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- Classical
- What’s better than an afternoon with the music of Maurice Ravel? Last Sunday the answer was: an afternoon with the music of Ravel performed by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with ...
- Created on 24 January 2025
- Classical
- "The Germans," observed the great violinist Joseph Joachim, "have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising, is Beethoven's." This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, January 24 and 26) James ...
- Created on 20 January 2025
- Classical
- This weekend (January 17 and 19) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève returns for a program devoted entirely to a composer I love almost as much as he does: Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). ...
- Created on 15 January 2025
- Classical
- This past Saturday, January 11th, Opera Theatre’s Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program consisting of “The School for Scandal Overture,” Op. 5, ...
- Created on 13 January 2025
- Classical
- The regular concert season of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) resumes on this Friday and Saturday (January 10 and 11) as Opera Theatre’s Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari leads the orchestra ...
- Created on 08 January 2025
- Classical
- The annual New Year’s Eve concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has always been a festive occasion and this year was no exception. Indeed, the mix of elegance and entertainment former SLSO ...
- Created on 06 January 2025
- Classical
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s (SLSO) holiday programming concludes Tuesday, December 31, at 7:30 pm with the annual “New Year’s Eve Celebration” concert. This year the figure on the podium will be ...
- Created on 29 December 2024
- Classical
- Special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) holiday programming continues this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, December 28 and 29) Scott Terrell Photo courtesy of the SLSO Saturday ...
- Created on 27 December 2024
- Visual & Performing Arts
- ... Photo courtesy of fnnch Chuck Lavazzi (CL): Your Honey Bears are based on the old squeezable bear-shaped honey jars. I remember them from my childhood. fnnch: Yeah, there was originally a patent ...
- Created on 20 December 2024
- Classical
- Special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) holiday programming continues this week with one program at two different venues. That program is, of course, the traditional “Mercy Holiday Celebration.” Norman ...
- Created on 17 December 2024
- Classical
- It might seem counter-intuitive for a concert billed as “A Baroque Christmas” to feature only 20 minutes or so of actual Christmas music, but as far as I’m concerned, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert ...
- Created on 13 December 2024
- Classical
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s regular concert season traditionally goes on hiatus during December, but special holiday events continue right up through New Year’s Eve. This week is relatively light, ...
- Created on 11 December 2024
- Classical
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s regular concert season traditionally goes on hiatus during December, but that doesn’t mean the orchestra and chorus aren’t kept busy. Far from it, as a quick survey of ...
- Created on 03 December 2024
- Classical
- Last Friday and Saturday (November 15th and 16th) it was all Mozart (almost) all the time, as Music Director Stéphane Denève led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in two symphonies, an opera overture, and ...
- Created on 21 November 2024
- Classical
- Twentieth century American composer William Grant Still (1985–1978) has been getting a fair amount of long-overdue attention in recent years. His one-act opera “Highway 1, USA” got an exceptional production ...
- Created on 19 November 2024
- Classical
- This weekend (November 15 and 16) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the second of two programs devoted almost entirely to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). It’s ...
- Created on 12 November 2024
- Classical
- “The universe is optimistic.” Thus spake Music Director Stéphane Denève at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this past Saturday (November 9). The inspiration for that declaration, he said, was the fact ...
- Created on 11 November 2024
- Classical
- This weekend (November 9 and 10) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the first of two programs devoted almost entirely to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Think ...
- Created on 05 November 2024
- Classical
- It’s quite a mixed bag this weekend (October 18 and 19) as guest conductor David Danzmayr makes his third appearance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since his notable local debut in 2021. During ...
- Created on 15 October 2024
- Classical
- “A wandering minstrel I,” sings Nanki-Poo as he introduces himself in “The Mikado”; “A thing of shreds and patches.” You wouldn’t call the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra “a thing of shreds and patches,” ...
- Created on 03 October 2024
- Classical
- Guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra have a quick trip through time and space this weekend (Friday and Sunday, October 4 and 6), with music that zaps you from 19th century ...
- Created on 01 October 2024
- Theatre Reviews
- Re-interpreting or updating a 19th-century opera in a way that speaks to a 21st-century audience without ignoring or (worse yet) contradicting the intentions of the work’s original creators is a dicey ...
- Created on 29 September 2024
- Classical
- Back in the days when I was still doing a weekly show at KDHX, I loved to put together different and often seemingly unrelated songs into sets designed to highlight the relationships among them. St. Louis ...
- Created on 25 September 2024
- Cabaret
- ... with my beautiful St. Louis following. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): You've been here in St. Louis quite number of times, I think most recently last spring. AHC: Yeah. I have sung with the symphony there. I'v ...
- Created on 16 September 2024
- Theatre Reviews
- I’m not sure exactly when opera companies began folding musicals into their seasons. Lyric Opera of Chicago has doing so since around 2013, as have some European companies, but the trend has only recently ...
- Created on 19 August 2024
- Classical
- ... for clarity and brevity (“the soul of wit,” as Shakespeare wrote). Chuck Lavazzi So you're opening with Bizet’s “Carmen” and then a concert staging of Verdi’s “Aida” and finally Sondheim’s “Into the ...
- Created on 21 June 2024
- Theatre Reviews
- First things first: I love the 1985 French opera/musical “Les Misérables.” Based on Victor Hugo’s justifiably popular 1862 novel of the same name (Upton Sinclair is said to have described it as "one of ...
- Created on 19 June 2024
- Theatre Reviews
- When George Frederic Handel’s “Julius Caesar” (“Giulio Cesare”) had its 1724 premiere at the King’s Theatre in London, it was a huge success. That’s because it gave audiences what they wanted: dramatic ...
- Created on 13 June 2024
- Theatre Reviews
- When Puccini’s “La bohème” premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 (with Arturo Toscanini at the podium, no less) the public and critical reception was lukewarm. That changed quickly as productions ...
- Created on 03 June 2024
- Cabaret
- ... live entertainment continues at the Blue Strawberry, with details available at their web site. Finally: for my in-depth interview with Young, including a look at his many other talents, check out Chuck' ...
- Created on 14 May 2024
- Classical
- While it might seem superfluous to review the concert that was part of last Friday’s (May 3) annual St. Louis Symphony Orchestra fund-raising gala, it was such a great experience that a few words are perhaps ...
- Created on 08 May 2024
- Classical
- ... South; just a pleasant April reprieve before six solid months of punishing heat and humidity. Chuck Lavazzi’s preview of this program emphasized the chillier elements of the three Scandinavian works; our ...
- Created on 05 May 2024
- Classical
- The performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (a.k.a. the “Manzoni Requiem”) this past Sunday (April 28) by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and Chorus reminded me of why I have ...
- Created on 02 May 2024
- Cabaret
- “I happen to like New York,” wrote Cole Porter in 1930. “I like the sight and the sound and even the stink of it / I happen to like New York.” The late musical theatre legend Stephen Sondheim (a great ...
- Created on 29 April 2024
- Classical
- There's only one work on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus program this weekend, but it's a big one: the "Messa da Requiem" (Requiem Mass) by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). [Preview the music ...
- Created on 23 April 2024
- Classical
- A chilly wind blows through St. Louis this weekend as temperatures drop back to something more closely approximating the norm for late April. By sheer coincidence the musical equivalent of a brisk northern ...
- Created on 17 April 2024
- Classical
- When St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Principal Horn Roger Kaza and Fourth Horn Julie Thayer started putting together the program for the “Horn Calls” program presented at the Sheldon last Sunday (April 7), ...
- Created on 10 April 2024
- Classical
- During the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s (SLSO) “Operatic Favorites” concert a few weeks ago, Music Director Stéphane Denève reminded us that for much of its history opera has been accompanied by ballet. ...
- Created on 22 March 2024
- Classical
- In Act I, scene 1 of Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” Leonato, the Governor of Messina, plays down his niece Beatrice’s insulting description of Benedick, saying that there is “a kind of ...
- Created on 20 March 2024
- Theatre Reviews
- Last week (March 16–18) Opera Theatre of St. Louis unveiled its second annual New Works Collective (NWC). This year the composer/librettist teams that created the three brand-new 20-minute operas were ...
- Created on 19 March 2024
- Cabaret
- ... conclusion to their romantic journey. I had a chat with Hanrahan and Engel via email about the creative process behind the shows. Here it is, with some edits for clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): Were “Movie ...
- Created on 17 March 2024
- Classical
- “Invitation to the Dance” (“Aufforderung zum Tanz”), Op. 65, is one of the more popular pieces by Carl Maria von Weber, especially in its 1841 orchestration by Hector Berlioz. It’s also a good description ...
- Created on 14 March 2024
- Classical
- We’re still nearly three months away from opening night at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, but last Sunday (March 3) Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra decided to “spring ahead” with a consistently ...
- Created on 06 March 2024
- Classical
- Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus continued their peripatetic wanderjahr last night (February 28) with a brilliantly conceived all-French program at the Cathedral Basilica ...
- Created on 02 March 2024
- Classical
- ... to listen to it without a chuckle, but let’s all do our best, shall we? The second half of the concert opens with another overture, this time to the 1866 opéra comique (i.e., there’s a happy ending) ...
- Created on 28 February 2024
- Classical
- An unusual week is coming up for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO). There will be two concerts in two vastly different venues with different acoustics and very different programs. The only common ...
- Created on 27 February 2024
- Classical
- Last Saturday night (February 17) Stéphane Denève took a few minutes before giving the downbeat to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to ask the audience to applaud less. [Find out more about the ...
- Created on 21 February 2024
- Classical
- I have often written that the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève knows how to use silence as a musical element. So it’s not surprising to see him saying the following in ...
- Created on 13 February 2024
- Classical
- I have periodically described the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) as an ensemble of virtuosi. The SLSO “Live at the Sheldon” concert last night (Wednesday, February 7) was a welcome opportunity to ...
- Created on 10 February 2024
- Classical
- ... the brass and percussion before returning to the quiet serenity of the opening. L-R: Augustin Hadelich and Stéphane Denève Photo by Chuck Lavazzi Under Denève’s sympathetic direction, ...
- Created on 05 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Tootsie”, the musical, by David Yazbek and Robert Horn, premiered on Broadway in 2019 and garnered multiple Tony nominations winning Best Book and Best Leading Actor. If you’ve seen the 1982 film “Tootsie”, ...
- Created on 23 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "Anastasia," the 2016 stage adaptation of the 1997 animated musical film that's playing the Fox through January 6th, has imposing credentials. With music by the talented team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn ...
- Created on 27 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- For some time now, the last weekend in December has been the time for the St. Louis Symphony to present a family-friendly concert--often with a cinematic theme--designed to pull in big audiences and contribute ...
- Created on 03 January 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Steven Spielberg's blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a live concert version of which is on view at Powell Hall this weekend, is 34 years old now and beginning to show its age -- which is not ...
- Created on 10 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's the fourth and last installment of that four-part conversation, with minor edits for clarity. CL (Chuck Lavazzi): What other ...
- Created on 30 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... (Chuck Lavazzi): I was looking through the season press release and the first word that came to my mind was "innovation." The SLSO has certainly been doing innovative and different programming over the ...
- Created on 18 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "Singin' in the Rain," the 1983 stage adaptation of the beloved 1952 movie musical, will probably never make anyone's list of Best Musicals of All Time. But the Muny's production of the 2012 London revival ...
