Richard Sasanow

1 week ago | broadwayworld.com | Richard Sasanow

By definition, the historical view of the oratorio is that it’s typically religious in nature and performed unstaged, with no costumes or scenery. Going by that description, The Oratorio Society of New York’s (OSNY) program at Carnegie Hall this week—a combination of contemporary and classical works--under conductor Kent Tritle, broke some rules in both parts of its stirring, gorgeously sung and played program.

1 week ago | broadwayworld.com | Richard Sasanow

Playwright Peter Danish—a long time writer and observer of the opera and classical music scene in New York and around the world—wrote LAST CALL, just finishing a limited run at Broadway’s New World Stages, as a love letter to two 20th century music giants, Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan. In it, he fictionally recreates their meeting at the famed bar at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, with lots of humor, powerful performances and unforgettable moments.

2 weeks ago | broadwayworld.com | Richard Sasanow

Even without an over-the-top production—and the Met has had a couple of those—Richard Strauss’s SALOME has been outraging audiences for more than 120 years. This week’s new take by director Claus Guth in his Met debut was no exception.

2 weeks ago | broadwayworld.com | Richard Sasanow

When we last saw Brunnhilde in Atlanta, in the second segment of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, DIE WALKURE, she’d been punished by the gods for saving Sieglinde, but rescued by her father, Wotan. She was forced into sleep on a rock surrounded by a ring of fire, until wakened some day by a hero. Ta-da! SIEGFRIED’s eponymous hero, sung brilliantly by heldentenor Stefan Vinke, arrived to save the day.

2 weeks ago | broadwayworld.com | Richard Sasanow

The Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) under Maestro Kent Tritle brings the world premiere performance of ALL SHALL RISE, by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, to Carnegie Hall on May 5. It concludes their American Voices trilogy of choral works—this one about the history of voting rights in the US. That’s not to say that the pieces will be going into storage after the performance and not heard again until someone rediscovers them a century from now. Hardly.