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America’s Messiah

From the December 1997 Print Edition

For musicians, Christmas means Messiah. This is not a comment upon musicians’ religiosity, but rather upon their finances. Messiah, Handel’s Messiah, is to America’s choral societies and orchestras what La Bohème is to its opera houses and Nutcracker to its ballets: the guaranteed full house . . . . Continue Reading »

Redemptive Sex at the Met

From the December 1996 Print Edition

Celebrating twenty-five years at the world’s greatest opera house, the New York Metropolitan Opera closed its season last year with a well deserved gala honoring conductor James Levine. During his tenure, Levine has raised the Met orchestra to a position where it is universally acclaimed as the . . . . Continue Reading »