Strauss' comedic 'Ariadne' a delight

August 19, 2008

If the Three Stooges stumbled into an oh-so-serious performance of Hamlet and carried on as usual alongside the uncomprehending actors, the result would be something akin to Ariadne auf Naxos, the musically and theatrically brilliant work by Richard Strauss that serves as an invigorating finale to Wolf Trap Opera's season.

Recent columns

• Crowds to blame for BSO's split personality

  August 12, 2008

  Back in the day, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's summer season at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall steered a fairly straight classical course. Sometimes, there were substantive chamber music programs as appetizers before the orchestral concerts.

• BSO players agree to new three-year contract

  August 5, 2008

  More than a month before their two-year contract expires, musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have ratified a new three-year deal that will see a total increase of 17.4 percent in base salary. By the 2010-2011 season, that base pay will be $90,012, an amount that was supposed to have been reached in 2005.

• Keystrokes aplenty

  July 29, 2008

  A few years ago, when the University of Baltimore unveiled its intimate Performing Arts Theater at the Student Center, a handsome new Steinway concert grand, selected by eminent pianist Yefim Bronfman, was part of the package. That piano will soon get a significant workout.

• Musical rules were made to be broken at An die Musik event

  July 22, 2008

  Music history is filled with composers who methodically followed the rules - this chord can't follow that chord, this type of theme must be balanced by that type of theme, this structure must be built only that way.

• 'Gondoliers' sets sail

  July 15, 2008

  Light entertainment and a heavy heat/humidity quotient somehow go together perfectly. In one of Baltimore's more charming summer traditions, the Young Victorian Theatre Company makes that point each year with the help of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The work chosen for the troupe's 38th season is as welcome for its relative novelty as for the general quality and flair of the presentation.

• Hear 'Messiah,' watch 'Messiah' or sing it yourself

  November 27, 2007

  It's Messiah time again, when choral groups large and small tackle Handel's stirring oratorio. Looking around at this year's many performances, some offer extra points of interest.