Classic Ross Amico

Reviews

Two Butterflies for the Price of One at the Princeton Festival

When Toni Marie Palmertree was unable to sing the title role in “Madama Butterfly” on Friday, soprano Brenna Markey received an eleventh hour promotion. Read more…
Stunning Radvanovsky Worth the Wait, After Rain Delay at the Princeton Festival

Sondra Radvanovsky’s command and Victor Starsky’s passion combined to mesmerize and move, following a thunderstorm delay, even as rain continued to pelt the pavilion during the concert’s first half. Read more…
Caught in My Own Web: Tangled Up in Indignation Over Tim Greiving’s John Williams Bio

There are the bones of a good book here, and the author obviously loves his subject. But it needs a good editor to disguise its flaws. How problematic is it? After four days, I still haven’t been able to pull together a much more extensive review of everything I found wrong with it. Read more…
Opera Weekend: “Andrea Chénier” at OperaDelaware; “Frida y Diego” at the Met

Pulitzer Prize winner Gabriela Lena Frank’s “El último sueño de Frida y Diego” proves to be an absorbing magical-realism experiment; Umberto Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier” applies good old-fashioned verismo to the French Revolution. Read more…
Botstein, Dodging Bullets, Conducts Berlioz Edition of Weber’s “Der Freischütz”

Leon Botstein, under fire at Bard College for having courted donations from Jeffrey Epstein, oversees the first U.S. performance of Berlioz’s version of “Der Freischütz” at Carnegie Hall to mark the 200th anniversary of Weber’s death Read more…
Is There Still an Audience for “Ben-Hur”?

It was the most-decorated film of all-time, with a record-breaking 11 Academy Awards. It was also the highest grossing picture since “Gone with the Wind.” So why was I the only one in the theater? Read more…
“The Crucible,” Unfortunately, Never Goes Out of Style

Robert Ward’s “The Crucible” is no laughing matter, but Gary the “Crucible Puritan Guy” brought welcome levity to a gorgeous DC afternoon. Read more…
Raising a Pint to Barry Fitzgerald for St. Patrick’s Day

“Broth of a Boy” is thin brew, but still worth seeing for fans of “The Quiet Man” Read more…
Beguiling New Music with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra

The orchestra played with such commitment you would have sworn the music was standard repertoire. Read more…
John Williams’ Piano Concerto at the New York Philharmonic

That Williams, who turned 94 on February 8, still has the intellectual rigor to pull off a work on this scale is astonishing. Read more…