Concert Review: Odyssey Opera's "The Chronicle of Nine"

Last week was a good one for Odyssey Opera. On Sunday, the company netted its first Grammy. Then, on Saturday, it continued its Tudor-themed season with the world premiere of Arnold Rosner’s 1984 opera The Chronicle of Nine: The Tragedy of Queen Jane at Jordan Hall.

Media Date 
February 4, 2020
Media Source 
The Arts Fuse
Media Location 
Boston, MA
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Media Contact Name 
Jonathan Blumhofer
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Chronicle of Nine a slow-building triumph

When I was still a student at the College-Conservatory of Music, I had a professor who once told the class that you could not have an opinion on a work of media unless you’ve experienced the work as a whole. Some in media criticism might call such an approach a lazy way out, but it is astounding how much can change about a work as you sit with it and wholly experience it.

Media Date 
February 3, 2020
Media Source 
Schmopera
Media Location 
Boston, MA
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Media Contact Name 
Arturo Fernandez
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Queen for Nine Days Reigns at Jordan Hall

Jordan Hall in Boston was the setting for a concert version of Arnold Rosner’s The Chronicle of Nine.  His only opera for full orchestra is having its world premiere. Gil Rose, recent Grammy winner for best recorded opera, finds treasures in the archives and brings them to our attention.  We are fortunate indeed.

Media Date 
February 3, 2020
Media Source 
Berkshire Fine Arts
Media Location 
Boston, MA
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Media Contact Name 
Susan Hall
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Compelling music, inert drama in belated premiere of "The Chronicle of Nine"

During the early months of 1554, Lady Jane Grey sat anxiously in the Tower of London. She had come there the previous summer to be crowned Queen of England, taking over from Edward VI, who had died unexpectedly from tuberculosis. But instead, the tower had become her prison. As the English public united around the legitimate queen Mary Tudor, Jane, declared guilty of treason, awaited her execution by beheading.

Media Date 
February 2, 2020
Media Source 
Boston Classical Review
Media Location 
Boston, MA
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A musical maverick's opera premieres, 35 years late

Arnold Rosner’s “The Chronicle of Nine: The Tragedy of Queen Jane” is an operatic oddity of the first degree. Written on spec and finished in 1984, its score opens a portal to an alternate universe where the roughly two centuries of musical history between the death of Monteverdi and the premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 never happened. Decades after its completion, it had never been performed or recorded in full.

Media Date 
February 2, 2020
Media Source 
The Boston Globe
Media Location 
Boston, MA
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Media Quote 
Media Contact Name 
Zoe Madonna
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Boston Globe Klezmer Madness Review

The title of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s Saturday concert at Jordan Hall, “Klezmer Madness,” accurately represented half of its program. That portion consisted of two recent concertos for clarinet and orchestra that were audibly steeped in klezmer, the folk music of Eastern European Jews. Both pieces also featured the outstanding klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, an ideal guide to the contemporary state of klezmer, who brought their solo parts thrillingly to life in performance.

Media Date 
November 25, 2019
Media Source 
The Boston Globe
Media Location 
Boston, MA
Media 
Media Contact Name 
David Weininger

BMOP Plays John Corigliano

Over the last several seasons, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) has featured concerts devoted to music by members of that greatest generation of late-20th-century American composers. Three years ago, they presented David Del Tredici’s Child Alice; two years past, it was a Philip Glass evening; last winter brought an engaging Joan Tower survey. On Saturday night at Jordan Hall, the ensemble and conductor Gil Rose turned their focus to the music of John Corigliano.

Media Date 
February 24, 2019
Media Source 
The Arts Fuse
Media Location 
Boston, MA
Media 
Media Quote 
Media Contact Name 
Jonathan Blumhofer
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Music across Generations and Cultures

Composers who were born in China, studied music both in their homeland and in the U.S., and remained here to build their careers have become a distinct current within the chaotic ocean of 20th- and 21st-century American music. Now spanning three generations, these composers write music too diverse to be regarded as a cohesive stylistic school: Some mix Chinese and Western instruments, others write exclusively for Western ensembles; some draw on Chinese folk themes, others favor a bracing post-tonal acidity, and still more are neo-Romantics.

Media Date 
April 24, 2018
Media Source 
The Wall Street Journal
Media Location 
Boston, MA
Media 
Media Quote 
Media Contact Name 
Allan Kozinn
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Modern Treasures for a Modern Age

Essential in its role as the major large orchestra in Boston for the music of living composers, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) stayed true to form at Jordan Hall on Friday, where Gil Rose took the podium for “Time Release.” This first concert of the season included the music of Steven Mackey, Hannah Lash, and Harold Meltzer, most of whom were in attendance. This concert was part of the third annual Boston New Music Festival, a celebration of new music through the collaboration of Juventas New Music Ensemble and other local new music groups; BNMF continues on October 26th with Kadence Arts and the start of another Boston Opera Collaborative’s “Opera Bites” cycle.

Media Date 
October 22, 2018
Media Source 
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
Media Location 
Boston, MA
Media 
Media Quote 
Media Contact Name 
Ian Wiese
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Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s ‘Time Release’ is a Masterful Display of Musical Juxtaposition

Oftentimes, music is perceived foremost as an exploration of harmony — how different sounds work mutually, usually conjunctly, and always carefully to create a pleasing, uncontroversial sound. Yet music is as much, if not more so, about its contrast as it is about its homogeneity: It explores the sonic relations between consonance and dissonance, between order and chaos, between sparseness and abundance.

Media Date 
November 7, 2018
Media Source 
The Harvard Crimson
Media Location 
Boston, MA
Media 
Media Quote 
Media Contact Name 
Ian Chan
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