Director Cynthia Stokes evokes mythic resonances in the Opera Company's Madame Butterfly, and soprano Ermonela Jaho gives a vocally and dramatically commanding performance in the title role. The striking set and lighting design complete this fresh and impressively conceived view of one of opera's perennial classics.

My friend the soprano Randye Jones used to think of herself as an anomaly: an African-American who loved to perform and study classical music. Now, thanks to the Internet, she's changing that perception, with a new website and web-based radio service.

In another gutsy program, Lyric Fest combined Brahms's appealing waltz songs with a pair of American comedy turns.

The young pianist Di Wu knows what she wants to say at the keys and away from them. At her Philadelphia debut recital she spoke to the crowded venue in an easy communicative style, as if we were all old friends.

The Philadelphia Orchestra kicked off its season with the kind of big, spectacular music that requires a major orchestra with an organ at its disposal.

The Philadelphia Orchestra offered a seasoned warhorse, the Brahms Second Piano Concerto, freshly realized by soloist Yefim Bronfman, and a rare performance of the entire score of Bartok's ballet-pantomime, The Miraculous Mandarin. The specter of Wagner hung over both works, each of which rejected it in its own way.

Drama attends the music of George Crumb— in this case literally, when the Lang Concert Hall's sound system blew out at Orchestra 2001's tribute to his 80th birthday. Not to worry: The acoustic versions were beautiful and plenty loud, as Crumb prefers.

The Chamber Orchestra opens its season with a program that provokes ruminations: Who was Hubert Schoemaker? Why do we tend to equate fame with importance? And would you rather be an elephant or an antelope?

The composer George Crumb, now approaching 80, is a true American individualist who created his own style during the years when American composers mostly seemed to be writing for the approval of their academic promotion committees. Orchestra 2001: Crumb, selections from American Songbooks. Ann Crumb, Jamie Van Eyck, Barbara Ann Martin, vocal soloists; James Freeman, conductor. September 25, 2009 at Volumes I, II, III: Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center. Volumes IV, V, VI: September 27, 2009 at Lang Concert Hall, Swarthmore College. 267-687-6243 or www.orchestra2001.org.

Two new operas are impressively played and sung in a double-bill by Center City Opera Theater. But The Always Present Present is plagued by awkward vocal writing, and Darkling suffers from a static story.