Word: bso
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...story of an American naval officer, Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) Pinkerton, who abandons his Japanese wife, Cio-Cio San (Butterfly). The story, based on John Luther Longs novella, has been retold, again and again, in such productions as Broadways Miss Saigon and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. Most recently, BSO takes on a fully staged concert version of Puccini's opera at Symphony Hall, with the last and final performance this coming Saturday...
...most significant aspects of BSO'sperformance was the readily apparent emphasis onorchestration. Unlike most stagings of opera,where the orchestra sits in the pit, the membersof BSO were on stage, only slightly below theelevated set. Most definitely this was because ofSymphony Hallãs architecture, which was built toaccommodate orchestral events, but something stillhas to be said for the decision to perform theopera in that setting. The result was of mixedbenefits. Although the BSO sounded the best that Ihad ever heard them, the orchestra tended, attimes, to drown out the vocalists...
True, Ms. Mutter was strapless, playing the violin in a gun-metal gray dress, and Mr. Ozawa was batonless, conducting as if summoning some ancient rain spirit. But these were the few rare unconventional elements of BSO's February 8th performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D, Opus 61 and Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, pictures from pagan Russia...
...celebration of Seiji Ozawa's 25th Anniversary Season as the music director of the BSO, internationally renowned violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter was invited to play her first engagement with the symphony since November 1993. You may know Ms. Mutter more for her interpretations of 20th century music or perhaps for her provocative personal style, but judging from her performance last Tuesday she should be equally well known for her superb technical abilities...
...BSO's sound was extraordinary. This was concert where one could finally begin to appreciate the famous acoustics of Symphony Hall. Sadly, the performance itself was on the whole too slow and too reserved to fulfill the intense potential of the music...