of the decibel level inside the Amphitheater Thursday night.
Review by Andrew Druckenbrod: Puck’s famous epilogue at the end of Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream apologizing if the play offended the audience is, of course, tongue-in-cheek. But after a sometimes goofy, often elegant but
Review by Andrew Druckenbrod Next time you are telling ghost stories around the camp fire, try intoning the “Dies irae,” even if you are loose with the translation: “Day of wrath ... the world in
Review by Andrew Druckenbrod When the new Chautauqua Amphitheater “debuted” last season, many ears were listening as much to the performances as to how unamplified sound resonated within it. In particular were the acousticians who
Ascribing one’s own meaning to music is dicey stuff. If songs can be misunderstood (see Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and a certain re-election campaign), imagine how easily it is to misconstrue instrumental music,
Invention never sounds better than the Ninth. Topping off the opening week’s theme of “Invention” in the Amphitheater Saturday night was one of classical music’s most significant ones, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, “Choral.” In the
A new Amphitheater … and new hall. The debate over the replacement of the old (so strange to write!) Amphitheater largely focused on its historic significance and beloved status versus a need for modernization. The
Contrary to its reputation, classical music concerts consist only of the new. One reason is perhaps less obvious, the fact that each performance of the masterpieces of the past is a live, even living, event.
Since at least the turn of the century, communication from the stage has lightened the cultural baggage that still weighs down classical music as inaccessible and highbrow. Handing a conductor, composer or soloist a microphone