“To visit a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, is to experience a kind of architectural whiplash. From an Italian Renaissance courtyard you climb a Beaux-Arts staircase to enter a XIV-Style morning room. “These mansions — built as summer houses for America’s ultra-wealthy industrialists during the late 19th century— arc dizzying displays of opulence, but in each case there is a rich, human history behind it; from the tragic suicide of Cornelius ‘Corned’ Vanderbilt, to thc dubious deeds needed to maintain Vast monopolies. Modern-day Newport is an easy-going New England town that comes alive during its festival-filled summer. And while concerts for the Newport Classical Music Festival (this year held from 2—19 July) are hosted in these decadent mansions, the performances themselves have undeniable artistic substance.
Rita Fernandes, The Strad
