It was good to actually hear the Philadelphia Orchestra, rather than hear about the Philadelphia Orchestra. When it filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, the venerable institution became a sad symbol for the fragile state of the economy and the arts in general. Only the near demise of the New York City Opera — once an annual visitor to Saratoga — has been bigger news. Meanwhile the orchestra keeps playing and awaits its young music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin, whose tenure is still more than a year from starting. It’s a period of transition for the annual summer residency at...

In a departure from recent tradition, the French piano virtuoso Jean-Yves Thibaudet won’t be making an appearance this summer at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. But his local fans will have ample opportunity to catch him at Tanglewood. He’ll be appearing three times in the coming week performing the music of his countryman, Maurice Ravel. Thibaudet will perform all of Ravel’s solo piano works over two nights, Wednesday and Thursday (7/20-21), at Ozawa Hall. Then on Sunday, July 24, he’ll appear in with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at The Koussevitzky Music Shed...

Playwright Tony Kushner is immersed in a dizzying amount of work, including crafting a new screenplay about Lincoln that’s still unfinished but is slated to begin filming in the fall with director Steven Speilberg. He’s also contributing new material to the season-long retrospective of his work at New York’s Signature Theatre. Kushner has a penchant for taking on big projects and important themes, starting with his most famous work, “Angels in America,” a six-hour, two-part play about AIDS that received the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. For further evidence of his ambition,...

Choral conductor and organist Kent Trittle, New York’s most prominent church musician, will be leaving his long-time post at St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue to become music director of St. John the Divine Cathedral effective September 1. In a conversation with Daniel Watkin for the Times, he lists as among the reasons that he’s gay. “It’s tangential, but to be in a place where all people — I was very accepted at St. Ignatius — but to be in a place that professes such a liberal embrace, that’s what I want to be a part of.”  The story also references cellist...

Spending a full summer in Cooperstown just didn’t seem possible. The internationally acclaimed operatic star Deborah Voigt was too in demand to make that kind of long-term commitment. It was only last spring when Francesca Zambello, the recently appointed general and artistic director of the Glimmerglass Festival, approached the soprano about being the company’s artist in residence during summer 2011.  The two were friends as well as colleagues but Voigt thought that Zambello was asking a lot. “Then she said, well what if I did a whole musical for you?” recalls Voigt. “That was a whole...

Lee Hall, the Tony Award-winning writer/lyricist of the musical “Billy Elliott,” says his new opera “Beached” was canceled because of homophobia. The producers say its all due to the cast of 300 children no longer being able to participate. The kids’ teacher says it’s the language and frankness of the piece, not the subject that’s the problem. Bloggers go crazy.  Opera destined for fame. Read the reports: New York Times (6/5/11) Towleroad (6/5/11) Towleroad (6/6/11) Towleroad (6/7/11) And Nico Muhly, saying he’ll just dip his toe in the controversy,...

Most pianists who perform with singers don’t like to be thought of as playing second fiddle, so to speak.  That’s why there’s a growing trend to do away with the term “accompanist,” with its tag-along connotations, and instead call the folks at the keyboard “collaborators.” “That just drives me crazy,” says Craig Rutenberg. “It sounds like something you did when you were French and you worked with the Germans during the war.” However you define his profession, Rutenberg is at the top of the field.  He’ll be appearing Saturday night at Tannery Pond with soprano Christine...

Nico Muhly and Craig Lucas’ “Two Boys,” supposedly the first cyber age grand opera, debuted at the English National Opera on June 24. The reviews are mixed, but 29 year-old Nico continues to cast his spell, as the normally curmudgeonly Norman Lebrecth (“Who Killed Classical Music?”) raves that it’s the future of the art form. Below are some excepts and links to reviews plus trailers on the opera, which heads to the Metropolitan Opera in 2013.   Two Boys, which opened on Friday, will attract expostulations of outrage from all the usual suspects for its...

Looking for that rare sign of economic health in the arts?  Consider the growth trajectory of the Boston Early Music Festival. Founded in 1980 by a band of stalwart devotees of music from the Medieval and Renaissance, the organization has expanded over the last 30 years into an international powerhouse that’s a unique combination of opera company, concert series, touring company, trade show and record producer. The most recent biennial festival ran June 12-19 and was attended by several thousand professional musicians, instrument builders, music publishers and loyal fans.   A highlight of...

Singers never have it easy.  The volatile human body is their instrument and the change of seasons, allergies and drafty concert halls are not their friends. But some special pity — and praise — must go to the sopranos who slave over the demanding works of living composers. Over the last 10 years, soprano Hila Plitmann has become the go-to diva for composers with their grand visions.  She’ll be performing a piece of John Corigliano with the Albany Symphony on Saturday night at EMPAC, in a program that’s part of the orchestra’s annual American Music Festival. “There’s the...