Upcoming Tours
Turin
Northern Italy - Opera, Wine & Food (May 2020)
This is a trip for connoisseurs of music, food and wine. The operas will be Donizetti’s comedic masterpiece, Don Pasquale, at Turin’s Teatro Regio, Weill’s Mahagonny at the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia and Montemezzi’s rarely performed L'amore dei tre re at La Scala Milan. The tour begins in Como, one of the most beautiful and picturesque places in Lombardy, and continues on to Emilia-Romagna, famous for its rich culinary traditions. En route we will stop in Alba, a picturesque town in the heart of Piedmont renowned for its velvety red Barolo and Barbaresco wines. (9 days/maximum 11 persons)
Glimmerglass
The Glimmerglass Festival (August 2020)
Cooperstown is more than just baseball. The village at the southern tip of New York's Otsego Lake is also home to the Glimmerglass Festival, known for exciting opera productions that feature singers, directors and designers from around the world. At Glimmerglass, we will see two highlights of the 2020 festival, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved The Sound of Music and Wagner’s rarely staged Die Feen, a fairy-tale opera that he composed when he was only 20 years old. Other highlights include lunch at the American Bounty Restaurant in the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, and a visit to the nearby Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site. (4 days)
Prague
Czech Magic - Music, Wine and Castles (May 2021)
Prague is the starting point for this exploration of Moravia. Musical highlights will include performances at Prague’s ornate National Theatre and Brno’s Janáček Theater, the largest in the Czech Republic. We will also visit Český Krumlov, one of the most picturesque towns in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as Olomouc, where Beethoven intended his Missa Solemnis to be performed and Mahler worked early in his career. For wine enthusiasts, there will be a visit to Valtice, the center of the Moravian wine industry situated on the Czech-Austrian border. (9 days)
Reviews
New York
Not just any boot-camp: Renée Fleming’s SongStudio returns to Carnegie Hall
SongStudio 2020: Singers and pianists, Carnegie Hall, New York, 16-18.1.2020
New York
Extraordinary mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker in recital for Carnegie Hall Citywide
Kayleigh Decker (mezzo-soprano), Madeline Slettedahl (piano). Carnegie Hall Citywide, St. Michael’s Church, New York, 11.1.2020.
Brooklyn
Homeward bound with Chopin and Szymanowski at the Brooklyn Art Song Society
Brooklyn Art Song Society Home III – Chopin and Szymanowski: Amy Owens (soprano), Sarah Nelson Craft (mezzo-soprano), Michael Brofman, Spencer Myer, Miori Sugiyama (piano). Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, 3.1.2020.
Rome
Gatti leads superb cast in Rome Opera’s Les vêpres siciliennes
Soloists, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet / Daniele Gatti (conductor). Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi, Rome, 22.12.2019.
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Rome
Monastyrska’s sumptuous Tosca fits Rome Opera’s reconstruction of original 1900 production
Soloists, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Orchestra and Chorus / Pier Giorgio Morandi (conductor), Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi, Rome, 20.12.2019.
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New York
Joyce DiDonato and Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s perspectives on Schubert’s Winterreise at Carnegie Hall
Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (piano). Carnegie Hall, New York, 15.12.2019. (RP)
All of my reviews for Seen and Heard International can be found here
About
I got the travel bug from my parents. As a boy I had crisscrossed the US with them and my younger brother on the classic American Road Trip to California. At 16, I went to Europe for the first time. The destination was Germany, a country that I have returned to many times. In addition to business and personal travel, I have lived in Switzerland, Singapore and China. So far, it’s been a wonderful life of travelling the world and experiencing its wonders.
A musician for most of my life, first a trumpet player and then a singer, I have a degree in music from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2013, I began reviewing for Seen and Heard International and have posted reviews from the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, I regularly contribute program notes to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and have had music and travel articles published in the Global Times, Shanghai Daily, MusicWeb International, Broad Street Review and other publications.
Although I am thrilled to have press privileges in many of the world’s great concert halls and opera houses, it is the offerings in the more out-of-the way places that excite me the most. There one still finds great music, often at its national, indigenous best, in theaters, whether ancient or modern, that are as grand and beautiful as any in the world. More importantly, these venues not only preserve the past, they embrace the new, keeping classical music current and vital. That is the world that I invite you to explore with me on my tours.
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