Melvyn Krauss is a professional economist who often writes about music. He has published on music in the Wall Street Journal, Harper's, and Opera News. In his early years, he mostly spent his time in opera houses. But with the decline of great singers and production values, Mr. Krauss abandoned the opera house in favor of the concert hall where he found the standard of performing to be on a much higher level. He resides in Portola Valley, California with his wife Irene, two Irish setters, and two cats. He considers himself to be a New Yorker-in-exile.
"Could there be a clearer example of how giving directors exaggerated power in the opera house with their excessive demands for rehearsal time is creating a star-starved Met that threatens the venerable New York City opera house with serious financial damage."
"Last evening, we had an absolutely splendid Brahms Fourth Symphony led by Marek Janowski, a 77-year old guest conductor active mostly in Germany. There is not a music director in this country today—including the top five—that can do Brahms better than Mr. Janowski based on his San Francisco performances."
"Puccini’s classic opera Tosca appears to have put a curse on the Metropolitan Opera and its General director Peter Gelb."
"The violin virtuoso now plays with a new freedom and profundity that puts him at the very top of his profession. As I watched him play the other evening at Stanford University, I had the feeling I actually was watching a ‘three-armed’ violinist."
"I was surprised to discover while doing the simple arithmetic that over 50 percent of the San Francisco Symphony’s concerts this season are being conducted by guest conductors, a figure not out of line with what is happening at other top 10 symphony orchestras in the country."
"I was shocked to spot French virtuoso cellist Gautier Capucon... sitting inconspicuously in the middle of the orchestra’s cello section, playing along with the ‘tutti’ cellists, a smile on his face and fun in his eyes."
"What a joy these Dutch women violinists are; not only are they great players but they are a pleasure to look at as well."
"No doubt about it, this was a terrific performance from a talented team of advocates."
"How fortunate that Ms Gabetta happens upon the scene just at a time when there is a shortage of top rank cellists... What a joy it is to hear a young immensely talented player on the way up!"
"I wonder how appreciative San Francisco audiences really have been of Blomstedt’s powerful advocacy of Bruckner’s music over the years [because] Americans don’t get Bruckner’s music."
"The performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony I attended was one of the worst in memory."
"It may take a while for the public to get used to having female conductors -- the symphony audience is a very conservative one. But they will."
"This is one of those operas that get better and better as it goes along. "
"The cost of gender discrimination rises as the pool of talented male conductors dries up."
"Only now are the doors opening for female conductors and again not because of any sense of fair play or political activism but for the simple reason that there are just not enough credible male candidates to go around."
"It is a tribute to David Gockley’s good taste and courage that he chose to end his 10 years as general director of the San Francisco Opera with a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo. Verdi’s vast and inspired masterpiece imposes great demands on an opera company’s resources... Mr. Gockley gave it an honorable shot."
"Let’s Set The Record straight: The relevant question when contemplating the recently announced appointment of Yannick Nezet-Seguin (henceforth called Yannick) as the new music director of the Metropolitan Opera is not whether the Met made the right choice but what was Yannick thinking --or smoking--when he agreed to take on the Met post."
"Music@Menlo, a 3-week summer festival of chamber music in Silicon Valley, has been [David Finckel and Wu Han's] most successful venture outside of Lincoln Center. Until [they] came along, Menlo Park was a sleepy well-healed cultural wasteland during the summer months."
"The new appointment of Wu Han and David Finckel as joint artistic directors of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center makes this husband-and-wife team America's power couple of chamber music."
"The Met blames its bad box office on a drop-off in international tourism. But the crisis goes much deeper than implied by this superficial explanation."
