Lorin Maazel

Lorin Maazel’s 1783 Guadagnini Violin sold at Auction for charity By  Corinne Ramey This article appeared on the February 2012 cover of String Magazine It’s not a Strad, but maestro  Lorin Maazel   will have you know that his  1783 Guadagnini   is second to none. “The violin is one of the spectacular examples of Guadagnini’s expertise,” Maazel says. “Everyone loves...

A row of barn-like sheds stands on Lorin Maazel’s farm in the rolling hills of Rappahannock County. They’re simple prefabricated sheds, the kind you can pick up at any home-supply store, decorated like miniature barns: the kind of sheds people set up in their yards to store the power mower, the mulch, the lawn tools. On Maazel’s farm, they contain high-quality Yamaha keyboards. They’re practice rooms for the you...

In the dressing room off the master bedroom, mezzo-soprano superstar  Denyce Graves  is choosing between a glittery black gown and a shimmery silver tunic. In the music room nearby, soprano  Joyce El-Khoury  has donned a full-blown scarlet va-va-voom gown and is topping the outfit off with dangly earrings. Down on the front lawn, a pair of two-week-old lambs is, yes, gamboling around a 280-year-old beech tree. The ...

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial; min-height: 16.0px} Britten's chamber operas, most of them written for the intimate setting of the Aldeburgh Festival, are conceived in a spirit of utter transparency. The instrumental writing is spare, the text-setting crisp and the dramaturgy - whether in a serious or comic vein - swift and direct.   That...

The presenters at Cal Performances don't often delve into the world of fully staged opera, which is an expensive and unwieldy undertaking in the best of circumstances. But this weekend brings a promising new endeavor, the first local appearance by the fledging Castleton Festival Opera. Founded and run by conductor Lorin Maazel, 81, and his wife, actress Dietlinde Turban, the summer festival is a two-month training ground for singers, ...