Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton, the "Father of Pop Art", Dies at 89Richard Hamilton, regarded by many as the father of the Pop Art movement, passed away on Tuesday, September 13th, 2011. Known for his collage work...
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Operatic Sounds of Silence
Whoever said that silence is golden probably did not have opera in mind. In this art form all kinds of sounds are prized, whether from the orchestra, chorus or soloists singing alone or with colleagues...
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Eight Composers Who Beat the Summer Heat
The first seven months of this year have been the hottest on record in the northeastern United States, researchers at Cornell University said on Tuesday. Other parts of the US have been suffering from...
View ArticleSinging In The Stadiums: Soccer Has The Most Musical Fans
Back in May, I was sitting in a bar when suddenly a bunch of people start singing Rodgers & Hart's 1935 classic tune "Blue Moon." This was neither random nor surprising.I’d gone to the bar on a...
View ArticleSaturday Morning Cartoons: A Rapid Ring Cycle
This Saturday's cartoon features "Siegfried’s Rhine Journey" from Richard Wagner’s Gotterdammerung. Leitmotifs from this music and the other Ring operas can be found in an animated short called, “The...
View ArticleThe Salzburg Festival's Helga Rabl-Stadler
The Salzburg Festival in Austria is one of the premiere opera and classical music festivals. It spans 35 days, with 200,000 people attending 69 concerts, 38 opera performances and 135 plays.For the...
View ArticleDavid Lang's "love fail"
Pulitzer-Prize winning composer and one of the three founders of Bang on a Can, David Lang, along with the women of vocal quartet Anonymous 4 join us to preview the work Lang has just written for the...
View ArticleSaturday Morning Cartoons: Lohengrin by Richard Wagner
For this Saturday’s cartoon we have chosen the Prelude and Bridal Chorus from Act 3 of Lohengrin by Richard Wagner. This music opens the 1936 cartoon “Mickey’s Grand Opera,” which also features the...
View ArticleYearning to Breathe Free: How Opera Speaks to Our Deepest Selves
You can imagine, because you know of my love for opera, how often I am asked to explain what makes a particular work great. Moreover, I am asked very frequently what it is that makes opera itself so...
View ArticleWagner Week: The Life of Richard Wagner
WQXR is devoting the week of July 22-28, 2013 to the music of Richard Wagner (1813-1882), that consummate man of the theater who is considered one of history's greatest and most controversial opera...
View ArticleRichard Wagner, Comedy Icon?
When we think of Richard Wagner, the first things that come to mind are often his serious compositions and notorious personality. Wagner has gone down in history as a watchword for heaviness and...
View ArticleWagneriana
This week, Reflections from the Keyboard pays tribute to Richard Wagner with piano transcriptions of some of Wagner’s work written by Liszt, Busoni, Gould and more. We’ll see if you like your Wagner...
View ArticleWhen Opera is Translated for Piano
This edition of Reflections from the Keyboard focuses on operatic transcriptions for the piano, complete with a few rarities.There has always been a way to get close to opera. All one has ever needed...
View ArticleHow to Make an Opera Aria Sing on the Piano
On this edition of Reflections from the Keyboard, David Dubal digs deeper to unpack several more operatic transcriptions for the piano.Some pianists know a good opera when they hear it and jump on the...
View ArticleWagner Explainer: Can We Separate the Man from His Music?
Major opera companies routinely stage the operas of Richard Wagner with hardly a mention of the composer's troublesome character traits: his virulent anti-Semitism, misogyny and narcissism. He was an...
View ArticleSymphonies for Snoozing? When it's OK to Be Bored in Concerts
We've all had moments when our mind has wandered during a Wagner opera, a Bruckner symphony or perhaps a long Mozart recitative. Some of us have even dozed off. But maybe we shouldn’t beat ourselves up...
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Music in a Democracy
From the August, 1942 WQXR Program Guide:Editorial Note: Occasionally we receive letters from listeners who protest angrily against our broadcasting German music either orchestral or vocal. Because of...
View ArticleWhere Was God? [remix]
Great religious minds reflect on tragedies surrounding September 11, 2001. As America moves beyond raw emotion and religious sentiment, this program explores theological and spiritual reflection for...
View ArticleSandy Eisenberg Sasso, Richard Hays, and Linda Loving — Passover and Easter...
In the coinciding seasons of Passover and Easter, two world religions celebrate their core stories in ritual and worship. Each of these sacred holidays is based on a key biblical story of suffering and...
View ArticleKhaled Abou El Fadl, Richard J. Mouw, and Yossi Klein Halevi — The Power of...
Religious fundamentalism has reshaped our view of world events. In this show, host Krista Tippett explores the appeal of fundamentalism in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, as experienced from the...
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