David Shengold

Writer at Freelance

Contributor at Gay City News

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Articles

Emerging Countertenor Wins The Crowd In Big Solo Debut: At Home

2 months ago | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold |Igor Gorin

NEW YORK — For a young singer on the rise like Brooklyn native Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, acing your first hometown solo recital must bring a special thrill. A vociferous crowd in Carnegie Hall’s intimate Weill Hall witnessed that on Feb.
Czech Phil’s Splendid Concerts At Carnegie Take On Festive Aura

Dec 13, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold

NEW YORK — We who hear music in New York are spoiled by Carnegie Hall programming frequent visits by great orchestras from the U.S. and elsewhere. But last week’s sustained visit by the Czech Philharmonic in honor of Czech Music Year took on the atmosphere of a festival. The orchestra — traditional in aspect: men in tuxes and women in floor-length black dresses — performed under banners and amid floral arrangements, and the dynamic Czech president Petr Pavel attended the Dec.
The Met’s ‘Frau’ Unfurls Bounty To Be Savored Again — And Again! | Classical Voice North America

Dec 3, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold |Walter Berry

NEW YORK — Die Frau ohne Schatten, powerfully revived at the Metropolitan Opera as of Nov. 29, enjoys a cult following in New York City.
Smoking Performances At U.K. Opera Houses Now Under Political Fire

Nov 29, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold

PERSPECTIVE — As several articles in The New York Times and Opera (with Opera News) have made clear, opera as an art form has been under attack from bureaucrats and cost-cutters on allends of the British political spectrum as elitist.
At A Mountain Festival, Opera Meets Musical As Puccini, Weill Converge

Aug 12, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold

CENTRAL CITY, Colo. — Central City sports one of the most picturesque opera-festival venues on the continent. Also one of its oldest: Central City Opera’s 92nd summer season found two inspiringly moving productions holding the historic mining town’s intimate stage sequentially on Aug. 2. Street Scene began its theatrical life as a 1929 Broadway play written and staged by Elmer Rice (1892-1967), the boy wonder who wrote his first Broadway play, On Trial, at 20.
Spontini Opera Revival Preserves Music, Adds Screams, Tosses Story

Jul 25, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold

PARIS — La vestale is one of those operas more referred to than known, especially in its original French form. Gaspare Spontini’s 1807 three-act, ancient Roman drama anticipated Norma in some ways, but in structure, scale, and musical procedure influenced Berlioz, Verdi, and Wagner, among others.
New Video Of ‘Rusalka’ Is Appealing Evidence Of Its Rising Popularity

Jul 10, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold |Semyon Bychkov

Dvořák: Rusalka. Asmik Grigorian (soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor), Aleksei Isaev (baritone), Emma Bell (soprano), Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), Ann Yee and Natalie Abrahami (stage directors), Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus, Semyon Bychkov (conductor). Opera Arte OABD7322D.
Rare Tchaikovsky Opera Displays Charms Before Killing The Characters

Jun 12, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold

Tchaikovsky: The Enchantress. Asmik Grigorian (soprano), Iain MacNeil (baritone), Claudia Mahnke (mezzo-soprano), Alexander Mikhailov (tenor), Frederic Jost (bass), Zanda Švēde (mezzo-soprano), Vasily Barkhatov (stage director), Chor der Oper Frankfurt, Frantkfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Valentin Uryupin (conductor). Naxos 2.110768-69. DIGITAL REVIEW — Oper Frankfurt, consistently one of Europe’s finest theaters, has issued a refreshing novelty in Tchaikovsky’sCharodjeka (The Enchantress).
An Emergency Maestro Retrieves Met’s ‘Orfeo’ From Opera Underworld

May 23, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | David Shengold |Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Opera’s late-season revival of Mark Morris‘ compellingly idiosyncraticOrfeo ed Eurydice — like the plot of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s seminal azione teatrale (“theatrical action”) itself — experienced a sudden unexpected loss: British conductor Christian Curnyn, a Baroque specialist who’s earned good notices elsewhere and worked before (including Partenope at New York City Opera and Tolomeo at Glimmerglass a dozen years back) with the revival’s popular star,...
Opera preview: Queering ‘Eugene Onegin’ at Heartbeat Opera

Mar 31, 2024 | gaycitynews.com | David Shengold

Tchaikovsky has long been Russian culture’s most iconic queer figure: the equivalent of Oscar Wilde or Virginia Woolf in British arts circles. All three contracted conventional marriages, least happily the composer. His conflicted and largely gay romantic path partly fueled his most accessible and tuneful opera, 1879’s “Eugene Onegin,” based on Pushkin’s novel-in-verse.