Reviews

Two commissions honor Marin Alsop, the festivals founder and guiding light.

Recent works by Christopher Rouse and James MacMillan highlight the 2016 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s opening concert.

Strong leads, clever staging, and a solid orchestra bring out the best in Handel’s dark satire.

West Edge Opera’s production of Leoš Janáček’s masterpiece was much stronger musically than dramatically.

Thomas Adès’ early masterpiece has lost none of its shock value, but there is serious musical and dramatic entertainment, exploited to the full by West Edge Opera.

Under the big tent, listeners found Beethoven and Bach rubbing shoulders with jazz, Balkan a capella vocals, and Louisiana folk group Beausoleil.

Alexander Sitkovetsky and Wu Qian shine on a program spanning centuries of musical expression.

Lesser-known composers took center stage at Music@Menlo, where real masterworks by Erno Dohnányi and Anton Arensky were shadowed by early works from Mahler and Shostakovich.

Anne Sexton’s dark, wordy libretto is buoyed by strong performances and Conrad Susa’s score.

Stripped down to essentials, this was a visceral, exciting production of Monteverdi's masterpiece, The Coronation of Poppea.