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MusicApril 2008 New York chronicle On Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, the Kronos Quartet in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. For the past many years, Plácido Domingo and Renée Fleming have been an unbeatable Otello and Desdemona. In fact, this has been one of the outstanding pairings in opera. (Another, I might say, is the Samson and Delilah of Domingo and Olga Borodina.) But Domingo was absent from the recent revival of Otello at the Metropolitan Opera; instead, Fleming was paired with the big South African tenor, Johan Botha. And that proved a potent pairing, too. The character of Otello, you will recall, begins with a bang: Esultate! he hollers, at the beginning of the opera. Only he must not holler: The cry must be huge but musical. And this, Botha accomplished. He was admirable in the rest of the opera, too, mighty and resplendent. He was also sensitive, when Verdi called for that. Botha faltered now and then, but this is a big and challenging part, and Botha handled it manfully. He was the blend of power ... You need to login to view the full text of this article. This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 26 April 2008, on page 52 Copyright © 2008 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/new-york-chronicle-24-3815
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On the St. Lawrence String Quartet at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, members of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Knickerbocker Club, the Salzburg Festival at the Morgan Library, and the Kirov Orchestra & Chorus at Carnegie Hall.
On the Lorin Maazel's Tchaikovsky festival, the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the pianist Ivan Moravec at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus at Lincoln Center, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.
On the San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Daniel Gaisford at Bargemusic, the Berlin Philharmonic's Salzburg Easter Festival, Dmitri Hvorostovsky at Carnegie Hall, Julian Bliss at the Walter Reade Theater, and David Shifrin at the Rose Theater.
On Maurizio Pollini's Beethoven Sonatas Op. 2, Janine Jansen's Bach: Inventions & Partita, and Matt Heimovitz's After Reading Shakespeare.
On Un ballo in maschera at the Metropolitan Opera and Ross Lee Finney's Chamber Music at the Bruno Walter Auditorium.
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