Music
The NSO’s Wild Wonderland
Many classical music fans will readily believe that the violinist Hilary Hahn can make something breathtaking out of the Paganini, but they may not be prepared for a dramatic reading of the last two chapters of “Alice in Wonderland,” performed with ceaseless energy and stratospheric high notes by a soprano who appears to be channeling Lucia di Lammermoor on acid. Believe me, the latter is as much worth hearing as the first. The piece is a tour de force, in all its sprawling zany length. Music Director Leonard Slatkin deserves kudos for bringing it back in its uncut length for its first performance in decades. Equal praise is owed to the soprano Hila Plitmann for pulling off a work that has her onstage, alternately speaking, singing at stratospheric heights and screaming into a bullhorn for more than an hour.Since I have broken a taboo and spoken of dresses, I should mention Plitmann’s, topped with a tulle-and-flower skirt that made her look like a cross between a flower child and Dickens’s Miss Havisham, and somehow like Alice at the same time. She has a wonderful speaking voice, sings like an angel (Del Tredici’s arias are like hyper bel canto; his main theme echoes an ornament from “Caro ome” in Verdi’s “Rigoletto”) and squeals like a guinea pig when the text compels her to do so. If this doesn’t pique your interest, nothing will.sings like an angel (Del Tredici’s arias are like hyper bel canto; his main theme echoes an ornament from “Caro ome” in Verdi’s “Rigoletto”) and squeals like a guinea pig when the text compels her to do so. If this doesn’t pique your interest, nothing will.sings like an angel (Del Tredici’s arias are like hyper bel canto; his main theme echoes an ornament from “Caro ome” in Verdi’s “Rigoletto”) and squeals like a guinea pig when the text compels her to do so. If this doesn’t pique your interest, nothing will.