In Sunday’s (5/17) Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio), Janelle Gelfand writes, “James Conlon remembers his first concert as May Festival music director 30 years ago as if it were yesterday. ‘I was just excited to do all of those wonderful pieces,’ Conlon recalls by phone from Bologna, Italy, where he had just finished a six-hour rehearsal for Mahler’s Ninth. ‘The first years, a lot of them I was doing for the first time. So, the excitement and joy of being able to do that repertory just kept me so stimulated and inspired. And frankly, that hasn’t changed very much. I feel the same way.’ … The Grammy-winning maestro, whose recording of Kurt Weill’s ‘Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny’ won two 2009 Grammy Awards for best classical recording and best opera album, has always saved the month of May for the May Festival. Next year, even his rehearsals for three complete cycles of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ to be performed in June 2010 at LA Opera are being scheduled around the May Festival.” Festival concerts take place primarily at Cincinnati’s Music Hall, home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the festival’s featured orchestra.
Posted May 19, 2009