- Created on 28 June 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- 'Merrie melodies' at the St. Louis Symphony with 'Walt Disney Animation Studios: A Decade in Concer
- It's always nice to have a big, family-friendly event at this time of the year, and this weekend Grand Center played host to a pair of them: the musical "Anastasia" at the Fox and, just up the street at ...
- Created on 29 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... Here's a transcript of our conversation, minus some edits for clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): We've been reading a lot about what will be new next season, but let's talk for a minute about what's not going ...
- Created on 09 February 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â John Williams, who turned 86 in February, is probably the best known and most frequently recorded film music composer of the last 100 years. He's certainly one of the most honored, with five Oscars, ...
- Created on 19 March 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When Mel Brooks made his now famous comedy “The Producers” back in 1967, the central plot device of a musical comedy based on the life of Hitler was sufficiently absurd to be a joke all by itself. Since ...
- Created on 28 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The late Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 opera “Susannah” had its Opera Theatre of St. Louis premiere on June 10th and it is, on every possible level, a resounding success. Janai Brugger, William ...
- Created on 12 June 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The 1969 American Revolution musical "1776," a splendid production of which is at the Muny through July 3rd, is not so much a traditional Broadway show as it is a play with musical interludes. Fortunately ...
- Created on 28 June 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Fun Home, the musical stage adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 "family tragicomic" of the same name, is something of an odd fit for the Fox Theatre, where a national tour of the show is playing through ...
- Created on 21 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Although generally considered a satirist, Tom Lehrer once dismissed satire as leaving audiences “satisfied rather than angry, which is what they should be.” Writer, actor, and former Senator Al Franken’s ...
- Created on 23 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â What with the all the hot air lately, both climatological and political, it has been difficult to really get into the holiday mood, but Friday night's St. Louis Symphony concert might just have gotten ...
- Created on 05 December 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â "It's not where you start," runs a Dorothy Fields lyric from the 1973 musical Seesaw, "it's where you finish. It's not how you go, it's how you land." If the fifteenth and final symphony by Dmitri ...
- Created on 27 January 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â As someone who, just two years ago, had a face-off with death in the form of life-saving brain surgery, Ari Axelrod has perhaps a more mature view on mortality than many other twenty-somethings. It ...
- Created on 05 December 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It's spring, and once again I made the annual pilgrimage to the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL), which came to a close this past Sunday (April 7, 2019). As we ...
- Created on 08 April 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Powerful, moving performances and a strong sense of whimsy highlight a beautiful production of Jules Massenet's last big hit, Don Quichotte, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. When Jules Massenet wrote his operatic ...
- Created on 23 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Through December 3, Lyric Opera of Chicago is presenting its first-ever production of Hector Berlioz's mammoth 1858 drama Les Troyens. For many Chicago opera lovers, that makes it a once-in-a-lifetime ...
- Created on 21 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Dramatizing contemporary political events is a risky proposition. A story "ripped from the headlines" can have immediate impact but fade quickly as the latest outrage takes center stage. Fortunately, ...
- Created on 06 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â "Having been unpopular in high school," observed Fran Lebowitz in her 1978 essay collection Metropolitan Life, "is not just cause for book publication." If she had seen Sarah Ruhl's For Peter Pan ...
- Created on 07 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â The poor are a frequent topic of American political discourse, receiving compassionate concern from the left and righteous hatred from the right. But our shredded social safety net has left the middle ...
- Created on 07 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Every edition of the Humana Festival features a program of short one-act plays organized around a common theme and performed by the students of the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Acting Apprentice ...
- Created on 07 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â One of the great things about the Humana Festival of New American Plays is the valuable exposure it gives to new playwrights. Their work is sometimes rough around the edges or even, as is the case ...
- Created on 09 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â One of the great pleasures of the novels of Charles Dickens is the often comical way in which he arranges for characters from very disparate walks of life to be connected, often by wildly improbable ...
- Created on 07 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... appearance at The Sheldon, I’d say that might be something of an exaggeration. [Check out my interview with Paula Poundstone on my Chuck's Culture Channel Video Blog] For over 90 minutes, we not ...
- Created on 02 May 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â The St. Louis Symphony gave us an appropriately autumnal concert this weekend, October 21 - 23, 2016, featuring Rachmaninoff's nocturnal Symphonic Dances in a finely nuanced interpretation by guest ...
- Created on 24 October 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was all Bach all the time this weekend at the St. Louis Symphony as Bernard Labadie returned to conduct all four of the composer's orchestral suites. Working without a score, Mr. Labadie gave us lively ...
- Created on 06 March 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Looking for some fine old family-friendly fun this weekend? Allow me to recommend "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert." It's the hit movie with the soundtrack, by Scottish composer Patrick ...
- Created on 15 September 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- By Chuck Lavazzi [Being the first in a series of dispatches from the 2023 Bravo! Vail Music Festival.] “Hydrate” was the word of the day as yours truly and a group of seven other members of the Music ...
- Created on 13 July 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- By Chuck Lavazzi [Being the second in a series of dispatches from the 2023 Bravo! Vail Music Festival, attended by yours truly as part of a delegation from the Music Critics Association of North America ...
- Created on 17 July 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- By Chuck Lavazzi [Being the third in a series of dispatches from the 2023 Bravo! Vail Music Festival, attended by yours truly as part of a delegation from the Music Critics Association of North America ...
- Created on 20 July 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- By Chuck Lavazzi [Being the fourth and last in a series of dispatches from the 2023 Bravo! Vail Music Festival, attended by yours truly as part of a delegation from the Music Critics Association of North ...
- Created on 23 July 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In a New York Times article published the day before the October 31, 1949, premiere of Marc Blitzstein's opera "Regina" – a truly stunning production of which is playing at Opera Theatre through June 24th ...
- Created on 28 May 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last December local singer/actress/educator Debby Lennon brought a delightful jazz-inflected holiday show to the Blue Strawberry. The revised version she performed at Jim Dolan’s Central West End club ...
- Created on 21 December 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I never thought of myself as a fan of the late singer/songwriter John Prine, but Marissa Mulder’s “Souvenirs,” a Prine tribute show that played The Blue Strawberry April 21 and 22, showed that I was wrong. ...
- Created on 25 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's part 3 of that four-part conversation, with minor edits for clarity. Nicola Benedetti CL (Chuck Lavazzi): ...
- Created on 28 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â There was a lot to be thankful for Friday night as Atlanta Symphony Music Director Robert Spano conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program that opened with a pair of late Romantic symphonic ...
- Created on 27 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) has had a long and mostly happy history with Mozart’s final opera “The Magic Flute.” The current production, which runs through June 26th, is the fifth in the company’s ...
- Created on 06 June 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In her program notes for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this past weekend (May 4 - 6, 2018), René Spencer Saller quotes composer and jazz trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis as describing the final, ...
- Created on 08 May 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  Since the inception of the "Music You Know" programming in November of 2014, I have become a great admirer of the St. Louis Symphony's concert series devoted mostly to relatively short works -- most ...
- Created on 30 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- As Al Joslon once sang to Jimmy Durante, "It's a thrill when a real piano player sits down at the keys." Last Friday, November 11, at the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, singer, songwriter, Sirius/SM radio ...
- Created on 16 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Available through September 25th, the latest digital release from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is from a series of concerts originally performed live this past Mother's Day weekend (May 7th ...
- Created on 30 August 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- On November 5th and 6th 2021, Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) presented a concert that opened with a powerful work of personal lamentation and ended with a gripping and ultimately ...
- Created on 22 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fourth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series consists of performances recorded in an audience-free Powell Hall last ...
- Created on 11 May 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last November 26 and 27, Gemma New, the former Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), returned to Powell Hall to conduct the first of a special pair of concerts honoring the life ...
- Created on 25 February 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- As the risk of putting whatever reputation I might have as a critic at risk, I have a confession to make: I don't like writing negative reviews. As long as the performance justifies it, I'd rather write ...
- Created on 14 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  As the St. Louis Symphony concerts this past weekend demonstrated, the familiar can still feel fresh and new, especially in the hands of inventive and skilled performers like conductor Jun Märkl ...
- Created on 05 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... Coleman about what that means for Muny staff and audiences this year. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): So, this is the first time in the Muny's 102-year history that it has had to postpone an entire season. Kwofe ...
- Created on 08 June 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Powell Symphony Hall went dark in mid-March due to the rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) quickly found multiple ways to stay in touch with its audience ...
- Created on 11 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's part 2 of that conversation, with minor edits for clarity. CL (Chuck Lavazzi): I was looking at some of the outreach initiatives ...
- Created on 20 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â In a laudatory review of Han-Na Chang's Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, with the Oslo Philharmonic earlier this year, critic Lars O. Fyldal called her "one of this generation's most ...
- Created on 08 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Jolly Haydn and dramatic Beethoven were on tap this past weekend at Powell Hall, in a program made up mostly of music written around 1800. The concerts opened, appropriately, with an overture -- ...
- Created on 29 September 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I've been attending the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville since 2011, and one thing I've noticed over the years is that some of the most experimental and innovative ...
- Created on 25 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In Mara Nelson-Greenberg's wildly energetic (if ultimately exhausting) comedy "Do You Feel Anger?," the world premiere of which is on stage at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 2018 Humana Festival through ...
- Created on 27 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The prolonged illness and death of a parent can put stress on the most durable of families. When the family is as fragile as the one Leah Nanako Winkler depicts in "God Said This," which is getting its ...
- Created on 24 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The importance of sheer dumb luck in human affairs is something that was well understood in the ancient world. These days we seem determined to deny it, no matter how often it dope slaps us. The characters ...
- Created on 25 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In her essay of Mark Schultz's "Evocation to Visible Appearance," which is getting its world premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Plays through April 8th, Amy Wegner quotes the author as saying ...
- Created on 25 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In his program note for the Repertory Theatre's well acted and smartly directed world premiere production of "Nonsense and Beauty," playwright Scott C. Sickles recalls that the play's genesis dates from ...
- Created on 09 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â This weekend's St. Louis Symphony concerts (January 27-29) are the last regular subscription series programs before Maestro David Robertson and the orchestra leave for a tour of Spain in February. ...
- Created on 30 January 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In Chicago, 'The Illusionists Live From Broadway' entertains but doesn’t entirely match the hyp
- The Illusionists Live From Broadway, which bills itself as the "next generation" in magic, arrived at Chicago's Oriental Theatre last week (February 21-16) trailing clouds of hype -- as magic shows have ...
- Created on 01 March 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  We arrived in Chicago the last weekend in February just in time for the final night of Lyric Opera's splendid production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma. With a truly memorable performance by soprano ...
- Created on 06 March 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Let's cut to the chase: you know all those things you've heard about how intelligent, theatrically powerful, and just generally wonderful Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit musical Hamilton is? Well, they're all ...
- Created on 23 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â It's always good to see a well-sung and expertly played production of Wagner's Ring cycle and the Lyric Opera of Chicago's mounting of Das Rheingold, which opens a four-season run through the entire ...
- Created on 21 October 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â My wife Sherry once observed that the phrase "men behaving badly" could summarize the stories of most of opera's core repertory. Tchaikovsky's 1879 Eugene Onegin, a powerful production of which runs ...
- Created on 01 March 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  The St. Louis Symphony concerts this weekend (April 22-24, 2016) offered a remarkable study in contrasts, with familiar classics by Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Dvořák getting novel, idiosyncratic, ...
- Created on 25 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "Everything You Know is Wrong" is both a hilariously surreal 1974 album by the The Firesign Theatre and a decent summary of "Caught," Christopher Chen's ingenious puzzle box of a play at the Repertory ...
