“Tippett, openly gay at a time when homosexuality had not yet been decriminalized in England, understood what it was to stand apart from conventional society.” That’s a choice line from Steve Smith’s story for the Times, “Darkly Spiritual Challenge to Injustice,” about Tippett’s most famous work and it’s themes of justice and social change.  The piece will be performed in concert...

“I don’t embarrass easily,” says author Wayne Koestenbaum. “That’s because I’m used to gay culture’s flamboyant embrace of embarrassing positions.” Perhaps it’s that bravery, that hold-your-chin-up attitude, which allows Koestenbaum the courage to delve so deeply into the shame, guilt and suffering of others. “Humiliation” is the latest book by Koestenbaum who will appear on Thursday at the University...

“Great Music, Right Here” is the apt motto of the Glens Falls Symphony.  Since the orchestra and its music director Charles Peltz regularly venture into contemporary music, “Right Now” might be an appropriate tag. Sunday afternoon’s program featured something far better than a risky premiere.  Instead, it was Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which was written in 2009 and received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for...

It’s amazing how Leon Botstein and Bard College’s SummerScape series keep coming up with “overlooked masterpieces” from the operatic repertoire.  At least that’s what the scholarly support materials tell us they are. The reality of what’s heard and seen on stage is often another matter. This year’s entry is “Die Liebe der Danae.” Richard Strauss’ second to last opera, it was completed in 1940 but only...

“We’ve only just begun” or some other ‘70s hit from The Carpenters was about as daring or off the beaten path as “Voigt Lessons” was expected to get.  After all, how much more could The Glimmerglass Festival and its new boss Francesca Zambello really expect from the great diva Deborah Voigt?  She was already starring in “Annie Get Your Gun” and doing it on the back roads of upstate New York for two long summer...

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...

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...

CARMEN Glimmerglass Festival Opening Night, 7/2/11 In the new production of “Carmen,” which opened at the Glimmerglass Festival on Saturday, the action grows more tight and focused throughout the night until Carmen and Don Jose are alone in a ring.  In a daring moment of surrender, Carmen stops her tormenting ways and prostrates herself before her angry and jilted lover.  She seems to think better of it, but it’s too...

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...

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...