OPERA
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2019
7:00 PM

Victoria Bond: Clara
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, Symphony Space
2537 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan

$30
https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-clara-an-opera-by-victoria-bond

We've heard plenty of music by Clara Schumann in this bicentennial year; now let's hear something about her. Her story is interesting enough: tumultous battle with her father to marry the man she loved; subsequent marriage to a mentally ill musical genius; a career (thwarted by marriage, motherhood, gender expectations, etc.) as one of the leading piano virtuosi in Europe during a time when giants roamed the earth; service as muse to two of the leading lights of German Romantic music — and an almost secret career (thwarted by marriage, motherhood, gender expectations, etc.) as an excellent composer herself. Let me be honest: I find Victoria Bond's instrumental music kind of ordinary. But when it comes to opera and music-theater, she reveals herself to be a natural musical dramatist, which many composers aren't, with the ability to construct a dramatic arc and tell a story through music. This will be a concert performance, conducted by the composer.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's a reason why Malecon is generally considered to be one of the very best (well, two as it has two locations) Dominican restaurants in New York.