Alex Ross's Blog, page 165

Sky City

Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico.

Più delle parole

The cast of La Donna del Lago at Santa Fe Opera shows its mastery of multiple styles in an intermission interlude. With Renè Barbera, lead vocals; Wayne Tigges, guitar; Lawrence Brownlee, backing vocals and Live in HD camerawork; and Joyce DiDonato, dance impressions.

Noted

Stephanie Arado: "The institution that I have devoted my creative energy to for the past two decades — the Minnesota Orchestra — has lost its way. “ 

The Owens Wotan

On a Verdi-Wagner program this Sunday in Aspen, Eric Owens will give a glimpse of his future interpretation of the role of Wotan, singing the Farewell from Walküre. The formidable young dramatic soprano Heidi Melton sings alongside him; Robert Spano conducts. Owens also makes a brief but imposing appearance in the delirious promotional video for Joyce DiDonato's greatest-hits album, ReJoyce .

American Skin

Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim judges George Benjamin's Written on Skin at Tanglewood: "It really is that good." My review of the Royal Opera House production can be found here.

A Berwald moment

The Rambler at 10

Happy anniversary to Tim Rutherford-Johnson, aka The Rambler, whose keen-eared blog has been monitoring new music for a decade. Tim has some semi-melancholy thoughts on the occasion, noting a seeming decline in the significance of music blogging. The same topic has been taken up by such longtime bloggers as Elaine Fine, Lisa Hirsch, Robert Gable, ionarts, and Bob Shingleton, though not all see evidence of such a decline. I've had ups and downs with blogging, statistically and spiritually; the chart above is, I think, mostly a reflection of how much energy I've put into the endeavor. While magazine writing remains the center of my existence, I do believe that blogging has a future — perhaps precisely because it has ceased to be trendy. All the above-named sites and dozens of others show a precious independence of spirit, an aversion to groupthink. Mitsuko Uchida, in a delightful interview with the Guardian, spoke recently of the danger of "soundbite culture"; the meandering, inquisitive style of PostClassic or the Overgrown Path resists that pressure toward snippets and snark.

What, you may be wondering, is the Burj-Dubai-like spire that towers over my low-rise daily stats? It marks the publication of Björk's Favorite Records, in November 2011. I'm proud that the most popular post in the history of this blog is also one of the more thoughtful ones, even if it is not actually by me.

Noted

Masha Gessen: "In March, the St Petersburg legislator who had become a spokesman for the law started mentioning me and my 'perverted family' in his interviews. I contacted an adoption lawyer asking whether I had reason to worry that social services would go after my family and attempt to remove my oldest son, whom I adopted in 2000. The lawyer wrote back telling me to instruct my son to run if he is approached by strangers and concluding: 'The answer to your question is at the airport.'"

Previously: Gergiev endorses Putin.

Noted

Bill de Blasio: “We are not, by our nature, an elitist city. We are not a city for the chosen few.”

Noted

Nicholas Carr: "...The anemic growth of the electronic market calls into question the strength of the so-called 'digital revolution' in the book business..."