Oussama Zahr

New York

Managing Editor at National Geographic

Freelance Music Critic at The New York Times

Writer and Editor

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Articles

The Classical Music Our Critics Can't Stop Thinking About

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Joshua Barone |Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim |Zachary Woolfe |Oussama Zahr

The New York Times's classical music and opera critics see and hear much more than they review. Here is what has hooked them recently. Leave your own favorites in the comments. A clip from the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performance in April 2023. There was a time in recent memory when a performance of Julia Wolfe's "Her Story," for women's chamber choir and orchestra, would have passed without incident.
The Classical Music Our Critics Can't Stop Thinking About

Dec 3, 2024 | nytimes.com | Joshua Barone |Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim |Zachary Woolfe |Oussama Zahr

The New York Times's classical music and opera critics see and hear much more than they review. Here is what hooked them during the past month. Leave your own favorites in the comments. Image An installation view of "Living Room, Orlean, Virginia," part of "Making Home - Smithsonian Design Triennial" at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Credit...
Lincoln Center's Rebranded Orchestra Settles Into Its Debut Season

Aug 5, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

With a new name and a new music director, Lincoln Center's summer orchestra is getting a fresh start this season. On the evidence of three concerts over the past week and a half, though, the newly minted Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center is turning its focus to an element that has always been there: the players themselves. Last year was the final summer of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which for 21 years had been led by the beloved Louis Langrée.
'The Hours' Returns to the Met Opera With Its Stars

May 6, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

Kevin Puts's " The Hours," which had its stage premiere at the Metropolitan Opera last season and returned for its first revival on Sunday, is even prettier than I remember. In the often exquisite score, the strings throb and the woodwinds flutter. When Puts reaches for percussion instruments, he chooses the sweeter ones - glockenspiel, crotales, chimes, vibraphone - and combines them luxuriously. Woodwinds at the top of Act II are practically Wagnerian in their extravagant stateliness.
Gustavo Dudamel Saves the Day at the Philharmonic

Apr 28, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

It was lucky that Gustavo Dudamel was in town. On April 20, the New York Philharmonic announced that Juanjo Mena, who was scheduled to conduct the orchestra in three sold-out concerts starting on Thursday, had fallen ill. Dudamel, the ensemble's incoming music and artistic director, was already expecting to be around to lead the spring gala on Wednesday. And so he saved the day.
John Adams's 'El NiĆ±o' Arrives at the Met in Lush Glory

Apr 24, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

The opera-oratorio, an alternate Nativity story, featured a flurry of Met debuts, including the director Lileana Blain-Cruz and the conductor Marin Alsop. On Tuesday night, the Metropolitan Opera continued to play a bit of catch-up with the American composer John Adams. As a Minimalist of striking imagination and moral probity, Adams has developed a distinct musical style and point of view that have earned him a firm place in the pantheon of American art music over the past 40 years or so.
Under Manfred Honeck, the Philharmonic Becomes One

Apr 14, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

In a program of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, a guest conductor coaxes a sumptuous sincerity from the orchestra's musicians. In a thrilling concert of Russian staples on Friday night, the conductor Manfred Honeck unified the players of the New York Philharmonic using something we don't often hear from the stage of David Geffen Hall: a distinct point of view.
Jonathan Tetelman Arrives at the Met in 'La Rondine'

Apr 3, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

The tenor sang the role of Ruggero in a revival of Puccini's opera that was performed with such restraint, it verged on overly careful. The revival of Nicolas Joël's Art Deco-inspired production of Puccini's "La Rondine" at the Metropolitan Opera highlights a quality that Puccini is not necessarily known for: restraint.
The Met Opera's 'Turandot' Returns With a Strong Debut

Feb 29, 2024 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

Performances in N.Y.C. What to See This Spring Broadway Shows Broadway Guide Met Opera Season Carnegie Hall Highlights Performances in N.Y.C. What to See This Spring Broadway Shows Broadway Guide Met Opera Season Carnegie Hall Highlights In a revival of Franco Zeffirelli's lavish production, the conductor Oksana Lyniv led a performance that transcended the gilded stage dressing. Puccini's "Turandot," a verismo opera set in a fabled version of ancient China, makes for an odd love story.
At the Philharmonic, Violin Concertos as Alike as They Are Different

Nov 17, 2023 | nytimes.com | Oussama Zahr

The violin concertos by Beethoven and Benjamin Britten are as alike as they are different, and over the past week, the New York Philharmonic presented them in back-to-back programs that gestured at their beauties without digging into them. Both concertos begin with a rumbling in the timpani, barely the outline of a rhythm, but enough of a motif to inspire developments in the orchestral and violin parts that build to strenuous emotional heights.