Getting ready for “The Magic Flute”

On April 28 and 30, the Jacksonville Symphony will present one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most beloved and famous operas, “The Magic Flute”. The two performances will be the culmination of several years of planning and preparation, and the Symphony’s largest production of the season. This is the story of what goes into staging an opera in Jacoby Symphony Hall. Before our last opera production, “La bohème”, I met with Tony Nickle, Vice President of Artistic Administration at the Symphony. We plan all the classical concerts together. We’d been delighted with the success of our first opera production in Jacksonville, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, and we were keen to build on that momentum. I wanted to perform more Mozart; he is, after all, the greatest of

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Classical music makes the Holidays

The holiday season is almost upon us, a time when we can enjoy being together with family and friends, eat and drink too much and reflect on the year that has passed. I’m looking forward to travelling to London and Belfast to be Uncle Courtney for a few weeks. It’s a time with so many traditions, yet there is one element that binds it all together: classical music. Nothing says ‘Christmas is coming’ quite like hearing the Trepak from ‘The Nutcracker’ playing in the supermarket for the first time, or catching a fleeting strain of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s ‘Messiah’. Of course, for musicians, it’s not only The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, but the busiest. We often joke that in December, Handel

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