- Created on 10 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... Ladue News; Bob Cohn, St. Louis Jewish Light; Tina Farmer, KDHX; Michelle Kenyon, snoopstheatrethoughts.com; Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle (HEC Media); Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX and Stage Left; Sarah Bryan ...
- Created on 09 April 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... with my beautiful St. Louis following. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): You've been here in St. Louis quite number of times, I think most recently last spring. AHC: Yeah. I have sung with the symphony there. I'v ...
- Created on 16 September 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orfeo and Euridice" ("Orfeo ed Euridice" in the original Italian) was first performed back in 1762, it was considered somewhat radical. Opera Theatre's lively and whimsical ...
- Created on 15 June 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â It was a relatively sparse crowd that witnessed the local premiere of John Adams' 2012 oratorio/theatre piece The Gospel According to the Other Mary Friday night, April 24, by the St. Louis Symphony ...
- Created on 28 March 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â As anyone who has ever seen Barb Jungr or Storm Large in action understands, there is definitely a place for rock at the cabaret table. Karen Irwin demonstrated that again last Saturday, November ...
- Created on 10 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  Most folks come back from vacations with snapshots or souvenirs. The great French composer Camille Saint-Saëns came back from a winter trip to Egypt with a piano concerto, which was performed with ...
- Created on 16 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If you're already a fan of cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, you won't be surprised to learn that she and her long-time pianist/music director Tedd Firth rocked the house last night (March 7, 2019) at Jazz ...
- Created on 08 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- NOTE: "Songs of America" is an ongoing project. This review represents the available performances on July 15, 2020. Like so many other performing arts organizations, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 14 July 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... with OTSL General Director Andrew Jorgensen about the coming season and how it will be both similar to and different from the OTSL experience in the past. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I wanted to talk about what ...
- Created on 13 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Friday and Sunday, January 20 and 22, Winter Opera St. Louis presents Verdi's first Shakespearean opera "Macbeth." Premiered in 1847, it was revised in 1865 for a Paris production. This is the version ...
- Created on 20 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... for clarity and brevity (“the soul of wit,” as Shakespeare wrote). Chuck Lavazzi So you're opening with Bizet’s “Carmen” and then a concert staging of Verdi’s “Aida” and finally Sondheim’s “Into the ...
- Created on 21 June 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- On May 21st, Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) opened their 47th season with a polished if occasionally odd production of Bizet’s 1875 tragedy "Carmen." It’s the company’s fourth production of a work that, ...
- Created on 25 May 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I don’t know about you, but I could sure use some good laughs right about now. Fortunately, Winter Opera is serving up a heaping helping of them this weekend (Friday and Sunday, November 8 and 10) with ...
- Created on 07 November 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Verdi adored Shakespeare,” writes Garry Wills in his invaluable “Verdi’s Shakespeare: Men of the Theater,” and goes on to note that the composer briefly considered operatic treatments of “The Tempest,” ...
- Created on 23 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The production of Jules Massenet's 1899 opera "Cendrillon" ("Cinderella") that opened at Lyric Opera of Chicago on December 1st, while new to Chicago, originated back in 2006 at Santa Fe Opera. It has ...
- Created on 06 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When Philip Glass and his librettists Mary Zimmerman and poet Arnold Weinstein premiered their opera “Galileo Galilei” at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2002, the story of a scientist threatened with prison ...
- Created on 18 June 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Few economic sectors have been as damaged by COVID-19 as the performing arts. Entire seasons were wiped out, including that of Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL). OTSL is back in business this year, though, ...
- Created on 25 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Back in 2015 I asked Michael Shell, who was directing Opera Theatre’s production of Rossini’s "The Barber of Seville," why he thought this comic opera had remained so popular over the centuries. His answer: ...
- Created on 02 August 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Friday and Sunday March 25 and 27, Winter Opera presents a polished, musically impeccable production of the 1907 version of Puccini’s “Japanese tragedy” "Madama Butterfly." Beautifully sung and respectably ...
- Created on 25 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The story line may not make much sense and the principal male characters are studies in testosterone poisoning and bad judgment, but nevertheless Verdi's 1853 tragedy "Il Trovatore" ("The Troubadour") ...
- Created on 08 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Re-interpreting or updating a 19th-century opera in a way that speaks to a 21st-century audience without ignoring or (worse yet) contradicting the intentions of the work’s original creators is a dicey ...
- Created on 29 September 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last week (March 16–18) Opera Theatre of St. Louis unveiled its second annual New Works Collective (NWC). This year the composer/librettist teams that created the three brand-new 20-minute operas were ...
- Created on 19 March 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When Puccini’s “La bohème” premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 (with Arturo Toscanini at the podium, no less) the public and critical reception was lukewarm. That changed quickly as productions ...
- Created on 03 June 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Opera Theatre (OTSL) has never been shy about introducing the audience to new or simply unfamiliar works. Often, those operas have proven to be the hits of their respective seasons. Their production ...
- Created on 01 June 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When George Frederic Handel’s “Julius Caesar” (“Giulio Cesare”) had its 1724 premiere at the King’s Theatre in London, it was a huge success. That’s because it gave audiences what they wanted: dramatic ...
- Created on 13 June 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The best reason to see Opera Theatre’s production of Francis Poulenc’s 1959 one-act opera “La voix humaine” (“The Human Voice”) is soprano Patricia Racette’s bravura performance in the one and only role ...
- Created on 08 June 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Friday and Sunday, November 18 and 20) Winter Opera kicks off their season with a stylish “La Rondine” (“The Sparrow”), a Puccini work that hasn’t been seen locally since 2015. Giuseppe Adami's ...
- Created on 18 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OSTSL) concluded its al fresco 2021 season with the “New Works, Bold Voices Lab,” I opined that they had saved the best for last. The three 20-minute operas by emerging ...
- Created on 25 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Saturday night (June 19th) Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) offered the sixth edition of its annual "Center Stage" concert. I missed the first four and have been kicking myself ever since I discovered, ...
- Created on 22 June 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Tuesday night (June 20th) Opera Theatre of St. Louis presented the eighth edition of its justly celebrated “Center Stage” concert. Travel plans obliged us to miss last year’s edition, so I was looking ...
- Created on 23 June 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Union Avenue Opera has an enviable ability to turn out solid productions of big, traditional operas under conditions that are often less than ideal. So it’s no surprise that they managed the dauting task ...
- Created on 29 July 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Union Avenue Opera is opening its 30th season with Bizet's "Carmen," a venerable work which, according to a New York Times article from some years back, is the fourth most-performed opera in North America. ...
- Created on 09 July 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- There are number of remarkable things about Puccini's 1910 drama "La fanciulla del west" ("The Girl of the West"), not the least of which is the fact that the excellent production Winter Opera is presenting ...
- Created on 06 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s new production of Mozart’s last and arguably most controversial opera “Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti” (roughly “All women are like that, or the school for lovers”) ...
- Created on 07 June 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- To quote Walt Kelly’s Howland Owl paraphrasing Kipling, “the tumult and shouting has died.” After being postponed for two years due to the pandemic the third and leanest version of Stewart Wallace and ...
- Created on 22 June 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Through June 24th, Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents the world premiere of “Awakenings,” based on the book of the same name by Oliver Sacks. With music by Tobias Picker and a libretto by Picker’s husband, ...
- Created on 10 June 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- There was a genuine sense of occasion at Powell Hall Friday night (April 7, 2017), and not just because conductor David Robertson and the members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra were uniformly spiffy ...
- Created on 09 April 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- On Wednesday, August 7th, Union Avenue Opera hosted a fascinating panel discussion about Kurt Weill's "Lost in the Stars," which the company is presenting August 17 - 25. Dr. Timothy Parsons of Washington ...
- Created on 08 August 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... upcoming cabaret adventure. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): You two have very different backgrounds as far as performing goes. Donna has a long career here as a stand-up comic and actress but Shirley just got the ...
- Created on 28 May 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." The quote is usually attributed to composer Franz Schubert, but it could just as well have been the theme for ...
- Created on 19 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is giving audiences an early Christmas present this weekend (November 29-December 1) in the form of a thoroughly enchanting complete performance of Tchaikovsky's ...
- Created on 30 November 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Principal Horn Roger Kaza and Fourth Horn Julie Thayer started putting together the program for the “Horn Calls” program presented at the Sheldon last Sunday (April 7), ...
- Created on 10 April 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Attendance at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert this past Saturday (September 29th) was rather light. Which was a shame, since it brought us a pair of impressive performances by violinist Leila ...
- Created on 01 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The accent was on youth this past Sunday (February 18, 2018) as guest conductor Matthew Halls made his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut with a program of music by a trio of early 19th-century composers ...
- Created on 20 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In remarks from the podium before the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Friday night (May 10, 2019) Stéphane Denève, who takes over as Music Director in the fall, promised "a fantastic night together." ...
- Created on 11 May 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program this past Sunday (December 8th) didn't have a single piece of Christmas music on the bill but it couldn't have been more appropriate for what Charles Dickens ...
- Created on 11 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Although he's based in New York City, singer/songwriter/teacher Rick Jensen has been a frequent visitor to St. Louis, both as a performer and as a music director and pianist for a number of local singers. ...
- Created on 09 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- What with the unseasonably warm weather and irrationally dumb politics, it can be hard to get into the festive spirit right now, but last night (Friday, December 21st) a Poinsettia Punch and the annual ...
- Created on 22 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In his remarks from the podium before the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday night (February 3, 2018) Stéphane Denève (who was named as the SLSO's 13th Music Director last summer) said that ...
- Created on 06 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) chamber music festival kicked off its second and final week on Wednesday, November 5th, with a sharply contrasting pair of works: Caroline Shaw's "Ent'racte" (first ...
- Created on 05 November 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The pandemic forced the St. Louis Symphony to cancel its regular season but for one brief shining moment last fall they were able to present chamber music concerts in Powell Hall by operating at less than ...
- Created on 15 February 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In an interview last week, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève observed that "nobody should ever conduct music that he or she doesn't believe in. Because music is about ...
- Created on 12 February 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It's an index of the continuing popularity of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin that he got a standing ovation from the crowd as soon as he stepped on to the stage Saturday ...
- Created on 06 May 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It has been a few years since my wife and I have been to London, but I feel like we took another visit there Friday night (November 23) with that wonderfully evocative performance of Vaughan Williams's ...
- Created on 24 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: An enlightening journey into darkness with Karen Gomyo and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
- This weekend (October 18-20) Stéphane Denève returned to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an early 20th century program that moved from light to darkness (or at least twilight) with a ...
- Created on 20 October 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In my experience, nothing guarantees a light turnout at a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert like an unfamiliar conductor and/or soloist. Combine that with a program that features two works not ...
- Created on 03 February 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A good Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") should deliver the "three Ts": tragedy, terror, and triumph. The performance last Friday night (September 27, 2009) by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis ...
- Created on 29 September 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It's a tribute to the professionalism of our St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians that they can play like a single organism even when there's not somebody waving a stick at them. [Find out more about ...
- Created on 16 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- During his tenure as Music Director, David Robertson made the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's New Year's Eve concert an evening of light, celebratory music, dashes of comedy, and surprise guest appearances. ...
- Created on 01 January 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It has been a while since I have seen either Award-winning pianist and songwriter John McDaniel and cabaret star Barb Jungr on stage (2007 and 2010, respectively). And I had never seen them together until ...
