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All Our Children at the Sheen Center
Stephen Unwin's Play Explores Eugenics
By: - Apr 15th, 2019The Sheen Center's Black Box Theater is stacked with files containing the case records of 'defective' young people who are institutionalized and awaiting their death. All Our Children takes up a theme developed in Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck's latest film. The doctor in the film and the doctor running a clinic for children in the play, both are charged with duties best left to God. Who is to live, and who must die, is in play because upkeep is expensive and the State needs money for munitions.
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Bound by Huang Ruo at Baruch Performing Arts Center
Freshly Squeezed Opera Presents New York Premiere
By: - Apr 16th, 2019Bound, Huang Ruo's chamber opera, is produced at the Rose Nagelberg Theatre in the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Originally commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, this production is the New York premiere. It is a fresh take by Freshly Squeezed Opera. Ashley Tate who specializes in multi-media production, directs.
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Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story
At TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
By: - Apr 19th, 2019Hershey Felder now takes on the life and works of Claude Debussy in a world premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. The great turn of the century composer is credited as the originator of the classical music genre of impressionism, though he didn’t care for the term
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Jean Bergantini Grillo on Boston Media
Senior Editor and Art Critic for The Cambridge Phoenix
By: - Apr 21st, 2019Jean Bergantini Grillo was hired as a senior editor and columnist when The Cambridge Phoenix was launched by Jeffrey Tarter on October 9, 1969. She worked with renowned editor Harper Barnes trying to bring shape and coherence to a staff of hippie writers. Today she is writing a play about that era and its macho newsroom. She was one of three women on staff and knew how to use her elbows. She later wrote for The Village Voice, an experience described as chaotic, but loved four years with the Daily News.
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ONE Festival at Opera Omaha
Philip Glass, Ellen Reid and Charles Gounod Featured
By: - Apr 21st, 2019The ONE Festival of Opera Omaha celebrated its 2nd anniversary this year. It has already become a must visit for opera lovers throughout the world. The productions here are first rate. Bringing in James Darrah, who is a director of choice for many of the best young composers, has excited opera fans. This year did not disappoint.
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Tanglewood Adds Pops Tribute to Queen
Marc Martel to Perform Freddie Mercury Hits
By: - Apr 23rd, 2019On Thursday, June 27 at 8 p.m., the Boston Pops and special guest Marc Martel join together for a celebration of the legendary rock band Queen. Martel, known for his striking vocal resemblance to Freddie Mercury, Queen’s lead singer, has been fronting Queen's official tribute show, The Queen Extravaganza, since 2011.
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The Pretenders Coming to MASS MoCA
North Adams Back on the Chain Gang
By: - Apr 23rd, 2019Yet again MASS MoCA has scored the top rock event of the summer. Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders will perform on Friday, July 26.
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Boston Lyric Opera’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Based on the Novel by Margaret Atwood
By: - Apr 24th, 2019The award winning Hulu production of Margaret Atwood's "The Hanmaid's Tale" will make this Boston Lyric Opera production readily familar to audiences. Composer Poul Ruders’ stunning contemporary score brings this dark social tale to the stage in large-scale, presenting his work with a massive, multi-faceted approach to orchestration. BLO has commissioned Ruders to create a new edition of the opera, bringing an expected orchestra size to approximately 65 players, with a chorus of about 34 singers.
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An Important New Sondheim Overture
Lisa Yuen Narrates Tale of International Intrigue at Lyric Theater
By: - Apr 26th, 2019Lisa Yuen returns to Boston's Lyric Stage performing multiple, male roles in Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures. If you are familiar with the musical expect to see a fresh and accessible revival by director Spiro Veloudos. The production runs from May 10 through June 18.
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Toulouse Lautrec and the Stars of Paris
Collaboration of MFA and Boston Public Library
By: - Apr 26th, 2019The special exhibition “Toulouse Lautrec and the Stars of Paris” is a collaboration of the Museum of Fine Arts and The Boston Public Library. Their great combined depth in prints and posters is supplemented with loans from other museums. In addition to his signature graphic works the exhibition is expanded with paintings, photographs, and sculptures by other impressionist and post impressionist artists.
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The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess
Directed by Kimberly Senior at LA's Geffen Playhouse
By: - Apr 27th, 2019“The Niceties”, a sharp, intelligently written drama by playwright Eleanor Burgess that is smartly and seamlessly directed by seasoned director Kimberly Senior, is currently on stage at the Geffen Playhouse, in Los Angeles. What begins as a polite clash in perspectives in age and place explodes into an urgent debate about race.
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Emmeline by Tobias Picker
Classic Contemporary Opera at Manhattan School of Music
By: - Apr 27th, 2019Manhattan School of Music mounts a superb production of Tobias Picker's Emmeline this spring. Directed by the gifted Thaddeus Strassberger, the work has been moved into the present and resonates as a universal tale. George Manahan. who conducted the world premiere of the work at Santa Fe Opera over twenty years ago, led the orchestra, revealing all the richness of the score. Young talent created unforgettable characters in this re-telling of a Greek myth.
