Rebecca Schmid, PhD

is an independent scholar, music writer and culture journalist

“Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ... except its own.”
— Leonard Bernstein
 

Recent Articles

Print Journalism
An Abstract Expressionist returns to Vienna
An Abstract Expressionist returns to Vienna

The artist Robert Motherwell was a bridge between continents: at once a spokesman for the New York School and a conduit for the theories of European modernists. And yet there had not been a retrospective of his work in Europe since 1998; in Austria, the last major Motherwell exhibit took place in the 1970s. That changed with “Robert Motherwell — Pure Painting,” a retrospective at the Kunstforum in Vienna.

An Explosive Story, Freshly Relevant, Takes Center Stage in Salzburg
An Explosive Story, Freshly Relevant, Takes Center Stage in Salzburg

Bohuslav Martinu’s final opera, “The Greek Passion,” explores a story that was as explosive in the mid-twentieth century as it is today. When a group of refugees seeks protection in the village of Lycovrissi, the community is thrown into upheaval: Will the villagers reaffirm their Christian virtues or indulge in acts of selfishness? The opera had personal resonance for Martinu, who was perpetually homesick in his last years.

When La Scala Is Sold Out, You Can Still Get In (Online)
When La Scala Is Sold Out, You Can Still Get In (Online)

La Scala’s audience can now be anywhere. The opera house in Milan began sharing select performances online through LaScalaTv. The first live offering was a broadcast of Verdi’s opera “I Vespri siciliani,” conducted by Fabio Luisi. The platform is part of a wider effort to modernize La Scala’s infrastructure, including an extensive educational outreach program using the technology and plans for subtitles on seat backs.

Weill, Blitzstein and Bernstein: A Study of Influence (University of Rochester Press/Boydell & Brewer) - available to order

Rebecca’s recently released book explores how Kurt Weill’s formal innovations laid the groundwork for the music theater of Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein although they either resisted or downplayed his aesthetic contribution to American tradition. Comparative analysis based on Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence and other modes of intertextuality reveals that the principles of Weill’s opera reform would catalyze an indigenous movement in sophisticated, socially engaged music theatre.