classical music

Classical music in the spotlight at Berlinale

The orphanage orchestra that plays a pop tune for the Pope in "Gloria" Classical music is often thought to have little place in today's arts and culture scene, but filmmakers at the Berlinale can't seem to get enough of it. Three films at this year's festival have classical music as central plot elements, and two…Read more Classical music in the spotlight at Berlinale

Stage Invasion – Ivan Fischer’s “explosive” Beethoven Fifth

Was it an orchestra take over? The audience could have been forgiven for gasping during a performance by the Budapest Festival Orchestra of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in Budapest this past weekend when two dozen or more young musicians, clutching everything from flutes to violins to double basses, rushed on stage from the wings, without warning,…Read more Stage Invasion – Ivan Fischer’s “explosive” Beethoven Fifth

Ades’s searing “Exterminating Angel”, based on film, is opera as cinema

SALZBURG, Austria - British composer Thomas Ades blurs the lines between cinema and opera in his edgy new work "The Exterminating Angel" based on director Luis Bunuel's film of the same name about guests trapped by an invisible force at an upper-crust dinner party. The opera, which had its premiere at the Salzburg Festival on…Read more Ades’s searing “Exterminating Angel”, based on film, is opera as cinema