The Opéra National de Paris has begun to celebrate its 350th anniversary. While Meyerbeer’s “Les Huguenots,” which opened on Friday and runs through Oct. 24, has not been performed by the Opera since 1936, it was quite possibly the most popular music drama of the 19th century. Blazing worldwide after opening here in 1836, it was the first title to be put on by this company 1,000 times.
“Sinfonia” of Luciano Berio (1925-2003) was commissioned by the Philharmonic for its 125th anniversary in 1968 and dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, the orchestra’s music director at the time. A harbinger of musical postmodernism, it uncannily captured the capacious spirit of its era and dedicatee.
“Once or twice in a century,” Mr. Bychkov said last week, “somebody will create something that will change our idea of what music can be. Beethoven did it with the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Wagner did it with ‘Parsifal,’ and Stravinsky did it with ‘Le Sacre du Printemps.’ Luciano’s ‘Sinfonia’ was next.”