Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 26

BWW Reviews: TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA Opens 'The Christmas Attic' at Consol Energy Center
by Greg Kerestan - December 17, 2014

The legendary hard rock Christmas spectacular brings two shows for the price of one, plus lasers, dragons and real fake snow....

BWW Reviews: DOHNANYI DOES DVORAK at Avery Fisher Hall
by Peter Danish - December 17, 2014

The only thing missing from the opening week of the New York Philharmonic's 'Dohnanyi/Dvorak' festival was Dohnanyi. The legendary conductor was laid out by a bad case of the flu, causing him to miss the first performance of the series. 32 year old Krzysztof Urbanski, the music director of the India...

BWW Reviews: Heigh Ho, Silver. GUGLIELMO TELL Rides into Carnegie Hall from Turin with Soprano Meade under Noseda
by Richard Sasanow - December 10, 2014

As 'king of the overture,' Rossini certainly knew how to put an audience in a good mood and his GUGLIELMO TELL--better known as WILLIAM TELL--is no exception. With an elaborate introduction that most Americans over a certain age know from “The Lone Ranger” serials and other themes used in decades of...

BWW Reviews: NEW WORLD SYMPHONY Caps a Program of Virtuoso Performances
by Herbert Paine - December 02, 2014

JoAnn Falletta guest conducts the Phoenix Symphony with authority, conviction, and intensity. Dvo?ak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From the New World., is in the best of hands. Chloe Hanslip delivers a virtuoso performance of Prokofiev's Concerto No. 1 in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op....

BWW Reviews:NSO POPS: AN EVENING WITH SUTTON FOSTER at The Kennedy Center
by Ellen Burns - December 01, 2014

Friday's NSO Pops Evening with Sutton Foster brought a bounty of talent to the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall stage, and, wisely, paired it with a program that spanned styles, mediums, and musical genres. Some of the most appealing moments were brought to us care of the charming personalities of Sut...

BWW Reviews: TROUT EN FIN! Presented Youthful Works By Great Composers
by Barry Lenny - November 24, 2014

There is something about certain pieces of music that attract nicknames. Two of these three works have names attached....

BWW Reviews: RELATIVITY Explores Works By Pairs Of Composers Who Are Related In Some Way
by Barry Lenny - November 24, 2014

The change of program necessitated by the new line up was still an impressive evening....

BWW Reviews: TEATRO GRATTACIELO CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY at Skirball Center For Performing Arts
by Peter Danish - November 20, 2014

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BWW Reviews: BSO Takes Strathmore on a Journey Through Russia
by Itai Yasur - November 19, 2014

From Tchaikovsky to Rachmaninoff to Shostakovich, the BSO treated the Music Center at Strathmore to a musical journey that bridged romantic and contemporary Russian music....

BWW Reviews: Arizona Opera's RIGOLETTO Is Grand and Gripping
by Herbert Paine - November 18, 2014

Arizona Opera's production of Rigoletto, directed by Fenlon Lamb, is a noble and well-constructed effort in portraying the ironic misjudgments of its main characters. It is gifted with notable performances by Peter Volpe as Sparafucile, the assassin; Joseph Barron as Count Monterone; Beth Lytwynec a...

BWW Reviews: Playful Piano & Puppetry in Debussy's 'La Boîte à Joujoux' at Castleton
by Andrew White - November 13, 2014

The Castleton Festival, a longtime fixture on the classical music scene located a comfortable hour and a half from Washington, DC, recently celebrated Debussy's playful side with a full performance of his piece for piano, La Boite a Joujoux ('The Toy Box'). Pianist Orion Weiss, working with Directo...

BWW Reviews: Winter Opera St. Louis Opens a Brilliant 'Le Nozze di Figaro'
by Steve Callahan - November 12, 2014

Winter Opera kicks off its eighth season with a simply heavenly production of 'Le Nozze di Figaro'. It's the perfect thing for one's first introduction to opera, or for turning a tentative love of opera into a deep and true commitment....

BWW Reviews: DiDonato Trades Pyrotechnics for Mood on A JOURNEY THROUGH VENICE at Carnegie Hall
by Richard Sasanow - November 10, 2014

With a pair of soulful arias by Vivaldi, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and her pianist David Zobel let the audience know right away that they were in for a different part of her artistry than we heard at her concert performance of Handel's ALCINA (also at Carnegie) a week earlier. With an emphasis on thought...

BWW Reviews: New York Philharmonic's SHOW BOAT
by Stephen Raskauskas - November 07, 2014

All aboard! The Cotton Blossom has docked at Lincoln Center for this week only. Wednesday night, the New York Philharmonic opened its semi-staged production of Show Boat. Featuring a star-studded cast, the Philharmonic's short run of this American masterpiece is not to be missed....

