Barnaby Thieme's Page

I think it can be a little daunting to get a sense of what's what if you're not familiar with the various venues and so forth, so I put this guide together to introduce people to classical music and opera in the Bay Area.It's probably too basic for many users of this site, but I'm hoping it will help and encourage people to attend performances. Feel free to pass it along! :)

 

San Francisco Classical Music 101…

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Howdy folks,

I've posted a lengthy review and analysis of the new Ring cycle, focusing primarily on the staging of the opera and its relationship to Wagner's compositional theory. Feel free to come by and check it out.

 

http://mesocosm.net/2011/06/06/creative-misinterpretations-sf-operas-ring-cycle/

Funny, I just noticed a prominently demarcated melody in the second

Nacht movement of Strauss's Alpensifonie that is clearly lifted straight

from the Nibelungen Ring -- it's an undisguised use of the "magic fire"

motif.



I wonder about composers who sometimes seem to be so haunted by a colossal predecessor that they can't help but make use of

their material, even when it's almost embarrassing. I can't listen to

Brahms's first symphony without feeling… Continue

In its first week, classically-trained cellist Zoë Keating's second LP "Into the Trees" debuted at number seven on Billboard's classical music charts:

http://www.billboard.com/charts/classical-albums#/charts/classical-albums



Keating's new album is a thoroughly modern phenomenon. In live performance she expertly exploits the power of looping technology to simultaneously build and develop… Continue

If Götterdammerung ends with someone flying a plane into the Valhalla building, I'm going to boo at the top of my lungs.