COOPERSTOWN – When the Italian American composer Gian Carlo Menotti died in 2007 at age 94, Michael MacLeod of Glimmerglass Opera was amazed at how little notice was given to the passing of such an important figure in 20th century opera. He responded by programming for the 2009 season Menotti’s “The Consul,” which opened Saturday night. MacLeod chose well.  A dark and gripping piece dating from 1950, “The...

“Those gay composers sure write beautiful music.” Those were a friend’s first words to me during an intermission at a concert late this past spring at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.  He could have been speaking of so many different folks, such as the Americans Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, or Leonard Bernstein, to name just a few. Or from the classics there’s Tchaikovsky or Handel, for that matter.  But on this...

It was back in 1994 that Sharon Isbin, the preeminent classical guitarist of today, first disclosed to the press that she was a lesbian.  The decision followed several years of agonizing over the possible implications, and the internal dialogue continued well after word was out. “Each time I would walk in a room I thought ‘they know,’” she told me a few years ago. “This deep echoy bass voice kept saying ‘they...

Check the credits in fine print on recent projects by Bjork, Antony and the Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright and Philip Glass, among others, and you’ll find the name Nico Muhly.  Over the last couple of seasons he’s become the It Boy of contemporary music. But on his most recent project, Muhly’s distinctive name certainly isn’t buried among arrangers, conductors and musical assistants. He wrote and conducted the score...

ALBANY – Words and Music, a vocal quartet based in Washington D.C., takes its bipartite name seriously. For a Sunday afternoon recital in Albany, where many of the singers have roots, the group performed a single work of nearly two-hours in length. Ned Rorem’s “Evidence of Things Not Seen” is comprised of 36 distinct songs for solo and ensemble, and can be considered both a model of quality, succinct art song...

The words “sound” and “art” taken together make a pretty good definition for music itself, but “sound art,” as a composite term, actually refers to a particular strain of creativity. Rather than the stringing together of notes on a printed score, as in traditional musical composition, sound art is more the shaping of sonic elements, usually with very high-tech tools or in some rather low-tech primitive manner....

SCHENECTADY – Sometimes theatrical producing means simply investing money into a big ambitious venture, as Proctors Theatre has done a bit lately with Broadway musicals. But producing can also mean finding some dough and also putting together a team of artists to create something new. That was the case with a new hour-long multidisciplinary show that premiered Friday night in the GE Theatre. “From Within and Outside...

It’s an old and kind of silly pastime among musicians of a certain stripe — to sit around and theorize about which instruments attract the most gay men. The topic came up a few years ago while talking with composer Ned Rorem, who had a typically confident deadpan answer: “All choir directors without exception are gay. No brass players, fewer tenors than you might think, 50 percent of baritones…” I...

TROY — The blazing technique of Stephen Hough can almost obscure his brilliant intelligence. But the British pianist’s ample gifts came together beautifully throughout his Sunday afternoon recital at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. It was Hough’s third appearance under the aegis of the Troy Chromatics. Besides an acclaimed virtuoso, Hough is something of a scholar, offering his own program notes and a well received pre-concert...

Perhaps it’s all because of his iconic name but composer John Adams has a knack for making headline works, pieces that become the talk of a season. With a title like “Nixon in China,” his first opera was guaranteed to garner attention back in 1987. It didn’t hurt that the work itself was colorful, humorous and insightful.Adams has continued in the so-called CNN-school of American opera with “The...