"The Loathly Lady' at Penn

Freud's riddle as musical comedy

What do women want? The Penn Humanities Forum recruits a world-class early music team for the world premiere of a musical comedy about an endlessly fascinating quest. It's a stimulating evening, albeit one skewed against men.

Tom Purdom

Apr 07, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Guitarist John Williams at Perelman Theater

The casual virtuoso

Some virtuosos are all about showing you how good they are. John Williams is just the opposite: He actually makes you forget just how good he is, because he never allows his technical virtuosity to overshadow the essential musicality of whatever he's playing.

Mark Wolverton

Mar 28, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Classical Symphony's "Americans in Paris'

The birth of the world (and jazz too)

The Classical Symphony's music director, Karl Middleman, spotlights a fruitful combination: Paris and jazz.

Tom Purdom

Mar 28, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

Carol Jantsch with 1807 & Friends

The tuba gets its turn

It's hard to resist smiling at the thought of a tuba playing the lead in a chamber piece. But Carol Jantsch, the Philadelphia Orchestra's new principal tuba, quickly proved she had come to produce music, not laughs.

Mar 28, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

Tempesta di Mare recreates Madame Levy's Salon

Bach resuscitated (with a little help from the Jews of Berlin)

Tempesta di Mare visits the salon of a musically sophisticated Berlin lady who helped revive Bach and launch the career of her grandnephew, Felix Mendelssohn.

Tom Purdom

Mar 24, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (3rd review)

Who you calling atonal?

Alban Berg's opera, Wozzeck, gets a bad rap as being atonal, unmelodic and, therefore, inaccessible to most of the public. In fact Berg's passionate music matches the story perfectly.

Steve Cohen

Mar 23, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

Jade Simmons: Life after Miss America

Is there life after the Miss America pageant?

Must a beauty queen be shallow? As a pianist and a crusader for Classical music among urban youth, concerts for autistic audiences and teen suicide prevention, Jade Simmons is just getting started.

Maria Thompson Corley

Mar 23, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (2nd review)

A timeless world abandoned by God

The Curtis Opera production of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, the signature opera of German Expressionism, made the most of the cramped facilities of the Perelman Theater, with lead singers Shuler Henley and Karen Jesse in good voice and Mark Barton's lighting particularly accenting the brooding and anguished score. Georg Buchner's timeless story of a maddened soldier who kills the one thing he loves remains as relevant as ever.

Robert Zaller

Mar 21, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (1st review)

A searing operatic experience (that I'd just as soon skip)

Here I am in my mid-60s, having devoted most of my life to the study of classical music, and I still haven't come to terms with the music of Alban Berg. The Curtis Institute's production of Wozzeck was superb, but listening to it was an appalling experience I have no desire to repeat.

Dan Coren

Mar 19, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lyric Fest's "Voices of the Sea'

Of mermaids and slave ships

Lyric Fest made its debut on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society schedule with a program that could have used more of its customary narrative drive.

Tom Purdom

Mar 17, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read