Orchestra plays Bartok and Stravinsky

Where lesser orchestras fear to tread

Two milestone works by Bartok and Stravinsky are rarely performed together because of the massively difficult effort involved. The Orchestra provided a rare chance to compare two great modern composers who changed the face of 20th Century music.

Victor L. Schermer

Apr 17, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Evita' and "End of the Rainbow' on Broadway

The tragedy of stardom, real and synthetic

Without Patti LuPone's complexity, Evita sinks to the level of caricature. By contrast, the flesh and blood Judy Garland breaks your heart.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 17, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness'

The Holocaust, as close as it gets

Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness, based on the true story of a Polish Gentile who kept a dozen Jews alive in the sewers of Lvov, is as close as anyone has come to depicting the most infernal event of human history without trivializing it— a moral accomplishment no less than an artistic one.

Robert Zaller

Apr 17, 2012 · Articles · 7 minute read

Bach Festival's "St. John Passion' and anti-Semitism

Bach, King Frederick and the Jews

Why did Bach immortalize the anti-Jewish Gospel of St. John? The question is worth considering during times of racial and religious intolerance, such as the present.

Steve Cohen

Apr 17, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Massenet's "Manon' at the Met

Those thighs, that bosom, that voice

When Anna Netrebko as the shameless Manon seduces Des Grieux the priest, the chemistry is hotter than Carmen's seduction of Don José. She was in terrific voice too, even though the action made it hard to focus on the singing.

Steve Cohen

Apr 17, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

"Narrative Thread' at Wexler Gallery

Women's work, overshadowed no more

Five artists who happen to be women tell intriguing stories using time-honored methods and materials once reserved for “women's work.”

Marilyn MacGregor

Apr 13, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Gombrowicz's "Ivona' at Swarthmore

A princess with a problem

Witold Gombrowicz wrote with a sneering savagery, most of it directed at aristocrats and their sense of entitlement but also at the middle and lower classes who envied them. Swarthmore's production of Ivona wholeheartedly abandoned itself to his frenetic sense of absurdity.

Merilyn Jackson

Apr 13, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

View from the percussion section

Where are we? Or: My brilliant career as a percussionist

So you think it's easy to play percussion in an orchestra? That's what I thought, until I tried it.

Kile Smith

Apr 10, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

"Van Gogh Up Close' at the Art Museum (3rd review)

Van Gogh the botanist: A happy man after all?

“Van Gogh Up Close” is a nuanced if misnomered exhibition, for what we see is not Van Gogh himself but nature studied and depicted with a passionate fidelity. This is not, for the most part, the Vincent we think we know, but a poet-scientist whose keen exploration of the world must have been a source of joy and wonder for him, as it is for us.

Robert Zaller

Apr 10, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Verdi's "Requiem' by Vox Ama Deus

Vox confronts the 19th Century

Valentin Radu once again expanded the range of Vox Ama Deus, taking on the passion and flamboyance of a 19th-Century masterpiece that's generally performed by large modern orchestras.

Tom Purdom

Apr 10, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read