Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena, conductor Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy at Spivey Hall, Feb. 21. In small jewels from French baroque operas, the Czech mezzo's singing was ravishingly beautiful, heartfelt, on the brink of ecstasy and despair.
ASO in Osvaldo Golijov's "La Pasion segun San Marcos" at Emory University's Emerson Concert Hall, Feb. 17. The hedonistic, percussive, Latin and Afro-Cuban retelling of the gospel according to St.
Mark prompted euphoric roars from the sold-out audience. It showed the ASO can deliver big for its populist new-music agenda.
Atlanta Opera's "The Barber of Seville" at the Atlanta Civic Center, Nov.
11. The singing was solid, the orchestra capable, the production fashionable and witty and it was likely the strongest showing in the history of the company. Applause all round.
Golijov: "Ainadamar," ASO conducted by Robert Spano (Deutsche Gramophon). Golijov again, this time in a flamenco-fired opera on memory, love and the fragility of society, as told through the 1930s murder of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. By making the year-end list of most classical critics in the country, the disc helps solidify the ASO's position on the national stage.
Handel: "Saul," Concerto K o ln conducted by Ren e Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi). Move over, "Messiah." Handel's best oratorios are grand dramas in English, with all the heroism and pathos of the best operas.
Jacobs' excellent cast and sense of theater make this "Saul" a winner.
Beethoven: Nine Symphonies, London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink (LSO Live). The old Dutch maestro, now in his 80s, surprised many when his interpretations of Beethoven grew leaner, swifter, more searching mdash; in a word, youthful, with no loss of profundity.
This budget-priced set is not to be missed.
"Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971" by Stephen Walsh (Knopf, $40). The second and final volume in the definitive biography of the 20th century's most essential composer.
Walsh untangles a life that the composer had purposely made obscure, and his prose is almost novelistic in its readability.
"The Grove Book of Operas," edited by Stanley Sadie and Laura Macy (Oxford, $39.95).
An A-to-Z dictionary of major, minor and incredibly obscure operas. Top scholars and critics contribute the lucid essays, with a decidedly British slant.
"A Concise History of Western Music" by Paul Griffiths (Cambridge, $35).
A scholar, critic, librettist and friend to avant-garde composers, Griffiths is also deeply insightful on the wide horizons of classical music, and especially wise on the means and meaning mdash; the cultural support systems mdash; that spur creativity.
Rameau: "Les Paladins" (Opus Arte). An updated production that leaves you breathless.
In this 1760 opera-ballet based on a fairy tale, you get sexy hip-hop dancing, heartfelt singing and the supremo conducting of William Christie plus a clever interactive video element. The revolution starts here.
Handel: "Giulio Cesare" (Opus Arte).
I like when the best available recording of a great opera comes in a showy and beguiling DVD. Christie conducts this "Bollywood"-inspired tale of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and the tragic consequences of bad politics.
British violinist John Holloway, a star on the global early-music scene, had hooked up with Atlanta's New Trinity Baroque and promised us untold musical riches.
But after a few months of personality clashes and financial strain, the partnership collapsed. What a shame.
The Dozier Centre for the Performing Arts, which opened in August in Kennesaw, should have been a fine new music hall for the northern suburbs.
A music and education center, the facility looks great, but clogged acoustics mean it's yet another of metro Atlanta's mediocre spaces for music.
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