Laura Brown

Premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2022 – with Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming and Kelli O’Hara as its stars – Kevin Puts’s The Hours was praised by The New York Times as “sincere and persuasive … fervent … and soaringly lyrical”. The opera returns to the Met’s schedule in May 2024. Based on both the award-winning 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry and the original novel by Michael Cunningham, The Hours interweaves characters and events from three different periods of the 20th century. Joyce DiDonato, who takes the pivotal role of writer Virginia Woolf, says that: “Even though it deals with death head-on, the piece is life-affirming and tells a timeless story. The characters’ struggles are shared universally, and by highlighting them through the different personalities and periods, hopefully everybody can find a part of themselves in the story.”

In line with the series' after-hours policy, the Clifford Brown edition of Jazz 'Round Midnight features the trumpeter on a series of ballads and easy strolling swingers of the highest quality. This, of course, is fortuitous for any fan of Brown's work, considering one gets to really hear his stellar and rich tone in these spacious settings. And he's always in command, whether with arranger Neil Hefti and a string orchestra ("Laura"), supporting vocalists Sarah Vaughan ("Lullaby of Birdland") and Dinah Washington ("No More"), or in the combo he co-led with drummer Max Roach ("Land's End"). A fine choice for the jazz newcomer wary of the more frenetic side of the music.