Performance When an opera company wants to make the leap into the big leagues, it raises millions and stages a Ring cycle. Since its completion in 1874, Richard Wagner’s 15-hour, four-opera cycle based on a ...   More

Performance In more than 35 years and 45 recordings, the Kronos Quartet has seemingly explored every conceivable musical direction, from the jazz of Thelonius Monk and Bill Evans, through collaborations with comp ...   More

Music Portland bassist David Friesen rarely plays the same song twice.

Back in the mid-1960s, a young jazz bassist named David Friesen found his band playing opposite the classic John Coltrane Quartet at a Seattle club called the Penthouse. Although he sat just a few feet away from some of the most powerful and distinctive players in jazz history—Trane, drummer Elvin Jones, pianist ...   More

Music Despite the lamentable fact that you can't dance there, some of my favorite Pink Martini performances have happened in the august confines of the Schnitz — their gigs with the Oregon Symphony (to be released next spring), the New Year's performance featuring PM pianist Thomas Lauderdal...   More

Performance Third Angle, Sound of the Five (New World)The veteran Portland new music ensemble has formed a close connection with the ebullient, Guangzhou-born Chen Yi, who now teaches and composes in the U.S. Whi ...   More

News
Of the six Philip Glass operas I've seen live, 1993's Orphée is the most conventional in structure, in part because Glass derived the story from Jean Cocteau's screenplay for his celebrated 1949 film. Most of Glass' other stage work, especi...   More

News

The contracts aren't yet signed, and the legal beagles have yet to complete their sniffing and gnawing, but it seems highly probable that Portland Opera is about to make its first-ever recording -- and it's a big one. At an interview this morning, Opera spokeswoman Julia Sheridan and composer Philip Glass announced plans for Glass's record...   More

News

If our city planners have their way, Copenhagen will be the model for Portland's urban transportation network. Mayor Adams has said he wants us to achieve the Danish city's world leading levels of bicycle use but we have a long way to go: bikes account for...   More

Performance While many recession-battered arts groups are playing it safe, Portland Opera is going for broke. The company’s staging of Philip Glass’ Orphée may scare away conservative patrons, ...   More

Books David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries (Viking, 320 pages, $25.95), to quote another well-known cyclist, is not about the bike. Or at least, not entirely. Even though the former Talking Headman has used ...   More