Decoding the Inner Balance of Figaro

When I first encountered Le nozze di Figaro when I was a kid, I couldn’t make much sense of it. Characters jumped out windows, hid in closets, pretended that their feet were injured, and then to end the proceedings, they put on disguises and mistook one another’s...

A New Musical Aesthetic for New Sexual Times

Most people today seem to care less and less about whether other people are straight, gay, transgender, or transsexual. Perhaps the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage is one factor behind the trend. Another could be the growing public affection for certain gay...

Music from the Coronations of the Tsars

My father was born in Russia in 1903. He actually saw Tsar Nicolas II and his family once or twice. They would take the Trans-Siberian Railway to vacation in Kostroma province and step out onto the train platform in Galich, my dad’s home town, to greet the people. My...