- Created on 30 January 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- What’s better than having the full St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) back on stage for an evening of “Operatic Encores”? Well, how about having free beer and pretzels in the lobby beforehand, courtesy ...
- Created on 27 June 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The weekend got off to a great start this morning (Friday, October 5th) as Bramwell Tovey conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a pair of big 19th-century symphonies by Beethoven and Berlioz. The ...
- Created on 05 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- John McDaniel is the prototypical example of the local boy who made good. From his days doing musical theatre at Kirkwood High School in suburban St. Louis, he has gone on to make a major name for himself ...
- Created on 23 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Spring arrived early this year, both outdoors and inside Powell Hall, as guest conductor Christian Arming led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Friday night (March 2nd, 2018) in an inventive take on Schumann's ...
- Created on 03 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- War may be, as the classic songs says, good for absolutely nothing, but opposition to it has certainly inspired some great music, as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program this past weekend (March 10 ...
- Created on 12 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Daniel Radcliffe and Imelda Staunton in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Photo courtesy of CineConcerts I've said it before, but it bears repeating: nothing can quite match ...
- Created on 15 April 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "A Swinging Holiday Soiree," David Giuntoli's show at the Blue Strawberry this Thursday (December 19th), was exactly that: a genial gambol through a mix of holiday classics and Great American Songbook ...
- Created on 21 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Beginnings and endings. A young man's first big piano concerto and an old man's last symphony. Both got splendid performances last Saturday (December 1st) by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under guest ...
- Created on 02 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... Christopher Photo by Chuck Lavazzi Mr. Christopher looks nothing like the late singer/actor, but he has Martin's vocal quality and loose-limbed drunk act down pat. It took very little suspension ...
- Created on 07 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I think I found a way to lower my energy costs. I just need to figure out how to hook up my house to Dean Christopher's "A Classic-Vegas, Rat-Pack Christmas" show that played the Blue Strawberry last night ...
- Created on 07 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... back to the Strawberry last Friday (September 24th) and, after seeing it again, I’m of no mind to change that assessment. Dean Christopher as Dean Martin sings "Houston" Photo by Chuck Lavazzi ...
- Created on 28 September 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The Blue Strawberry Showroom and Lounge unwrapped an early Christmas present for St. Louis audiences last night (December 5) with a jazz-inflected holiday show by local singer/actress/educator Debby Lennon ...
- Created on 06 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I have been known to gripe about the tendency of local St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert audiences to give a standing ovation to pretty much anything that, as the Venticelli say in Peter Shaffer's ...
- Created on 08 February 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Pianists Kirill Gerstein and Garrick Ohlsson are no strangers to the St. Louis concert scene. Gerstein, in particular, has been a frequent soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO)—most recently ...
- Created on 02 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I have periodically described the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) as an ensemble of virtuosi. The SLSO “Live at the Sheldon” concert last night (Wednesday, February 7) was a welcome opportunity to ...
- Created on 10 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- There were only two works on the program Friday night (October 19, 2018) at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. They were both from the 19th century German repertoire, and they could hardly have been more ...
- Created on 20 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The evening air was crisp and so was the playing of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO last night (Saturday, October 12) as Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin led the band in an entertaining and expertly ...
- Created on 13 October 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The movie nights that are part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's "Powell Hall Live" series have always been a pleasure for me, back since they were largely limited to silent films like "City Lights" ...
- Created on 14 May 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The pandemic forced the St. Louis Symphony to cancel its regular season but for one brief shining moment last fall they were able to present chamber music concerts in Powell Hall by operating at less than ...
- Created on 01 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This past Saturday (March 23, 2019) was the fourth time I've seen Gilbert Varga conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and, once again, I came away impressed with the combination of high drama and pinpoint ...
- Created on 25 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Tuesday night (December 11) there were two holiday concerts in Grand Center. In Powell Hall, the Bach Society presented their annual Christmas Candlelight Concert. A half block away, at the Sun, was "Storm ...
- Created on 13 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... was all that solemn, on the whole. Mr. McDaniel is far too skillful a performer to present anything other than a well-balanced program, and there were plenty of chuckles to go with the more moving stuff. ...
- Created on 27 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... Jensen, Katie McGrath, Bob Becherer Photo: Chuck Lavazzi That's a type of cabaret that requires real courage. Done badly, it can come across as self-indulgent or (worse yet) a public therapy session. ...
- Created on 31 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Since she moved to the Big Apple and became a cabaret star, our own “trusty and well-beloved” Katie McGrath has been making regular pilgrimages back home to perform for local friends and fans. The pandemic ...
- Created on 31 December 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis cabaret scene has really taken off over the last fifteen years or so, and local performers are increasingly showing up at nightspots like Davenport's in Chicago and Don't Tell Mama in New ...
- Created on 23 November 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The pandemic has all but shut down the local cabaret scene. The one exception has been Jim Dolan's Blue Strawberry nightclub, although even there a "new normal" is very much in force with reduced capacity, ...
- Created on 03 November 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- No doubt about, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin got his two-week concert series off to a strong start Saturday night (April 27, 2019) with three very different and very ...
- Created on 28 April 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I don't know whether Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller "North by Northwest" ever played Powell Hall back when it was a movie theatre. If so I doubt that Bernard Herrmann's score ever sounded as good as ...
- Created on 26 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- There's no doubt about it, Lisa St. Lou and her music director/song-writing partner Tor Hyams are the Dynamic Duo of song performance. Ms. St. Lou has a powerful, flexible, wide-ranging voice with which ...
- Created on 29 November 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When the pandemic shut the doors at Powell Symphony Hall a year ago, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) was quick to enhance its presence on the Internet, not only with informational and educational ...
- Created on 18 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The COVID-19 pandemic closed Powell Hall and cancelled the rest of the 2020 season for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), but after consultation with epidemiologists at Washington U. and changes ...
- Created on 31 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... If I can love you, I'll pay the dirt no heed! With your love, what more do I need? Liz Callaway and Jeff Wright Photo: Chuck Lavazzi There are many more choice moments in this ...
- Created on 07 February 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway bring the joy of 'sibling revelry' to the Jazz Bistr
- Musical sisters Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway are no strangers to St. Louis stages. Both have performed here many times in the past and both have been part of the teaching staff at the St. Louis ...
- Created on 27 September 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In his introductory remarks at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert this Sunday (January 19th), Maestro Stéphane Denève noted that the first work on the program, Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll," ...
- Created on 21 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: Lucky charms
- Bob Wetzel has been a lucky guy, a fact that cropped up as a recurring theme in his solo cabaret debut "Facing the Music," which had its first public performance last Saturday (May 12, 2019) at the Kranzberg ...
- Created on 15 May 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- For some years now, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been bringing younger guest conductors to town to make their local debuts on the Powell Hall stage. Every one of them has been very impressive, ...
- Created on 25 November 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “I happen to like New York,” wrote Cole Porter in 1930. “I like the sight and the sound and even the stink of it / I happen to like New York.” The late musical theatre legend Stephen Sondheim (a great ...
- Created on 29 April 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: Music for string quartet and octet bring the SLSO chamber music festival to a rousing close
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) chamber music festival concluded its second and final week on Sunday, November 8th, with a high-energy afternoon of music for string quartet and octet. The octet ...
- Created on 09 November 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Pre-COVID, the opening number at a symphony concert was likely to be a relatively short and dramatic "curtain raiser" like Honegger's "Pacific 231" or a popular crowd pleaser like Barber's "Adagio for ...
- Created on 23 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) chamber music festival continued its second and final week on Saturday, November 7th, at 11 am with a lively, witty, and whimsical program of music for wind quintet ...
- Created on 09 November 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The pandemic forced the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to halt its 2020 season last spring. Last fall they were able to resume concerts in Powell Hall by enforcing small houses and strict health measures. ...
- Created on 16 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If you didn't know the music, you might think last weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program (March 9 and 10, 2019), consisting of Stravinsky's "Funeral Song" and the Brahms "German Requiem," might ...
- Created on 11 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Judging from the weather forecast, spring is apparently just around the corner. Judging from the sunny and breezy St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program Sunday afternoon (March 1), it had already arrived. ...
- Created on 03 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... live entertainment continues at the Blue Strawberry, with details available at their web site. Finally: for my in-depth interview with Young, including a look at his many other talents, check out Chuck' ...
- Created on 14 May 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "What do you say, old friend, are we or are we unique?" So runs the lyric of Sondheim's "Old Friend," the song that, in combination with Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends," served as the opening number ...
- Created on 15 July 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... theatre selections for two reasons. [Watch my interviews with Patricia Racette. and Daniela Candillari on Chuck's Culture Channel] First, the performances by the young singers from the Richard Gaddes ...
- Created on 01 July 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It’s December. In the performing arts world, that would normally mean at least one of the following: a stage adaptation of Dickens's “A Christmas Carol” (probably with music), Handel's “Messiah,” Tchaikovsky's ...
- Created on 09 December 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The pandemic cancelled the Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) 2020 season and will radically re-shape its 2021 season, which will take place outdoors and involve a raft of health safeguards. Meanwhile, ...
- Created on 19 January 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The Friday night (February 1) concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was notable for a pair of powerful and somewhat idiosyncratic interpretations of music by Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohn by guest ...
- Created on 02 February 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A gratifyingly large crowd turned out for an equally gratifying opening night of the 2018/2019 St. Louis Symphony Orchestra season (Saturday, September 22), as Resident Conductor Gemma New led the orchestra ...
- Created on 24 September 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This past Tuesday night (June 25th, 2019) Opera Theatre offered the fifth edition of its annual "Center Stage" concert. If what I saw Tuesday was any indication, I'm pretty annoyed with myself for missing ...
- Created on 28 June 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I'm always a bit sad when the turnout for a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert is on the light side, especially when it's a concert that deserved a bigger house. Those who showed up Friday night (March ...
- Created on 17 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Even though it was originally written for an Easter season performance, Handel's 1741 oratorio "Messiah" has become a Christmas tradition. That tradition was upheld in fine style last weekend (December ...
- Created on 11 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... a hint of Randy Newman in the piano part. Rick Jensen and Dionna Raedeke Photo: Chuck Lavazzi Mr. Jensen's friends took the stage next, starting with Ms. Raedeke (a fine singer as ...
- Created on 04 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) music director Stéphane Denève wants to make a case for the inclusion of more French music and more contemporary music in SLSO programs, he need only point to the ...
- Created on 09 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Spring work,” wrote famed naturalist John Muir, “is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” By that standard, there was over an hour of spring work on display at Powell Hall last weekend (April 9-11) as the ...
- Created on 12 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Nostalgia,” someone once quipped, “is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense and the past perfect.” Steve Brammeier’s show “68: Then and Now” may not find the past perfect, but it certainly ...
- Created on 17 November 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts gave us some notable local debuts, both on the stage and on the page. [Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.] On stage, Saturday ...
- Created on 20 January 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- One of the delights of the recent live and digital concert series at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has been the way they have focused on the SLSO string section. I have been impressed with their sound ...
- Created on 19 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Cristian Macelaru led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this weekend (November 16 and 17) in a program which demonstrated once again his impressive versatility as a conductor. I have been impressed in the ...
- Created on 18 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- As it has every Christmas season since 1951, the Bach Society of St. Louis presented its Candlelight Concert last week (Wednesday, December 23rd). It's a local tradition grounded in fine musicianship and ...