BWW Reviews: Britten's RIVER of No Return at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival
by Richard Sasanow - November 06, 2014

“Ideas of darkness and light, obscurity and illumination” are at the heart of the Benjamin Britten-William Plomer CURLEW RIVER. Called “a parable for church performance,” it was performed in New York at the Synod of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as part of Lincoln Center's White Light Festiv...

BWW Reviews: New Jersey Symphony Performs STRAVINSKY and RIMSKY-KORSAKOV at Bergen PAC
by Peter Danish - November 04, 2014

Petrouchka is an often performed piece that can sometimes feel tired and perfunctory. Along with The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky's other two big ballets from the same period (all of which remarkably flowed from the composer's pen within five years), Petrouchka requires a deft hand at...

BWW Reviews: MOZART's THE MAGIC FLUTE: IMPEMPE YOMLINGO at the New Victory Theater supplies charm and creativity but lacks true resonance
by Rachel Weinberg - November 04, 2014

The South African Isango Ensemble's production of 'The Magic Flute: Impepe Yomlingo,' strips away some of the glossy sheen of Mozart's master work, leaving a show that is more down to earth and yet still revels in the joy of the composer's music. Under Mark Dunford May's direction, this 'Magic Flute...

BWW Reviews: Sorcery from DiDonato and English Concert at Carnegie Hall in Handel's ALCINA
by Richard Sasanow - October 31, 2014

The great mezzo Joyce DiDonato stripped for her art at Sunday's wonderful performance of Handel's ALCINA with the English Concert under conductor Harry Bicket. For the first act, when she was still at the height of her powers as a sorceress, she came out in a gorgeous black and gray gown with the pu...

BWW Reviews: Well-Strung's POPSSICAL is Astoundingly Vibrant
by David Clarke - October 29, 2014

Well-Strung is impressing audiences with their brilliant mash-ups of classical hits and modern pop standards. Touring their latest show POPSSICAL, Well-Strung visited New York City's 54 BELOW last night and left the assembled audience both awestruck and invigorated. Their pulled from the pages of a ...

BWW Reviews: THE NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY with VIOLINIST GIL SHAHAM at NJ PAC
by Peter Danish - October 29, 2014

If Gioacchino Rossini had written no music in his career other than his overtures, he would still hold a great place in the pantheon of music history. Despite the fact that they tend to follow a formulaic pattern - invariably beginning slowly, frequently just a solo cello, then slowly adding instrum...

BWW Reviews: Here, There, Everywhere - All Over Town with PRETTY YENDE
by Richard Sasanow - October 20, 2014

Pretty Yende--a name that in itself brings certain expectations as well as smiles--burst on the New York opera scene at the start of 2013, in a baptism by fire. At just 27, the South African soprano from Piet Retief, Mpumalanga memorably stepped into one of the lead roles in the revival of Rossini's...

BWW Reviews: Cancellations Galore Don't Put a Damper on the Richard Tucker Gala at Avery Fisher Hall
by Richard Sasanow - October 17, 2014

Soprano Anna Netrebko was AWOL. Tenor Marcello Giordani wasn't there. Mezzo Isabel Leonard didn't make it either. At least tenor Richard Tucker (1913-1975) had the best excuse for not being at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday evening. But, as they say “the show must go on”--and the annual gala of The Ric...

BWW Reviews: Keith Emerson With the South Shore Symphony
by Peter Danish - October 15, 2014

As birthday celebrations go, Saturday night's concert at the Madison Theater of Molloy College has to be close to the top of the list. Rock Music legend Keith Emerson celebrated his 70th birthday with pianist extraordinaire Jeffrey Biegel and the South Shore Symphony in an eclectic program entitled:...

BWW Reviews: VIVA PIAZZOLLA Invigorates at The Shabazz Center
by Matt Hanson - October 14, 2014

Uruguayan tango pianist Polly Ferman invited a warm audience to her neighborhood of Washington Heights for the second night of the “Shall We Tango?” festival, titled Viva Piazzolla, a special concert featuring virtuosic violinist Eddy Marcano. Through her charismatic eloquence, Ferman introduced the...

BWW Reviews: HOMAGE TO ANIBAL TROILO Inspires at Symphony Space
by Matt Hanson - October 14, 2014

After one hundred years, Anibal Troilo is remembered ever so fondly as the late Argentinean master musician. He lived from 1914-1975, though his music continues to enlighten as delicately and pointedly as the sound of a trilling bandoneón. In his honor, over thirty performing artists have gathered t...