Articles
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OCP's high-fashion "Roméo et Juliette' (1st review)
Gounod goes Prada
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, generally well sung in a noisy production originating in Italy, works best when the principals themselves hold the stage. Unfortunately, its visual elements too often pre-empt the music.
Articles
3 minute read
The human form at Pennsylvania Academy
Beautiful bodies, yes. But sexy?
It's not easy to paint or sculpt the human body. Pennsylvania Academy's current shows illustrate the close interaction between art and science that occurred in Philadelphia since the Academy's founding in 1805.
Articles
2 minute read
Kate Weare and Monica Bill Barnes at Annenberg
A hit and a miss
Kate Weare's Bright Land shakes up the folk traditions and gender roles that folk songs most often invoke. By contrast, Monica Bill Barnes's Another Parade was a lightweight attempt at parody.
Articles
3 minute read
St. Lawrence Quartet at the Perelman
Fewer contortions, more intensity
The St. Lawrence Quartet played beautifully, albeit like a group of hyperactive teenagers. If there was a flaw in their performance of Mozart's G Minor String Quartet, it was, ironically, their subtle lack of intensity.
"The Cherry Orchard' at Villanova
Comedy of the deadliest sort
In Harriet Power's fresh staging, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard reveals itself as a startlingly modernist text that is in many ways the matrix of 20th-Century theater.
Articles
7 minute read
The poetic return of Theophile Gautier
It's not what you said, but how you said it
The best reason to welcome Theophile Gautier's return is that he's so damned entertaining as a poet. When times get hard, we need a little gentle enchantment in our lives.
Articles
4 minute read
Chris Braak's "Red Emma' by Iron Age
Her glass was always half-empty
The Philadelphia playwright Chris Braak packs loads of information about the fiery anarchist Emma Goldman into little more than an hour, and Mary Tuonamen in the title role is suitably youthful and passionate. Left unanswered is this question: What made Emma tick?
Red Emma. By Chris Braak; John Doyle directed. Iron Age Theatre production February 3-6, 2011 at Centre Theater, 208 DeKalb St., Norristown, Pa. To be performed again in Spring 2011 at an unannounced theater. (610) 279-1013 or ironagetheatre.org.
Articles
3 minute read
Starving for art? Give me a break.
The La Bohème syndrome: Who is kidding whom?
Suffering for your art is as romantic as it is nihilistic. But continuing on this path as you get older is downright masochistic.
Articles
4 minute read
Can real-life opera marriages survive?
Is that your heart or your ego? Or: Operatic marriages, pro and con
The trials of Verdi's Violetta or Puccini's Tosca are child's play next to the challenge of holding an operatic marriage together. Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello, currently appearing in Roméo et Juliette, are the latest to try. Wish them well.
Articles
6 minute read
"Amadeus' at the Walnut
Too many words about too many notes
Mozart's music has survived for more than two centuries. After just 32 years, Peter Shaffer's Amadeus may have worn out its welcome.
Articles
2 minute read