By Barbara Jepson Syracuse, NY: Writing music traditionally has been a solitary undertaking. A composer struggles to bring aesthetic ideas to life, whether aided by quill pen and manuscript paper or the latest computer software program. But in recent decades, some composers have explored more collaborative approaches. Members of new music collectives like Bang On a Can have jointly created major works. And Douglas Quin's "Polar Suite," which received its world premiere during ...

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By John W. Lambert* Home from experiencing San Francisco's new American Ring, the old goats are quickly culled from the operatic sheep. Goats include those who, after 17 hours or so of live Wagner, are compelled to revisit all the other Ring performances they have on DVDs, CDs, records, tape…. The sheep, meanwhile, have had quite enough, thank you - till the next live production. The shrinks might call this goat behavior obsessive compulsive. Most likely, the sheep are simply ...

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During June and July 2011, the San Francisco Opera presented three performances of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, starting June 14. The Music Critics Association of North America is pleased to offer comprehensive coverage of this milestone production, including articles expanding upon the work and its composer. This special edition of the MCANA's Web Journal is the first in what the organization hopes will be an ongoing project to bring together the best critical thought by its members for readers throughout ...

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By Paul Hertelendy  We came from out of town In vain. We held the tickets, But my long-run orchestra abruptly vanished, Having merely crumble remnants for its payroll, Leaving padlocks bolting doors, And tears wiped off too many cheeks. The orchestra had taken me vicariously on dizzy rides To distant centuries and kingdoms Via many pilgrims' dreams and piper's fables, Stoking our imaginations - From Petrouchkas, Pastorales, La Mer, The Flying Dutchmen, Lincoln Portraits, ...

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Laurence Dreyfus: Wagner and the Erotic Impulse; & Nicholas Vazsonyi: Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand By Wes Blomster* Given the incredible extent of the Wagner literature, someone must by now have written on coitus interruptus in this operatic cosmos. For - in view of the centrality of the erotic impulse in his operas and their long identification with sexual desire - it is surprising that almost none of Wagner's love-stricken ...

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