Fine Tuning
From the Panhandle to the Bayou City, homegrown classical music ensembles are our best-kept secret.
From the Panhandle to the Bayou City, homegrown classical music ensembles are our best-kept secret.
By Chester Rosson and W. L. Taitte
Take two Aspern: one a world premiere by the Dallas Opera, the other the Henry James novella on which the opera is based. Which is better for you?
By W. L. Taitte
The Houston Grand Opera was out to impress, with its new house and three ambitious productions in one week, but what it proved best was just how enjoyable this brand of theater can be.
By W. L. Taitte
Mary Jane Johnson and Timothy Jenkins live in Amarillo, but they’re at home in the world’s great opera houses.
By W. L. Taitte
A series of world premieres commissioned by the Houston Symphony Orchestra has brought a dash of fanfare to Jones Hall.
By W. L. Taitte
The Dallas Bach Society combines crackerjack musicians, a well-trained choir, and top-ranked vocal soloists—the result is a baroque-music lover’s dream.
By W. L. Taitte
Some new recordings of old symphonies reveal how the composers really wanted things to sound.
By W. L. Taitte
The only excitement of the Dallas Opera season came from a couple of fortunate gambles, while the Houston Grand Opera triumphed by bringing Faust alive for contemporary audiences.
By W. L. Taitte
The Ups and Downs of Theophilus Maitland had more ups than downs in Dallas, but Memorial Candles didn’t have much memorable melody.
By W. L. Taitte
Compact discs: coasters? Frisbees? or the best sound you’ll ever hear?
By W. L. Taitte
Forget all that debate about early instruments versus modern ones for eighteenth-century music.
By W. L. Taitte
Sometimes the opera is over before the fat lady sings. Consider the successful debut of sixteen brief and eclectic works commissioned by the Texas Opera Theater.
By W. L. Taitte
A little gimmickry goes a long way toward making the Fort Worth Opera's current season a success.
By W. L. Taitte
The octogenarian whom many believe to be the greatest living composer pays a long-awaited visit to Texas.
By W. L. Taitte
Using antique and original instruments like the viola da gamba, the Texas Baroque Ensemble is making Garland the place to hear early music in Texas.
By W. L. Taitte
The Houston premiere of Phillip Glass’ Akhnaten was a grand opera.
By W. L. Taitte
A flood of new Brahms recordings that honor the composer’s 150th birthday reveals an oeuvre of surprising richness.
By W. L. Taitte
The Public Opera of Dallas aimed its first season at opera greenhorns and scored two bull’s-eyes.
By W. L. Taitte
At this year’s dismal San Antonio Festival, the English National Opera and the Texas productions were the only shows worth seeing.
By W. L. Taitte
Jamboree, a new Joffrey ballet commissioned by the City of San Antonio, features prancing rhinestone cowboys and just plain silly choreography.
By W. L. Taitte
The fare offered by the Houston Pops Orchestra may not be highbrow, but conductor Ned Battista thinks it’s American music at its best.
By W. L. Taitte
New blood and a commitment to high standards at the Theater Center and the Plaza have helped to make this theatrical season Dallas’ best.
By W. L. Taitte
Houston’s well-heeled Alley Theatre is trying to pass itself off as a national theater. Across town, the Chocolate Bayou is just trying to hang on.
By W. L. Taitte
Backstage at the Houston Ballet is a world of pastel shadows, brilliant spangles, and anxious waiting.
By W. L. Taitte
In conductor’s opera, each of the vocalists becomes just one more instrument in the musical ensemble.
By W. L. Taitte
These days the Houston Symphony Orchestra isn’t playing the same old thing. Conductor Sergiu Comissiona battles boredom by playing brand-new works and little-heard older ones.
By W. L. Taitte
With The Palace of Amateurs, the Plaza Theatre brought a sparkling Mariel Hemingway to Dallas and a lofty new theatrical standard to Texas.
By W. L. Taitte
Houston likes to think it discovered Erie Mills, but it’s willing to share the winning young star with the rest of the opera world.
By W. L. Taitte
Is Claudio Arrau the last great Romantic pianist?
By W. L. Taitte
Jim Cartwright has a classic case of obsession-he owns thousands of records. Under Sung Kwak the Austin Symphony has gone from mediocre to memorable.
By W. L. Taitte
The ambitious San Antonio Festival went all out, with 73 acts-everything from Dallas ballet to Berlin opera, from Robert Merrill to Sarah Vaughan. Houston Grand Opera and Leonard Bernstein both made mistakes in A Quiet Place.
By W. L. Taitte
This spring both of Texas’ top symphonies staged the late William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Fest. Dallas held back, but Houston made merry with the splashy biblical spectacle.
By W. L. Taitte
From out of the West Texas plains comes the rich, beautiful sound of the Thouvenel String Quartet.
By W. L. Taitte
Both Haydn and Stravinsky marked special anniversaries last year, but music lovers got the presents: a shower of fresh new versions of their works.
By W. L. Taitte
Once touted, now routed, San Antonio’s opera takes its last bow.
By W. L. Taitte
Texas opera lovers would have ended the season happily just having seen a lively Rosenkavalier, a magical Rheingold, and a fiery Wozzeck. But then the Houston Grand Opera’s Pagliacci came along and took their breath away.
By W. L. Taitte
The board of the Dallas Theater Center is fighting with its stuck-in-a-rut staff to pull the company out of its decade of doldrums.
By W. L. Taitte
On Christmas Day, people all across the country can tune in to PBS to hear the Concert Chorale of Houston sing the Messiah. That’s reason to rejoice.
By W. L. Taitte
The bright-eyed, pink-cheeked cream of Texas youth aren’t scrambling on the football field. They’re playing in the high school band.
By W. L. Taitte
Four Saints isn’t a solemn Gregorian chant but a lovable American opera. New LPs of Brahms, Shostakovich, and Bach are worth a second listen.
By W. L. Taitte
In the past two years Kjehl Rasmussen has opened two acclaimed Dallas theaters and directed a hit musical. And that’s just for starters.
By W. L. Taitte
Houston Grand Opera dedicated a lot of its budget and all of its heart to producing not an opera but an American musical—Show Boat.
By W. L. Taitte
Houston’s Stages theater gave new writers a push and established writers a pat when it put on a Texans-only playwrights’ festival.
By W. L. Taitte
British playwright Alan Ayckbourn dropped in on his American cousins at Houston’s Alley Theatre and directed the U.S. premiere of his latest and most innovative work.
By W. L. Taitte
The Pachelbel Canon has gone Hollywood and become the best-selling classical piece in the country. Works by Bach, Mozart, and Wagner are managing to hold their own, too.
By W. L. Taitte
From their antipastos to their cannoli, three restaurants are leading Texans to the pure, simple pleasures of classical Italian cooking.
By W. L. Taitte
Two young conductors are rousing audiences in Houston and making motions toward becoming the country’s finest maestros.
By W. L. Taitte
Dallas’ Stage #1 proves it’s worthy of its name with a gut-wrenching production about a family torn apart.
By W. L. Taitte
Four performers in Dallas are making a new kind of music that combines precision, grace, and crazy humor.
By W. L. Taitte
At San Antonio’s Mi Tierra, you’ll see the rabble, the rich, and everyone in between, all feasting on Tex-Mex and homemade pan dulce.
By W. L. Taitte