- Created on 28 December 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an Imperial battle cruiser swooped down across the screen to the strains of a full symphony orchestra. Movies and movie music have never been quite the same since. ...
- Created on 27 January 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: The performance outshines the music in the local premiere of a contemporary violin concerto
- In an interview last year, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève, in response to my question about the kind of contemporary music he planned to program, said that it was "very important ...
- Created on 19 February 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: The return of Emily Skinner and John Fischer to the Blue Strawberry is cause for celebration
- When I reviewed Emily Skinner's last appearance at The Blue Strawberry in January 2020, I described it as "a show that did everything right and nothing wrong…it was simply nonpareil." Having seen her ...
- Created on 20 September 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: the SLSO celebrates a return to Powell Hall with a reduced but mighty Beethoven 'Eroica
- The mood was muted but celebratory Thursday night (October 15th) as Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) took to the Powell Hall stage for the first time in almost ...
- Created on 17 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an Imperial battle cruiser swooped down across the screen to the strains of a full symphony orchestra. Movies and movie music have never been quite the same since. ...
- Created on 18 September 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... heard in performances of these old warhorses. This was especially true in his "Dance of the Hours" with its hushed, delicate opening and wide emotional range. That didn't stop the audience from chuckling ...
- Created on 02 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: The SLSO sets sail for Chorus Director Amy Kaiser's retirement with an opulent 'Sea Symphon
- At the top of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Sunday, May 1st, SLSO CEO Marie Hélène Bernard and a representative from the office of Mayor Tishaura Jones took the stage to announce ...
- Created on 03 May 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: The SLSO string section gets to the heart of the matter in a richly romantic digital concert
- The title of the fifth concert in the on-demand video series by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), “The Heart of the Matter,” reflects not only the powerful emotional content of the four short works ...
- Created on 13 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- No matter how much resentment, spite, and general bad behavior pollutes the Internet in general and social media in particular I always find it easier, at what Dickens calls this "kind, forgiving, charitable, ...
- Created on 15 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- With smaller, physically distanced audiences and other health protocols, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has returned to live concerts in Powell Hall. At the same time, they’re releasing high-quality ...
- Created on 30 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was a gala festival of the human voice this past weekend (February 9 - 11) at Powell Hall as Bramwell Tovey conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus in two great 20th ...
- Created on 12 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When I saw that the title of the special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert on Sunday, October 7, was "A Celebration of the Muny at 100," I assumed it would be a survey of nearly a century of Broadway ...
- Created on 09 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In an increasingly ugly and paranoid culture, moments of transcendent beauty are rare, which is why I appreciate one all the more when I encounter it at a St. Louis Symphony concert, as I did this past ...
- Created on 05 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Review: Widescreen 'Scheherazade' highlights a pair of promising debuts at the St. Louis Symphon
- Last weekend the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra brought us new music performed by a pair of familiar faces. This week (Friday and Saturday, October 12 and 13) was the Yang to that Yin with a program of works ...
- Created on 14 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this weekend (March 29-31, 2019) feature three works that critics didn't like much when they were first performed. History has proved the critics wrong, and this ...
- Created on 31 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Well, here it is Easter week. Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day Christians celebrate Jesus's entry into Jerusalem only a few days before his crucifixion. I expect that means many of you classical music ...
- Created on 08 April 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Union Avenue Opera dropped anchor for their 24th season this past weekend with a jolly and entertaining production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" that's a little bit of Savoyard heaven. The ...
- Created on 08 July 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last Saturday, November 12, former music director Leonard Slatkin conducted the St. Louis Symphony in a highly entertaining program of works by American composers. Ironically, given the outcome of our ...
- Created on 16 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Bel canto opera stands or falls on the strength of the singing, and by that standard Lyric Opera of Chicago's new production of Donizetti's 1835 tragedy Lucia di Lammermoor stands very tall indeed. ...
- Created on 23 October 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- For lovers of live music and theatre, this has been a lean year, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Theatres and concert halls are high-risk environments for airborne transmission of the virus for audiences ...
- Created on 03 July 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  By the time Puccini and his librettists got around to translating Henri Murger’s episodic 1849 novel Scènes De La Vie Bohème into the 1896 opera La Bohème, it had already enjoyed a considerable ...
- Created on 23 May 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Although it's usually a heavily attended event, freezing drizzle and the resulting treacherous streets put a major dent in the turnout for the Mercy Holiday Celebration at the St. Louis Symphony Friday ...
- Created on 19 December 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... Photo courtesy of fnnch Chuck Lavazzi (CL): Your Honey Bears are based on the old squeezable bear-shaped honey jars. I remember them from my childhood. fnnch: Yeah, there was originally a patent ...
- Created on 20 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â The road not taken; where does it lead? If this or that tiny aspect of my life changed, what would the result be? That's the question at the heart of British playwright Nick Payne's ingenious but ...
- Created on 22 January 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- July 15 though August 14, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues their digital video concert series with a program originally recorded April 1-3 with a live audience at Powell Hall. The emphasis ...
- Created on 13 July 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues its digital season April 8th through May 8th with an on-demand program of four short works that showcase the SLSO string section under the direction of ...
- Created on 06 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues its 2021 digital concert series March 25-April 24 with a program of "Night Music." Recorded at live concerts last October 29 and November 7, the program ...
- Created on 21 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues its 2021 digital concert series April 22-May 22 with a program of music that's mostly French and mostly for the harp. Katherine Hoover ...
- Created on 20 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's season may have ended back in June, but the orchestra's digital concert series continues at their web site. The latest addition to the series is "Equal Play," a program ...
- Created on 30 July 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Through August 14th, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is offering on-demand video of a program originally performed live on April 1st through 3rd, 2021. Consisting of music by Aaron Copland, Arthur Honegger, ...
- Created on 20 July 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Mostly French and mostly featuring music for flute and harp, the latest St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) digital concert was recorded with a live audience at Powell Hall last fall. It’s available for ...
- Created on 26 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Symphony Digital Review: Stephanie Childress and the SLSO strings capture scenes from childhood
- “Spring work,” wrote famed naturalist John Muir, “is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” By that standard, there is over an hour of spring work on display in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) digital ...
- Created on 04 June 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fifth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series presents two quintets by Prokofiev and Mozart. The pair are a study ...
- Created on 02 June 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The live concert season of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is on hiatus until the fall, but the orchestra’s on-demand video series is still going strong. Available through September 4th, the latest ...
- Created on 10 August 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Powell Symphony Hall went dark almost exactly one year ago due to the rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) quickly found multiple ways to stay in touch with ...
- Created on 09 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I'm writing this week's edition of "Symphony Notes" in two parts because, first of all, there were two different St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) programs originally scheduled for May 1-3, and second, ...
- Created on 27 April 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In my previous edition of "Symphony Notes," I talked about the music that was to have been part of Didi Balle's "Maurice Ravel: A Musical Journey", originally slotted for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 29 April 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) season may have been cut short by the COVID-19 crisis, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of the music scheduled for the next several weeks at home. ...
- Created on 21 April 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In the early days of this Symphony Notes series, I had the somewhat ambitious goal of providing program notes for virtual recreations of planned (but cancelled) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) performances. ...
- Created on 06 May 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) season may have been cut short by the COVID-19 crisis, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of the music scheduled for the next several weeks at home, at ...
- Created on 31 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Former Music Director Leonard Slatkin, who led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) during what was possibly its period of highest international visibility (and who is now a resident of Our Fair City ...
- Created on 09 October 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Yesterday I looked at the way Handel's "Messiah" (which Matthew Halls and the St. Louis Symphony are performing December 7-9) started out as an Easter tradition and morphed over time to a Christmas staple. ...
- Created on 04 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- My wife and I have become dedicated travelers over the last couple of decades, but we can't hold a candle to the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Over the course of his long and prosperous ...
- Created on 12 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony program this weekend consists entirely of well-known classics: Mendelssohn's The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) overture, Sibelius's Violin Concerto, and one of my favorites, Dvořák's ...
- Created on 19 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... rehearsals. Here's our conversation, with some minor edits for clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): Many local music lovers may not be aware that in the late 1960s you had a relationship with community radio ...
- Created on 25 April 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... extensive film and, more recently, concert credits. I talked with him late last week. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I'd like to start off with a little bit about your background. I know you were a jazz trumpeter ...
- Created on 30 April 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... and tucks for the sake of clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I see that your bio talks about an early interest in both classical and popular music. Who are the rock performers that you admired? Christopher ...
- Created on 13 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- UPDATE A/O March 12th: The SLSO has cancelled this concert in response to a directive from the City of St. Louis to prohibit all gatherings of more than 1,000 people. The one and only work on the ...
- Created on 11 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Stéphane Denève kicks off his first official season as Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) this week with concerts that can only be called celebratory. The festivities start on ...
- Created on 09 September 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s regular concert season traditionally goes on hiatus during December, but that doesn’t mean the orchestra and chorus aren’t kept busy. Far from it, as a quick survey of ...
- Created on 03 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s regular concert season traditionally goes on hiatus during December, but special holiday events continue right up through New Year’s Eve. This week is relatively light, ...
- Created on 11 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) holiday programming continues this week with one program at two different venues. That program is, of course, the traditional “Mercy Holiday Celebration.” Norman ...
- Created on 17 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) holiday programming continues this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, December 28 and 29) Scott Terrell Photo courtesy of the SLSO Saturday ...
- Created on 27 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s (SLSO) holiday programming concludes Tuesday, December 31, at 7:30 pm with the annual “New Year’s Eve Celebration” concert. This year the figure on the podium will be ...
- Created on 29 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Saturday (January 13) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin presents the second of three concerts demonstrating the influence of what Slatkin calls “vernacular” music—jazz, ...
- Created on 11 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... condensed transcript of that conversation. The complete video interview is available on Chuck’s Culture Channel on YouTube. [Preview the music with my commercial-free Spotify playlist.] Chuck Lavazzi ...
- Created on 01 December 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... to listen to it without a chuckle, but let’s all do our best, shall we? The second half of the concert opens with another overture, this time to the 1866 opéra comique (i.e., there’s a happy ending) ...
- Created on 28 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3) Peter Oundjian conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a pair of works that were first performed in Vienna by two composers who were both, as Tim ...
- Created on 27 February 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â The Cardinals may be out of town battling the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend, but nevertheless the St. Louis Symphony has a double header of its own for you, with one program on Friday night and ...
- Created on 20 September 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Now that we have set our clocks back and the shades of night, to paraphrase Longfellow a bit, are falling faster, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is getting into the spirit with concerts in which musical ...
- Created on 09 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Friday and Saturday, April 18 and 19), Stéphane Denève leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a trio of deeply passionate works, including a local premiere that pays tribute to ...
- Created on 17 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It's a big musical weekend with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra October 5-7, with two separate concerts. Friday and Saturday the orchestra performs Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (the "Pastoral," ...
- Created on 03 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In a March 2020 interview with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève about the upcoming season (a.k.a. The Season That Never Was thanks to the pandemic) we talked about the number ...
- Created on 20 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- With COVID-19 numbers slowly trending down, some local performing arts organizations are returning to live performances, albeit with the usual vaccination and masking requirements. That includes the St. ...
- Created on 26 January 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (March 26-28) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) returns to live concerts at Powell Hall in a format very similar to the one they employed last fall. Details are available at the SLSO ...
- Created on 24 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was, as the late Philip Weller notes in the Grove Dictionary of Music, “[O]ne of the most important literary and cultural figures of his age…recognized during his ...
