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Justin Davidson

Architecture and Classical-Music Critic, Curbed and New York Magazine
See all their articles from across New York Magazine

Architecture and classical-music critic Justin Davidson is a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York.

  1. music review
    Amid the Alerts, Two Lightly Earthshaking Philharmonic DebutsKarina Canellakis and Alice Sara Ott powered through the bleeps.
  2. classical-music review
    Klaus Mäkelä Brings Back the Wild Streak in StravinskyThe young Finnish conductor had even his own orchestra stomping with enthusiasm.
  3. opera review
    At the Met, Great Voices and Overwrought Choices in La Forza del DestinoSoprano Lise Davidsen knows what’s needed here; director Mariusz Treliński does not.
  4. opera review
    An Epic Set in Xenophobic Limbo: Huang Ruo’s Angel IslandFrom the walls of an immigrant detention cell to the opera stage.
  5. 2024 preview
    23 Classical-Music Performances We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2024Adams’s El Niño, the Weimar Republic’s artistic richness, and Rachmaninoffamania.
  6. carmen
    Opera Review: A Maybe-Midwestern Carmen With No Ticket OutAn attempt at modernization that diminishes the opera’s timeliness.
  7. opera review
    Steam Till It Wilts: The Met’s Florencia en el Amazones“Couples converge, turn away, and re-embrace aboard a jungle Love Boat.”
  8. fall preview 2023
    25 New Classical Music Performances to Hear This FallIncluding a fresh Metropolitan Opera slate, a night of Phillip Glass, and more.
  9. institutions
    Mostly Mozart Festival Gains a Music Director, Loses Its NameJonathon Heyward in; Wolfgang demoted.
  10. opera review
    A Magic Flute With a Few Too Many TricksSimon McBurney’s production draws power from some inventive stagecraft but gradually swamps its singers.
  11. classical-music review
    At the Philharmonic, Dudamel’s First Is Mahler’s NinthHe delivers a showy 2-D performance of a 3-D symphony.
  12. opera review
    In Don Giovanni, Ivo van Hove Can Turn Even Mozart DissonantThe director seems to be fighting his musicians and singers.
  13. opera review
    In Terence Blanchard’s Opera Champion, Not Every Punch LandsA boxing opera comes to the Met, with a jazz-infused score, powerful movement, and wobbly storytelling.
  14. opera review
    A Lohengrin Where You Might Root for the Bad GuyThe Wagner opera returns to the Met for the first time in 17 years.
  15. classical music
    Gustavo Dudamel Will Take Over the New York PhilharmonicBut not until 2026.
  16. opera review
    The Met’s New Fedora Is Almost Luxe, Almost Enough“David McVicar’s new production for the Metropolitan Opera gets partway to the right degree of too much.”
  17. classical-music review
    Geffen Hall Has Found Its SoundIt’s finally what it ought to have been all along — and it’s so clear, it may be a little too revealing for some conductors.
  18. opera review
    The Hours Comes to Roiling Vocal LifeMichael Cunningham’s novel comes to the Metropolitan Opera’s stage.
  19. music review
    Memory Play, With Cello: Michael Gordon’s Travel Guide to Nicaragua“The beauty of this score lies in its refusal of big gestures and its preference for the telling detail.”
  20. on the podium
    How True to the Conducting Life Is Tár?The road for women is steeper, and even the fiercest maestros aren’t quite so hard on the musicians.
  21. architecture review
    The New Geffen Hall Is Open. How Does It Sound?It’s too early to say. But the inaugural concert today (with two very different types of ensembles) was encouraging.
  22. music review
    Tyshawn Sorey’s Rituals Take Over the ArmoryThe sound of Monochromatic Light.
  23. opera review
    The Met’s Medea Is the Sondra Radvanovsky ShowThe company finally got around to mounting the 1797 opera, one of two blood-soaked Greek myths to open this month.
  24. fall preview
    42 New Classical Music Performances to Hear This FallIncluding the grand reopening of David Geffen Hall, Medea at the Met, and work by Tyshawn Sorey.
  25. gallery
