WHITE NOISE
A collection of writings & thoughts
Some Personal Thoughts on Eugene Onegin
What a privilege it is for me, in my role as a conductor, to expend my meager intellectual and aesthetic resources in a joyful quest to explore the innumerable beauties and inspirations to be found in operatic masterpieces. Particularly precious are the treasures I find in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin…
Shakespeare in Music
The subject that we’re about to consider this evening—Shakespeare in Music—is a topic so immense, so vast, so seemingly endless—that I feel compelled to state up front that in no way are we going to be able to approach exhausting even the mere cream of the crop of this most bountiful phenomenon. But before we get very specific, let’s address a more general artistic matter that bears greatly on our subject at hand. I’m speaking of the friendly aesthetic tension that exists between words and music…
Faust’s Youth Restored
Gounod’s Faust, as it has come down to us over the last century-and-a-half, is one of the most assuredly well-known works in the operatic canon. It is, furthermore, the most prominent musical adaptation of what was, by far, the most significant and influential dramatic literary work of the 19th century. For the first hundred years after its premiere in 1859, Faust was the most widely performed opera in the world…
The Music of Otello
Verdi’s Otello may very well be the greatest of all Italian Romantic operas. From the pedigree of its source material to the unrivaled quality of its libretto, Otello breathes out importance and artistic accomplishment at every turn. But it is Verdi’s music, of course, that gives eternal immediacy to Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy and searing poignancy to Boito’s fluent script…
The Endless Musical Wonders of Cosí fan tutte
New Year’s Eve in Vienna! Those very words evoke images and feelings of urbane pleasure and benign hedonism soaked in the soothingly cheerful tonic of beautiful music. And that is exactly what guests of Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart experienced on December 31, 1789. On that festive night a small but august group of friends sequestered themselves in the home of their beloved genius to witness the unveiling of his newest opera, Così fan tutte…
Don Giovanni - An Interview
Conductor Steven White interviews himself about Don Giovanni:
SW: Thank you for taking the time to answer these few questions about Mozart’s great opera Don Giovanni. By the way, do you mind if I call you Steven, or do you prefer Maes—
SW: PLEASE do call me Steven…with a “v.” Thanks for asking…
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Che invenzione prelibata! “What delicious invention!” Figaro’s own words could not more aptly describe the miracle that is Il barbiere di Siviglia. It took Rossini all of thirteen days to create what has for nearly two hundred years been considered the apotheosis of opera buffa…
Passion & Preparation: The Two-Sided Coin of Opera
I’d like to share some thoughts with you today about what OPERA has taught me—and continues to teach me—about life and leadership. As a conductor, it is in my job description to be a leader, in certain obvious ways. But my lifelong involvement with music—opera in particular—has led me to the understanding and embracing of a few key principles that I think are universal and applicable to anyone who takes pride in their own particular vocation—indeed, for anyone who cares to consider and take stock of their own role in society…