- Created on 08 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The title of the concerts in which Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin is conducting St.Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) this weekend (October 9 and 10) is "Made in America." And it does, in fact, consist ...
- Created on 06 October 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In an interview with flautist and music writer Tim Munro in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's program book, SLSO Artistic and Operations VP Erik Finley notes that the 2018/2019 season is "an in-between ...
- Created on 25 September 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Grab your coat and get your hat / Leave your worry on the doorstep / Just direct your feet / To the sunny side of the street” – Dorothy Fields, “The Sunny Side of the Street,” 1930. [Preview the music ...
- Created on 09 October 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â A vast chronological gulf separates three of the pieces on the St. Louis Symphony program for this Saturday and Sunday from the fourth. The works by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven all date from the ...
- Created on 22 September 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The one and only work on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program this weekend (May 5 and 6) was described by Maestro Stéphane Denève in a 2019 interview as "almost psychedelic. It's extremely evocative ...
- Created on 03 May 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- All good things, they say, must come to an end. This weekend (April 30 and May 1) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program that pays tribute to SLS Chorus Director ...
- Created on 28 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If you’re on the email list of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), you probably know that earlier this week there were major changes in the program for this weekend (March 4-6). Patrick Summers, the ...
- Created on 03 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In the first half of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this weekend (February 1 and 2), guest conductor Matthias Pintscher will lead the band in a pair of works by Russian Romantic composers who, ...
- Created on 29 January 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Music lovers have a lot to be thankful for this weekend (November 24 -- 26, 2017), as Jun Märkl conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program of classical favorites. It's a real feast for the ...
- Created on 21 November 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (March 29-31) Jakub Hrusa leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in three works by well-established composers that were nevertheless greeted with a mixture of bafflement and hostility when ...
- Created on 27 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (November 17–19), guest conductor Christian Reif leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and violinist Randall Goosby in a program of works by three very different composers who all hail from ...
- Created on 12 November 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) offers you a chance to double your listening pleasure this weekend with two very different performances: a chamber music evening on Friday, November 5th, and a program ...
- Created on 02 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) offers you a chance to double your listening pleasure this weekend with two very different performances: a chamber music evening on Friday, November 5th, and a program ...
- Created on 04 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,” wrote Robert Burns back in 1785, “Gang aft agley.” Today I might add “and of symphony orchestras as well.” [Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.] This ...
- Created on 09 February 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- An unusual week is coming up for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO). There will be two concerts in two vastly different venues with different acoustics and very different programs. The only common ...
- Created on 27 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In Act I, scene 1 of Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” Leonato, the Governor of Messina, plays down his niece Beatrice’s insulting description of Benedick, saying that there is “a kind of ...
- Created on 20 March 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (February 5 and 6) guest conductor Elim Chan makes her St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut with a pair of big orchestral works that have in common the year 2012 but not much else. [Preview ...
- Created on 01 February 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It’s quite a mixed bag this weekend (October 18 and 19) as guest conductor David Danzmayr makes his third appearance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since his notable local debut in 2021. During ...
- Created on 15 October 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "Stepping inside a cathedral, we are filled with awe," runs the description of the program this weekend (February 15 and 16) at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) web site. "Our breathing slows, our ...
- Created on 10 February 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The old chestnut about all good things coming to an end plays out over the next four weeks at Powell Symphony Hall as David Robertson's tenure as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's Music Director--a thing ...
- Created on 10 April 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- You might have noticed that there's no Friday, April 29, performance this weekend of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert featuring William Kraft's Timpani Concerto No. 2 and Schubert's Symphony No. ...
- Created on 27 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Youth is the theme at Powell Hall this weekend (February 17 and 18, 2018) as Matthew Halls makes his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut conducting Schubert's Symphony No. 3 (written when the composer was ...
- Created on 14 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “O Fortuna / velut luna / statu variabilis / semper crescis / aut decrescis” (O Fortune, / like the moon / you are changeable, / ever waxing / ever waning”). Thus opens Carl Orff’s popular “Carmina Burana,” ...
- Created on 16 February 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The Russian government may be stinking up the place right now, but that’s no reason not to appreciate the all-Russian program Thomas Søndergård will conduct in his debut. Sir Stephen Hough will be the ...
- Created on 27 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend, four of the five works Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) will perform are unabashedly descriptive--what they used to refer to as "program music" in Music Appreciation ...
- Created on 04 March 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- After a couple of weeks of "big band" music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra downsizes this weekend (December 6-8) as guest conductor Richard Egarr leads the ...
- Created on 03 December 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In the sky was Bellatrix Between Betelgeuse and Rigel fixed. With Kappa standing to the right Orion walks the winter night. – “Orion,” The New Golden Rocket (1991) [Preview the music with my commercial-free ...
- Created on 04 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (February 9 - 11, 2018), the guest conductor Bramwell Tovey leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus in a program of two great works for chorus and orchestra-one ...
- Created on 07 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Friday and Saturday (September 27 and 28) Stéphane Denève leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Mahler's awe-inspiring Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection"). Running around eighty ...
- Created on 26 September 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "I am the A and the O, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," intones the bass Voice of God in Franz Schmidt's oratorio "Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln" ("The Book of the Seven Seals"). The reference ...
- Created on 26 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Thursday through Sunday, October 15-18), Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) return to Powell Hall for the first time since the SARS-Cov-19 pandemic ...
- Created on 12 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The big solo work on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program Thanksgiving weekend may be German, but the prevailing musical mood is British, with major works by Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams ...
- Created on 20 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... element appropriate to the piece." The Vlatava from the Legions Bridge in Prague Photo by Chuck Lavazzi “Vltava” is straightforward scene painting, vividly illustrating the course ...
- Created on 26 October 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5) the noted Dutch conductor Edo de Waart leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Elgar's Symphony No. ...
- Created on 03 October 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (February 29 and March 1), the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra welcomes back early music specialist Nicholas McGegan to conduct works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert that all have a pretty ...
- Created on 26 February 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (Friday and Saturday, January 31 and February 1) open with a pair of works by two composers who, despite significant differences in temperament ...
- Created on 29 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Folk traditions, in one form or another, serve as the basis for the penultimate St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30). Music Director Stéphane ...
- Created on 26 April 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Saturday, January 14, at Powell Hall, guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru takes the podium as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra plays a program featuring the local premiere of a piece by Camille Saint-Saëns ...
- Created on 10 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It's an all-German program this weekend (January 18 and 19, 2019) as guest conductor Karina Canellakis leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and violinist Ray Chen in an evening of music by Beethoven, ...
- Created on 14 January 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Saturday and Sunday (January 20 and 21) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin concludes his two-week, four-concert series with the ensemble he led from 1979 to 1996. ...
- Created on 18 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- We’re only a week past the autumnal equinox and over a month away from the dreaded end of daylight saving time but, at least here in St. Louis, it’s finally beginning to feel like fall. Temperatures are ...
- Created on 29 September 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- [UPDATE: Per a press release from the SLSO these concerts have been cancelled due to positive COVID-19 diagnoses in the orchestra.] When I saw that the composer of the opening work on the St. Louis Symphony ...
- Created on 04 May 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "The most glorious creature under the sun / Thaïs, Garbo, DuBarry all rolled into one." That's how Groucho Marx describes "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" in the otherwise forgettable film "At the Circus." A ...
- Created on 15 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Friday (January 12), St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin steps up to the podium in the Touhill Center to present the first of a three-concert series that, as he ...
- Created on 09 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Back in the days when I was still doing a weekly show at KDHX, I loved to put together different and often seemingly unrelated songs into sets designed to highlight the relationships among them. St. Louis ...
- Created on 25 September 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend guest conductor Elim Chan leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and pianist Ingrid Fliter in a concert that brackets the second installment of the orchestra’s Beethoven piano concerto cycle ...
- Created on 18 October 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It has been quite an active spring for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) string section, with a series of both live and on-demand concerts showcasing what Music Director Stéphane Denève has called ...
- Created on 28 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- History tells us that Handel’s “Messiah,” which the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed last weekend (December 2–4), was written in only 24 days. This weekend (December 9–11), Dame Jane Glover ...
- Created on 08 December 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Prior to the pandemic, my wife and I traveled quite a bit. We plan to hit the airports again next year, but meanwhile the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (November 19 and 20) ...
- Created on 18 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- My wife and I have become dedicated travelers over the last couple of decades, but we can't hold a candle to the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Over the course of his long (1835-1921) and prosperous ...
- Created on 09 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The annual New Year’s Eve concert by St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been a celebratory event for many years now. It was cancelled last year because of the pandemic but it’s back again in 2021, ...
- Created on 28 December 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Friday and Saturday (October 12 and 13) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra brings us new faces, both on the page and on the stage, along with a special Family Concert on Sunday. The new faces on stage ...
- Created on 10 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The regular concert season of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) resumes on this Friday and Saturday (January 10 and 11) as Opera Theatre’s Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari leads the orchestra ...
- Created on 08 January 2025
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (April 8-10), Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress takes the podium of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to conduct an eclectic mix of works by Sebelius, Dvořák, and contemporary ...
- Created on 07 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "The Germans," observed the great violinist Joseph Joachim, "have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising, is Beethoven's." And it's the centerpiece for this weekend's performances by ...
- Created on 12 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A couple of weeks ago we had an all-French evening at the St. Louis Symphony. This weekend Resident Conductor Gemma New will lead the orchestra in a program of three works for which the inspiration was ...
- Created on 03 April 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts were dominated by Mahler's Symphony No. 9, a work that is often seen as being having its genesis in the valley of the shadow of death. The theme of ...
- Created on 06 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Written By Chuck Lavazzi [Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.] With Powell Symphony Hall closed for the next two years for extensive renovation and expansion, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 27 September 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "Human music making," as music blogger Darren Giddings reminds us, "has been inspired by birdsong throughout history." If you doubt that, take a look at the program Resident Conductor Gemma New and the ...
- Created on 20 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this Friday and Saturday in a program consisting of just two big works: John Adams' 1993 Violin Concerto and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in ...
- Created on 28 September 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin makes one of his regular return visits to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra podium this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, April 22 and 23), he’ll be conducting a trio ...
- Created on 21 April 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Saturday and Sunday (January 27 and 28) Music Director Stéphane Denève returns to lead the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an unusual program of three works with three things in common. First, ...
- Created on 24 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- There's only one work on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus program this weekend, but it's a big one: the "Messa da Requiem" (Requiem Mass) by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). [Preview the music ...
- Created on 23 April 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (January 17 and 19) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève returns for a program devoted entirely to a composer I love almost as much as he does: Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). ...
- Created on 15 January 2025
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- At first glance, the two works that make up this weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert might not appear to have a lot in common. Kevin Puts's "Silent Night Elegy," based on music from his ...
- Created on 05 February 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (November 12-14) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program that pairs two certified Greatest Hits with a new work inspired by the composer of one of those ...
- Created on 10 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If you’re looking for things to be thankful for this week, how about our own St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO)? This Saturday and Sunday (November 26 and 27) while many of us are still working on that ...
- Created on 25 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- To what extent does a composition reflect the emotional state of its composer? Judging by the three pieces Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) will perform in the third in the series ...
- Created on 02 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (November 10 and 11) the French conductor Stéphane Denève makes his first appearance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since being named Music Director Designate earlier this year (he ...
- Created on 07 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Invitation to the Dance” (“Aufforderung zum Tanz”), Op. 65, is one of the more popular pieces by Carl Maria von Weber, especially in its 1841 orchestration by Hector Berlioz. It’s also a good description ...
