Author Archives: Andy Manshel

‘Taking Up Serpents’ and ‘Dear Erich’ Reviews: Operas Haunted by the Past

A woman’s broken relationship with her Pentecostal snake-handling father; revisiting family letters from a victim of the Holocaust. The cast of ‘Taking Up Serpents’ Photo: Scott Suchman 0 Comments By Heidi Waleson Jan. 15, 2019 12:41 p.m. ET Washington Washington National Opera has taken a practical approach to the creation of new work with its …

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Never smile at the brass.

The review in this morning’s paper by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim reminds me of story told to me by one of my early mentors, Dick Kapuscinski, Oberlin cello professor and principal cello at the Boston Symphony for decades. Dick related that at a BSO rehearsal with conductor Fritz Reiner, the players were frustrated by his economic …

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Portraits of Pain at the Prototype Festival

The opera-theater festival’s two big shows, ‘prism’ and ‘4.48 Psychosis,’ portray varieties of mental chaos. A scene from Ellen Reid’s ‘prism’ at the Prototype Festival Photo: Maria Baranova 0 Comments By Heidi Waleson Jan. 9, 2019 4:50 p.m. ET New York The opera-theater pieces of the Prototype Festival tackle unconventional subjects, often in uncomfortable ways, …

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