    Bradley Cooper As BernsteinOn the town and on the set with the biopic version of Lenny.
  26. music
    The 18th Century’s Surround-Sound MachineInside the organ at St. Bartholomew’s.
  27. opera review
    Brett Dean’s Hamlet Is Too Mad for Its Own GoodYet there is method in ’t.
  28. opera review
    A Lucia di Lammermoor With Rust Belt BloodshedGirl of the golden Midwest?
  29. classical review
    A Blockbuster Evening With John Williams at Carnegie HallJoined by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the composer conducted a night of his greatest movie hits.
  30. classical-music review
    A St. Matthew Passion That Speaks Even to NonbelieversAt Carnegie Hall, Bernard Labadie and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s brought out the drama in the Bach.
  31. classical review
    Finding Solace and Defiance at the Met’s A Concert for UkraineThis week, emotions ran high at New York performances by the Met Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonic.
  32. opera review
    Don Carlos, a Dark Opera for Glum Times, Brings Plenty of Musical BrillianceDon Carlos’s five hours is well suited for the world at this moment.
  33. classical-music review
    Rediscovering a Depression-Era Composer Who Sought Unbridled JoyThe Philadelphia Orchestra brings an underappreciated Florence Price symphony to Carnegie Hall.
  34. opera review
    Quinn Kelsey Makes the Met’s Rigoletto Worth Masking Up ForDirector Bartlett Sher has relocated the action to Weimar Germany, and he quickly gets past the black-leather clichés.
  35. opera review
    The Met Opera’s Eurydice Finds Fun in a Hopeless PlaceThe new production ventures to the underworld and provides an awfully good time.
  36. classical-music review
    Carnegie Reopens With Bernstein, Beethoven, and a Tribute to Those 7 p.m. ShoutsAfter 572 silent days.
  37. opera review
    The Met Comes Alight Again With Fire Shut Up in My Bones“For all its newsworthiness, Fire Shut Up in My Bones is an old-fashioned opera opera.”
  38. the group portrait
    The Emerson String Quartet’s Coda BeginsA long good-bye after four decades of ensemble stardom.
  39. fall preview 2021
    18 New Classical Music Performances to Hear This FallJonas Kaufmann sings at Carnegie Hall, Conrad Tao on stage at 92Y, and more.
  40. fall preview 2021
    Will Liverman Enlightens Fire Shut Up in My BonesThe baritone steps into the opera world’s most visible spot — the Met’s opening-night lead.
  41. opera
    Singing Their Angst From Their Beach TowelsAt BAM, the cast of the voyeuristic beach opera Sun & Sea performs from an indoor, sand-covered stage.
  42. endings
    After 45 Years, the Emerson String Quartet Is DisbandingA virtuosic run will come to an end in 2023.
  43. making moves
    Lincoln Center Appoints Shanta Thake to Lead Its RevivalShe comes to the institution after over a decade at the Public, and her eclecticism may challenge some of its traditions.
  44. the group portrait
    The New York Philharmonic Is Playing Green-Wood CemeteryAnd the audience is maybe a little quiet.
  45. new york philharmonic
    The Philharmonic’s First Concert Back Brought Me Panic and SolaceAt the Shed, Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte and Strauss’s Metamorphosen.
  46. obituary
    On the Talented, Monstrous James LevineThe Met’s longtime artistic director, fired for sexual abuse, has died at 77.
  47. music review
    A Concert Review! From a Cemetery. (This Is Not a Metaphor.)At Brooklyn’s Green-Wood, a moving performance that roved among the crypts.
  48. classical music
    The New York Philharmonic Wants You to Take a Walk in the ParkWith Soundwalk, Ellen Reid’s composition that changes according to your GPS location.
  49. opera review
    Lise Davidsen’s Recital Provides the Hit of Joy Every Operagoer Is MissingA little of what fans are craving.
  50. performing arts
    The Precarious Future of High Culture in New YorkThe pandemic silenced the city’s symphony halls and grand opera houses. But will the (eventual) restart bring with it a reckoning?
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