- Created on 14 March 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,” wrote Robert Burns back in 1785, “Gang aft agley.” The two major works on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (April 23 and 24) offer ...
- Created on 20 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Symphony Preview: SLSO Principal Timpani Shannon Wood on playing above the staff and around the back
- ... Principal Timpani William Kraft. SLSO Principal Timpani Shannon Wood will be the soloist. We chatted briefly via email about the music and his relationship with his instrument of choice. Chuck Lavazzi: ...
- Created on 26 April 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's 18/19 season opens this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23) with a mix of the old and the new--in more ways than one. There's the music, to begin with. ...
- Created on 17 September 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (April 1-3) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) celebrates the change of the seasons with music of Copland, Honegger, and Saint-Saëns—although only one of the three works on the program ...
- Created on 31 March 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (November 15 and 16) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the second of two programs devoted almost entirely to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). It’s ...
- Created on 12 November 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It's an evening of Romantic blockbusters this weekend (March 2 and 3, 2018) as Christian Arming makes his conducting debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program that includes Tchaikovsky's ...
- Created on 28 February 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (April 16-18) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress returns to the podium to lead the orchestra in yet another program of springtime music, from an animated ...
- Created on 15 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Aprils have never meant much to me,” wrote Truman Capote in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.” Anyone involved with the performing arts would have to agree. Fall ...
- Created on 22 September 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last week the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced more live concerts at Powell Hall as part of its fall season. It all starts on Wednesday, October 28, with the first of six chamber music concerts. ...
- Created on 27 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last week the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced a series of six chamber music concerts for late October and early November. Each concert will be offered twice in rotating repertory through ...
- Created on 28 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last week the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced a series of six chamber music concerts for late October and early November. Each concert will be offered twice in rotating repertory through ...
- Created on 30 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Stéphane Denève will conduct this weekend (November 18-20) will consist of music inspired by something that has fascinated human beings for, I imagine, as long ...
- Created on 16 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- When I first saw St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève conduct the orchestra back in the spring of 2003 I found him an impressive figure: tall and commanding without appearing ...
- Created on 05 February 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Sturm und drang (usually translated as "storm and stress") was an early Romantic (late 18th century) movement in German literature and music that emphasized drama and conflict. Both Haydn and Mozart wrote ...
- Created on 19 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The string section is the backbone of the symphony orchestra, but even so, it’s rare to see them dominate a program the way they will when David Danzmayr conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) ...
- Created on 28 November 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Twentieth century American composer William Grant Still (1985–1978) has been getting a fair amount of long-overdue attention in recent years. His one-act opera “Highway 1, USA” got an exceptional production ...
- Created on 19 November 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If you’re looking for something to be thankful for this weekend, look no farther than Powell Hall, where conductor Xian Zhang and pianist George Li make their debuts with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 23 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (December 2-4) British conductor and Baroque-era specialist Laurence Cumings leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's popular 1742 oratorio "Messiah." In doing so at what ...
- Created on 29 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A chilly wind blows through St. Louis this weekend as temperatures drop back to something more closely approximating the norm for late April. By sheer coincidence the musical equivalent of a brisk northern ...
- Created on 17 April 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "The Germans," observed the great violinist Joseph Joachim, "have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising, is Beethoven's." This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, January 24 and 26) James ...
- Created on 20 January 2025
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “It's very important,” said St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève in a 2019 interview, “that the audience understand that the new music we will perform is music that I believe ...
- Created on 12 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (November 9 and 10) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the first of two programs devoted almost entirely to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Think ...
- Created on 05 November 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are off on their annual European concert tour on March 21st. But before they leave, they’re offering a one night only “bon voyage” concert ...
- Created on 14 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) programs often have a common theme, especially when Music Director Stéphane Denève is on the podium. This Friday, February 2nd, the program notes suggest that the unifying ...
- Created on 31 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It has been a few years since the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus gave us an “Opera in Concert” evening—that is, a program consisting of a classic opera performed without the usual theatrical accoutrements—so ...
- Created on 05 November 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Travel,” wrote Mark Twain in “Innocents Abroad,” “is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” Based on what many of our people seem ...
- Created on 15 September 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I have often written that the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève knows how to use silence as a musical element. So it’s not surprising to see him saying the following in ...
- Created on 13 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Unless you've sung in a choir or played in a concert band, you probably know Gustav Holst (1874-1934) only as the composer of his popular orchestral suite The Planets, Op. 32, a performance of which ...
- Created on 05 May 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend, March 3 and 4, Stephanie Childress conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program of music from three different centuries written by composers at three very different stages of their ...
- Created on 01 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Friday and Saturday, October 15 and 16) John Storgårds, Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and a frequent guest here, conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program ...
- Created on 14 October 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin has been a favorite of local audiences since his tenure as Music Director from 1979 to 1996. The orchestra’s international profile ...
- Created on 22 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Friday and Sunday, November 3 and 5, Music Director Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and pianist Paul Lewis in a program that I pretty much guarantee will include at least ...
- Created on 29 October 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concludes its regular concert season this weekend (May 10-12, 2019) as Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève conducts three works inspired by exotic women. Only one ...
- Created on 08 May 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (February 15-17) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève concludes his first 2019 appearance with the orchestra with an all-Prokofiev concert series that highlights ...
- Created on 13 February 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Back home from its first European tour since 2017, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra continues the current season this weekend (April 14–16) with a mix of works from early 19th century Poland, late 19th ...
- Created on 13 April 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The concerts this weekend (October 19-21) by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra bring us some of the best-known music of Wagner and one of the least-known concertos of Beethoven. The Beethoven in question ...
- Created on 16 October 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, January 18 and 19), Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an evening of music by Wagner, Liszt, Richard Strauss, and contemporary (b. 1980) ...
- Created on 17 January 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- "After the horrors of the First World War and the 1918 flu pandemic, composers reached into the music of the past. It may have been an escape from reality—a way to make things brighter, more hopeful.” ...
- Created on 06 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (October 18-20) Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an early 20th century program that moves from light to darkness (or at least twilight) with a ...
- Created on 16 October 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Looking over the program for the concert Stéphane Denève will conduct with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this weekend (Friday and Saturday, February 11 and 12), it strikes me that there are three themes ...
- Created on 09 February 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I’ve been listening to a lot of Great Courses audio lectures these days on world history and archeology. It’s an enlightening and humbling experience. It’s also one I highly recommend for anyone who thinks ...
- Created on 26 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If there were a theme for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (Friday and Saturday, November 22 and 23), it would probably be "virtuosity." Guest conductor Marcelo Lehninger will ...
- Created on 20 November 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Konstantin Ivanov's original sketch for the set of The Nutcracker (1892) Source: en.wikipedia.org If there's one thing you can count on at this time of the year, it's that someone ...
- Created on 27 November 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- We're nearly two months away from St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève's next appearance here (May 10-12), but 19th century music from his French homeland dominates the ...
- Created on 20 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,” quoth The Bard, “[s]weet lovers love the spring.” In that same vein, I think music lovers, sweet or otherwise, will love the essence of youthful vernal exuberance ...
- Created on 07 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- That most pernicious of human inventions, organized warfare, lurks in the background of the three major works that Cristian Macelaru will conduct in this weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts. ...
- Created on 06 March 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Written By Chuck Lavazzi [Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.] This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, September 23 and 24), the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, with Music Director Stéphane Denève ...
- Created on 21 September 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (October 1 and 2) open with an example of something that I have in common with Leonard Slatkin and Stéphane Denève—unlikely as that might seem. ...
- Created on 30 September 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Friday through Sunday, October 14-16) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra offers two separate and very different concerts. Friday night at 6:30 Norman Huynh conducts the orchestra and singer/songwriter ...
- Created on 13 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (Thursday through Saturday, October 22-24), Stèphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a concert of chamber works by Richard Strauss, contemporary Japanese composer ...
- Created on 20 October 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This Friday and Saturday, January 7 and 8, Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program of firsts: The first symphony of Brahms, the first published piano concerto of Beethoven, ...
- Created on 06 January 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This weekend (December 7 - 9) British conductor Matthew Halls leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's popular 1742 oratorio "Messiah." In doing so, he's following a tradition nearly ...
- Created on 03 December 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (a.k.a. the “Manzoni Requiem”) this past Sunday (April 28) by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and Chorus reminded me of why I have ...
- Created on 02 May 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It might seem counter-intuitive for a concert billed as “A Baroque Christmas” to feature only 20 minutes or so of actual Christmas music, but as far as I’m concerned, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert ...
- Created on 13 December 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- We’re still nearly three months away from opening night at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, but last Sunday (March 3) Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra decided to “spring ahead” with a consistently ...
- Created on 06 March 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was a double debut this past weekend (Saturday and Sunday, November 26 and 27) as both conductor Xian Zhang and pianist George Li made their first appearances with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. ...
- Created on 28 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Before he started his pre-concert chat with the audience at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert Saturday night (January 13) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin smiled and said, “Look how many ...
- Created on 15 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Five years ago, when Stéphane Denève was the Music Director Designate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), I asked him if he was thinking of using any visuals to go with the ballet scores he was ...
- Created on 30 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The year 1908 marked an important milestone in cinema history—the composition of the first-ever original film score. The film in question was the French historical drama “L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise” ...
- Created on 17 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This past Friday and Saturday (May 5 and 6), Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) closed out the season with the 1846 opera/oratorio hybrid “La damnation de Faust” ...
- Created on 09 May 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The great violinist Joseph Joachim once described Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64 as “the heart's jewel.” That jewel got an elegant 24 karat setting last night (Thursday, May 13th) from ...
- Created on 14 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The year 1921 was no picnic. Traumatized by political violence, a ruinous and ultimately pointless foreign war, and a pandemic that killed more people than the war itself, Americans were ready to celebrate. ...
- Created on 04 January 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Symphony Review: Big band and bigger emotions in works by Rachmaninoff and Corigliano at the SLSO
- You’d think that a pair of works that had their genesis in depression and loss might make for a glum St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program. But, as the concerts this past weekend (October 15 and ...
- Created on 18 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The annual New Year’s Eve concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has always been a festive occasion and this year was no exception. Indeed, the mix of elegance and entertainment former SLSO ...
- Created on 06 January 2025
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Every Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra goes through at least two rites of passage. The first and most obvious is their first regular season concert with the band. The second is the ...
- Created on 02 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last weekend (October 1 and 2), St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève opened his concerts with a trio of pieces that worked remarkably well as a matched set, even though they ...
- Created on 05 October 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... the brass and percussion before returning to the quiet serenity of the opening. L-R: Augustin Hadelich and Stéphane Denève Photo by Chuck Lavazzi Under Denève’s sympathetic direction, ...
- Created on 05 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Back in the spring of 2020, Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) planned a season closer that included the score of a ballet that literally caused a riot at its 1913 ...
- Created on 02 May 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- During the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s (SLSO) “Operatic Favorites” concert a few weeks ago, Music Director Stéphane Denève reminded us that for much of its history opera has been accompanied by ballet. ...
- Created on 22 March 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In his comments from the podium at the beginning of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday (March 19), Music Director Stéphane Denève talked about the Zoom conference he had with ...
- Created on 21 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Musicologist Theodore E. Heger (1939–1977), has described Mozart’s five symphonies as “among the great masterpieces of symphonic literature.” The validity of that assessment was apparent from the performances ...
