Bill Barclay, music director of Shakespeare’s Globe, talks about bringing Florent Schmitt’s Antony & Cleopatra (1920) to the Hollywood Bowl and the Barbican Centre.

December 3, 2016 · by Phillip Nones | in Ballet, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Gide, Antoine et Cleopatre, Antony & Cleopatra, Barbican, BBC Symphony, Bill Barclay, Bramwell Tovey, Florent Schmitt, Hollywood Bowl, Iqbal Khan, Jess Lusk, Kimberly Schuette, LAPO, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lucy Taylor, Mark Pullinger, Paul Hughes, Rob Cross, Rodney Martell, Sakari Oramo, Schmitt, Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Globe, Virginia Arts Festival, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Florent Schmitt’s incidental music to Antoine et Cléopâtre, Op. 69 is one of the composer’s most intriguing works – a bright star in the constellation of sumptuous “orientalist” compositions created by this French master. The music was composed for André Gide’s 1920 adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, with the role of Cleopatra performed by the celebrated […]

Experiencing Florent Schmitt’s Antony & Cleopatra (1920) in a dramatic adaptation: An eyewitness report from London.

October 10, 2016 · by Phillip Nones | in Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Gide, Antoine et Cleopatre, Antony & Cleopatra, BBC Symphony, Bill Barclay, Bramwell Tovey, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Camille Chevillard, Edmund Harris, Florent Schmitt, Ida Rubinstein, Iqbal Khan, Janie Dee, JoAnn Falletta, LAPO, Leonid Desyatnikov, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mark Pullinger, Olivier Messiaen, Sakara Oramo, Shakespeare 400, Shakespeare's Glob, The Children of Rosenthal, Turangalila | Leave a comment

In 2010, the American conductor JoAnn Falletta resurrected a Florent Schmitt rarity: The Suite No. 1 from the incidental music the composer had written for Andre Gide’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Antony & Cleopatra. It was an Ida Rubinstein production done in her characteristically outré style: an entire-evening extravaganza mounted at the Paris Opéra. […]

Is Florent Schmitt’s Antony & Cleopatra (1920) beginning the transition from “rarity” to “rep we know”?

April 16, 2016 · by Phillip Nones | in Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Andre Gide, Antoine et Cleopatre, Antony & Cleopatra, Barbican, BBC Music Magazine, BBC Symphony, Berlioz, Bill Barclay, Bramwell Tovey, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cybelia, Fabien Gabel, Fanfare Magazine, Florent Schmitt, Hollywood Bowl, Ida Rubinstein, JoAnn Falletta, Jongen, Korngold, LAPO, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler, Much Ado About Nothing, NAXOS Classics, Orchestre de Paris, Romeo & Juliet, Sakari Oramo, Schmitt, Shakespeare, Shakespeare 400, Shakespeare's Globe, Symphony Concertante, Tchaikovsky, The Classical Source, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment

This year, Florent Schmitt’s opulent score will be presented by two leading orchestras — the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony — in collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe. It’s quite interesting to witness a piece of classical music make the journey from being a rarity to becoming mainstream. I can think of several examples, headlined by […]

Passionate advocate: French conductor Lionel Bringuier talks about the music of Florent Schmitt and La Tragédie de Salomé.

April 25, 2015 · by Phillip Nones | in Ballet, Classical Music, Composers, French Composers | tagged Cleveland Orchestra, Daphnis & Chloe, Debussy, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Florent Schmitt, Igor Stravinsky, La Tragedie de Salome, Le Sacre du Printemps, Lionel Bringuier, Loie Fuller, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Mark Satola, Paris Conservatoire, Paris Conservatory, Ravel, Rite of Spring, Salome, Stravinsky, Tonhalle Orchestra, Vincent d'Indy | Leave a comment

French conductor Lionel Bringuier’s meteoric rise in the classical music field has been noteworthy. Not yet 30 years old, he has been conducting major orchestras in the United States and Europe since 2006. Currently, Maestro Bringuier is chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich, Switzerland. Prior to that, he was an associate conductor of […]