Cristian Măcelaru conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra

Pastoral days and sleepless nights

Rising star Cristian Măcelaru led the Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance that was stronger on gusto than nuance.

Linda Holt

Mar 17, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

'Downton Abbey,' Season Five

Downton Somnambuley

In previous seasons, the Facebook feed would light up on Sunday nights in January and February, gnashing over the latest twists and erupting in fury at spoilers. This year, one of the only statuses I remember about Downton Abbey was my former French teacher realizing that she had forgotten to tune in the previous night.

Alaina Johns

Mar 17, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

The Artist’s Garden at PAFA

Here comes the sun

Many of the artists represented in The Artist’s Garden have connections to PAFA, and Philadelphia itself was central to the burgeoning gardening movement traced in the exhibit.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Mar 15, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

‘Macbeth’ at the Arden

The couple that preys together….

In the hands of the young director Alexander Burns, Macbeth becomes less a cautionary tale of ambition and power than a love story.

Steve Cohen

Mar 15, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

'Hamilton' at the Public Theater

Making history in New York

What makes Alexander Hamilton’s story — and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s way of telling it —so special is the conflation of the historical and the personal.

Carol Rocamora

Mar 14, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

Strauss’s 'Ariadne auf Naxos' by Curtis Opera

The lady left behind

Love is, by turns, the human problem and its solution, and Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, in the Curtis Opera Theatre’s excellent production, shows its facets — and its extremes — brilliantly.

Robert Zaller

Mar 14, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Philadelphia premiere of Stephen Paulus's 'To Be Certain of the Dawn'

Toward healing our collective wounds

In recognition of two important anniversaries — the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps and the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Vatican II decree condemning anti-Semitism —the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is premiering Stephen Paulus’s Holocaust memorial oratorio, To Be Certain of the Dawn.

Victor L. Schermer

Mar 10, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

'Under the Skin' at the Arden: An interview with Terrence Nolen

The show must go on

Another story — an unscripted one — unfolded while Under the Skin was premiering at the Arden.

Carol Rocamora

Mar 10, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

An odyssey through Philadelphia's lively music scene

From Schumann on marriage to Liszt on Jerusalem

An eight-day journey through the Philadelphia music calendar, with reflections on marriage and a stop at a Baroque theater.

Tom Purdom

Mar 10, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

The Philadelphia Orchestra premieres Vaughan Williams's Fourth Symphony

Long time coming

Haydn and Beethoven never take second billing to anybody, but the long-delayed Philadelphia premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s great and gripping Fourth Symphony was the centerpiece of this week’s orchestra concerts.

Robert Zaller

Mar 10, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read