Arizona: The new global ballet crossroads

One more reason to move to Arizona

To retired Americans with creaky joints, Arizona beckons with its warm temperatures and dry air. To up-and-coming dancers from places like Poland, Albania and Taiwan, increasingly, Arizona has become a magnet for cutting-edge ballet. Who knew?

Merilyn Jackson

Mar 10, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Messiah' (1st review)

Easter special

Robert Weiss's Messiah may be a Bible-based ballet, but it offers the physical strength and highly charged interactions of real theater.

Janet Anderson

Mar 10, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

Lantern's 'Romeo and Juliet' (1st review)

Teenagers' romance

In the Lantern's first production of Romeo and Juliet, director Charles McMahon presents Shakespeare's story exactly as it ought to be: as the meeting, wooing and untimely death of two impulsive teenagers.

Alaina Johns

Mar 10, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Ellsworth Kelly: Shame on the Parkway

Et tu, Ellsworth?

The new Ellsworth Kelly sculpture announced for the Parkway Barnes puts the stamp of a major artist on an act of desecration and commercial greed.

Robert Zaller

Mar 10, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Solzhenitsyn returns with the Chamber Orchestra

Eroica without the hero worship

Ignat Solzhenitsyn demonstrated that he's the ideal conductor for a symphony that's supposed to be a “grand and inspiring essay.”

Tom Purdom

Mar 06, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Shepard's "Fool For Love' in Norristown

Breaking up is hard to do

Sam Shepard's unhappy and self-absorbed couple in Fool For Love grated on my nerves until the denouement, when I discovered the method lurking behind Shepard's misery.

Steve Cohen

Mar 06, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Orit Hofshi's "Pharos' at Locks Gallery

A novel unfolding in her mind

Orit Hofshi is a printmaker on a grand scale, with a freedom of vision and execution that's exhilarating to witness.

Marilyn MacGregor

Mar 06, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

AVA's "Pelléas et Mélisande' (2nd review)

Love sacred and profane

The Academy of Vocal Arts' production of Debussy's seldom-performed Pelléas et Mélisande made the most of its slender means in projecting the work's richness. This Wagnerian riposte to Wagner's assertion of the primacy of human passion is only partly realized dramatically, but superbly garbed musically.

Robert Zaller

Mar 06, 2012 · Articles · 8 minute read

Bass-baritone Eric Owens in recital

Not so menacing after all

Eric Owens, so persuasive as an opera villain, demonstrated in an intimate recital that he can be Romantic and even downright comic.

Steve Cohen

Mar 03, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Rock 'n roll: Doomed to disappoint

Locked in to the backbeat: The lure (and limitations) of rock

There's no rock if there's no backbeat. It's the element that teases you into believing any direction is open, any option is possible. Which is a delusion, of course.

Kile Smith

Mar 03, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read