- Created on 13 December 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts last weekend (April 12 and 13) opened with a pair of local premieres—one of which no doubt came as a surprise to most of the audience as it wasn’t listed ...
- Created on 16 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Symphony Review: Fantastic beasts and knightly fantasy with Slatkin, Joshua Roman, and the SLSO
- When he took the stage last Sunday afternoon (April 23rd), St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin noted that this would be his last appearance on “this particular version” ...
- Created on 25 April 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- We had our share of rain here last weekend (April 30 – May 2), but inside Powell Symphony Hall the forecast was consistently sunny and breezy as Stéphane Denève and members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 04 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Watching pianist Sir Stephen Hough and conductor Thomas Søndergård give us their nuanced and balletic take on Tchaikovsky’s venerable Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 01 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last Saturday (November 27) Gemma New, the former Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), returned to Powell Hall to conduct the first of a special pair of concerts honoring the ...
- Created on 30 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- What’s better than an afternoon with the music of Maurice Ravel? Last Sunday the answer was: an afternoon with the music of Ravel performed by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with ...
- Created on 24 January 2025
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This past Saturday, January 11th, Opera Theatre’s Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program consisting of “The School for Scandal Overture,” Op. 5, ...
- Created on 13 January 2025
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus continued their peripatetic wanderjahr last night (February 28) with a brilliantly conceived all-French program at the Cathedral Basilica ...
- Created on 02 March 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was pleasantly warm inside Powell Hall Saturday night as John Storgårds led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and violinist Leila Josefowicz in a program of works by Sibelius, Helen Grime, and Beethoven. ...
- Created on 15 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- 'Tis the season for Handel's "Messiah." This past weekend (December 2-4), Laurence Cummings conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (under guest choral director Patrick Dupré Quigley) in ...
- Created on 07 December 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Sunday afternoon (January 21) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a mostly glorious conclusion to their three-concert series of works celebrating the intersection ...
- Created on 23 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- As our little group approached Powell Hall Friday night (March 10th), a tour bus pulled up with what appeared to be a group of students who were there to take in a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. ...
- Created on 13 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... all 129 themes (I certainly didn’t), but based on the chortles, chuckles, and guffaws among the spectators, enough of us did to make it a hit. In a 2002 interview for MusicWeb International, conductor ...
- Created on 04 January 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In his comments from the podium at the start of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert on October 21, Music Director Stéphane Denève identified the non-musical theme of the evening as “love, dedication, ...
- Created on 24 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève began the second of the opening pair of concerts of the 2022/23 season on Sunday, September 18, with a hearty “bonjour,” as he usually does (“bon ...
- Created on 21 September 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Friday night (December 3rd), Powell Hall was decked out in holiday finery as frequent guest conductor Nicholas McGegan led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a trio of performances that delivered ...
- Created on 08 December 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “A wandering minstrel I,” sings Nanki-Poo as he introduces himself in “The Mikado”; “A thing of shreds and patches.” You wouldn’t call the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra “a thing of shreds and patches,” ...
- Created on 03 October 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- London Symphony violinist Hugh Bean once suggested that conducting “is the strongest evidence I’ve yet seen that telepathy, in one form or another, exists.” When I first saw St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
- Created on 12 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- If I were called upon to summarize the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday night (November 13) in one word, it would probably be something along the lines of exciting, electrifying, ...
- Created on 15 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Prepandemic my wife and I traveled quite a bit. One of our favorite destinations for a time was Scotland. We haven’t been back in a while, but the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday ...
- Created on 22 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It feels like very little carries the “made in America” label these days, when even our disinformation is largely imported. But the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts last weekend (October 9 ...
- Created on 12 October 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last Saturday night (February 17) Stéphane Denève took a few minutes before giving the downbeat to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to ask the audience to applaud less. [Find out more about the ...
- Created on 21 February 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Virtuosity both individual and collective was on display in the concert last Friday, April 23, as SLSO Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin led the orchestra in works that, as Mr. Slatkin noted in his spoken ...
- Created on 26 April 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last Friday and Saturday (November 15th and 16th) it was all Mozart (almost) all the time, as Music Director Stéphane Denève led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in two symphonies, an opera overture, and ...
- Created on 21 November 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Symphony Review: Stephanie Childress and pianist Lise de la Salle brighten a dark and stormy night
- Lennox The night has been unruly. Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death; And prophesying, with accents terrible Of dire ...
- Created on 20 April 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- This past weekend guest conductor John Storgårds and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) offered killer performances of a quartet of works that offered surprising and unorthodox sounds and rhythms. ...
- Created on 19 October 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Have you ever walked out of a fiercely air conditioned building and directly into the kind of parboiled summer weather we had this past summer? It’s like smacking into a wall. The impact is visceral. ...
- Created on 18 October 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was another Big Band night at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) last Saturday (April 23) as guest conductor Kirill Karabits made his St. Louis debut with a program that emphasized large instrumental ...
- Created on 27 April 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) closed its 21/22 season opener last weekend (Saturday and Sunday, September 25 and 26) with a rouser of a Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 under the baton of Music Director ...
- Created on 29 September 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- In a 2008 New York Times interview, the late Stephen Sondheim was asked what he’d like his legacy to be. His answer: “I would just like the shows to keep getting done. Whether on Broadway or in regional ...
- Created on 03 October 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It’s not easy for big institutions like the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to change course abruptly but on the relatively rare occasions when necessity has demanded it, they’ve proved to be remarkably ...
- Created on 06 March 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The concert by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) last Saturday (November 6th) opened with a powerful work of personal lamentation and ended with a gripping and ultimately horrifying ...
- Created on 09 November 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Written by Chuck Lavazzi [Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.] The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Sunday (September 24, 2023) was a special one, and not just because ...
- Created on 26 September 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was a veritable love fest at Powell Hall last Thursday, March 16th. Stéphane Denève professed his love for pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Ólafsson declared his love for the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony ...
- Created on 19 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- On the way home from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert this past Saturday (May 8th) my wife commented that there was a noticeable warmth to Music Director Stéphane Denève's conducting. I’d ...
- Created on 11 May 2021
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Stéphane Denève opened the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday night (February 12) by declaring his hope that the evening would bring a feeling of “peace and hope and real spiritual joy” to all. ...
- Created on 15 February 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “The universe is optimistic.” Thus spake Music Director Stéphane Denève at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this past Saturday (November 9). The inspiration for that declaration, he said, was the fact ...
- Created on 11 November 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “To infinity and beyond!” With that wry nod to Buzz Lightyear, Music Director Stéphane Denève launched a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Friday night (November 18th) inspired by what Pythagoras ...
- Created on 21 November 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Location, location, location. It’s the real-estate agent’s mantra. And also, as it happens, a possible theme for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday night (January 28th). [Find out ...
- Created on 31 January 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- ... of them and, judging from the response, so did the audience. Tessa Lark and Stéphane Denève Photo: Chuck Lavazzi Although Debussy never spent more than a few hours in Spain, he ...
- Created on 22 February 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- While it might seem superfluous to review the concert that was part of last Friday’s (May 3) annual St. Louis Symphony Orchestra fund-raising gala, it was such a great experience that a few words are perhaps ...
- Created on 08 May 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Summer is almost upon us, which means it's time for picnics on the lawn, champagne receptions, and great musical theatre in Webster Groves. It is, in short, time for Opera Theatre's annual four-show ...
- Created on 18 May 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- [Updated Thursday, August 20.] If you’re a fan of The Muny and have not yet had a chance to see an episode of “The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour” on their YouTube channel, then, to paraphrase John Adams ...
- Created on 06 August 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Last year, I began my review of Opera Theatre's production of Ricky Ian Gordon's "The Grapes of Wrath" by quoting a popular bumper sticker: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." It's equally ...
- Created on 04 June 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The hazard of a show like Christina Bianco's "Diva Moments" (presented November 16 and 17 at the Gaslight Theatre), with its heavy reliance on celebrity impersonations, is that when the performer drops ...
- Created on 18 November 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The Muny is celebrating its centennial this season, and they're kicking it off this week with a big, bright theatrical present in the form of the musical revue "Jerome Robbins' Broadway." A compilation ...
- Created on 12 June 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- It was a magical afternoon this Sunday (April 8, 2018) as Powell Symphony Hall filled up with witches and wizards of all ages, many in the colors of their favorite Hogwarts Houses. They were gathered for ...
- Created on 09 April 2018
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The 1926 operetta “The Desert Song,” with music by Sigmund Romberg and a libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, and Frank Mandel, was an unqualified hit on Broadway (471 performances) and in London ...
- Created on 03 March 2023
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  If this past weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program provoked a strong sense of déjà vu in the audience, it's because the orchestra presented a nearly identical program three years ago. The ...
- Created on 17 January 2017
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
-  The St. Louis Symphony brought its regular season to a spectacular close this weekend (May 6-8, 2016) with Maestro David Robertson leading a simply excellent performance of Holst's The Planets, ...
- Created on 09 May 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Like so many other performing arts organizations, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been obliged to increase its online presence to keep its work visible during the pandemic. One of the most ...
- Created on 06 September 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- First things first: I love the 1985 French opera/musical “Les Misérables.” Based on Victor Hugo’s justifiably popular 1862 novel of the same name (Upton Sinclair is said to have described it as "one of ...
- Created on 19 June 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Union Avenue Opera is bringing its season to an impressive close with the local premiere of Doubt, a not entirely successful musical adaptation by composer Douglas J. Cuomo and playwright John Patrick ...
- Created on 22 August 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Now in its 28th season, Union Avenue Opera has, over the decades, presented a wide range of operas—ancient to modern, intimate to grand—with a remarkable degree of success. Despite working with a small ...
- Created on 05 August 2022
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- I’m not sure exactly when opera companies began folding musicals into their seasons. Lyric Opera of Chicago has doing so since around 2013, as have some European companies, but the trend has only recently ...
- Created on 19 August 2024
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â Union Avenue Opera is kicking off its season with a sparkling production of Gilbert and Sullivan's venerable comic operetta The Mikado featuring superb singing, solid comic acting, and eye-pleasing ...
- Created on 12 July 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- A quick run through the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert calendar reveals a depressing truth: everything, including the official 20-21 season is marked “currently unavailable.” Some have been ...
- Created on 10 July 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Nearly every aspect of the economy has taken a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. And while some sectors are listening to politicians rather than medical professionals and preparing to resume business as ...
- Created on 22 May 2020
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- Â As the first catalogs of Christmas made their way to our recycle bin last, Winter Opera opened an early Christmas present for opera lovers last weekend, October 28 and 30, with a production of Franz ...
- Created on 04 November 2016
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- The great soprano Renata Scotto once referred to the title role of Bellini's 1831 tragedy "Norma" as "the Everest of opera...You want to climb the mountain. You know you are supposed to climb the mountain. ...
- Created on 07 March 2019
- Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
- “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” arrives at The Fabulous Fox trailing clouds of glory—or at least clouds of hype. That cloud includes a dozen Tony Awards, a “Critic’s Pick” listing ...
- Created on 24 September 2022
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Upcoming Music & Events
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05-25-2025 3:00 pm
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05-25-2025 3:00 pm
Samms' Last Chance Saloon |
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05-25-2025 7:30 pm
Blue Strawberry |
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05-27-2025 3:45 pm
T-Rex in the Historic Lammert Building |
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05-27-2025 7:30 pm
Hi-Pointe Theatre |
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05-28-2025 10:00 am
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