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All in the Timing by David Ives
Comedy by Tony Winner at North West Rep
By: - Apr 28th, 2019David Ives won a Tony for the sado/masochistic, dark comedy "Venus in Fur." Although written twenty-six ago, "All in the Timing" features six comedy vignettes that are highly relevant to audiences of 2019. There is no dated material in this cleverly written and sensationally performed production.
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A New Take on Immigration
Sea Dog Theater Produces a Winner
By: - May 09th, 2019The Rare Biosphere, a new play by Chris Cragin Day presented by the Sea Dog Theater and directed by Christopher J Domig is a charming and poignant look at at the question of immigration. Through the lives of a very American adolescent lens we are confronted with realities which upset the norm-- and intensify choices
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Life Sucks by Aaron Posner
Deconstructing Uncle Vanya for the Umpteenth Time
By: - May 12th, 2019Here we go again messing with Chekov. This time Aaron Posner has his way with the Russian master. Uncle Vanya is a comedy in the sense that it is full of pitiable, laughable characters in awkward situations, and nobody dies (but one almost does!). In Life Sucks, Posner makes the characters more ridiculous and more expressive to add energy and bolder humor. Vanya is shlepier. Aster is more passionate for his causes. Ella is a stronger magnet.
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Social Commentary by Canadian Kent Monkman
Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience
By: - May 12th, 2019The special exhibition "Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience" by the First Nations artist Kent Monkman is a game changer. With ferocious wit the artist deconstructs horrific aspects of Canadian history through a series of narrative, social realist paintings. We viewed the work at the McCord Museum in Montreal where the traveling exhibition closed on May 5.
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Die Komische Oper Berlin, Germany
Poro and M-eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder
By: - May 13th, 2019At the end of the 2018/19 season the Komische Oper Berlin produced two more operas: 'Poro,' by Georg Friedrich Haendel, and 'M- Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder,' by Moritz Eggert. Two very opposite experiences!
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Refus Global to Intersectionality
Rethinking Paradigms for Canadian Art
By: - May 14th, 2019In a complex reconfiguration of permanent collections of Canadian museums there is a mandate for integration of First Nations work with galleries of post war abstraction. While change is welcome and necessary, for now, the juxtapositions are complex and disorienting. There is more contrast than confluence.
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Patience & Sarah at Danny Kaye Theater
Paula Kimper's Folktale of Love Come True
By: - May 14th, 2019Patience & Sarah was one of the first same sex love stories produced in the United States. It was radical subject matter in the 20th century. It hardly seems daring today, as Brokeback Mountain has stormed opera houses and a transgender work, As One, will have a New York premiere later this month. Yet the production by Hunter College and American Opera Projects was lovely and hopeful.
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Albright-Knox Art Gallery Plans AK360
Buffalo’s Great Museum Gets Even Better
By: - May 15th, 2019Founded in 1862 as Buffalo Fine Arts Academy today Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery is regarded as one of America's foremost small, regional museums. Its first building opened in 1906. In 1962 a wing was added and a new 30,000 square foot structure will begin construction at the end of this year. It will double space for the permanent collection and special exhibitions.
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The Power Plant
Toronto’s Renowned Contemporary Art Kunsthalle
By: - May 16th, 2019Occupying a former municipal structure, since 1987, The Power Plant in Toronto has been a renowned presenter of Canadian and global contemporary art. We visited during the final days of three solo exhibitions: “Same Dream” by Omar Ba a Senegalese artist who divides time between Dakar and Geneva, Switzland. Shuvinai Ashoona, a member of a renowned family of Inuit artists, presented “Mapping Worlds.” For twenty years, Alicia Henry, a graduate of Yale, has resided in Nashville, Tennessee where she teaches at Fisk University. Her show was titled "Witnessing."
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Kopernikus at the Image Project Room
Claude Vivier Takes the Fear Out of Death
By: - May 18th, 2019Claude Vivier died in 1983 at age 35. He lived in Paris at the end of his life and was stabbed to death by a young man he had been attracted to. His final opera which told this story before it happened was sitting on his work table. He never heard Koperikus produced, but in this century it has built up a head of steam. Its New York premiere was held at the Image Project Room in Brooklyn.
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The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective
Patricia Milton World Premiere at Berkeley City Club
By: - May 18th, 2019Central Works’ world premiere of Patricia Milton’s The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective is a brisk and bright crime procedural. It is a feminist cry. Taking place in London at the end of the 19th century, we are reminded that the misogynism of that day has been diminished but not extinguished.
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Kathleen Jacobs’ Natural Abstraction
Echos at TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge
By: - May 19th, 2019During four years in China Kathleen Jacobs learned calligraphy from a master. That entailed rubbing ancient reliefs and copying the inscriptions. Several years ago she developed a technique of making paintings by attaching canvas to trees. The surfaces are rubbed and the canvases left outside to endure a year of seasons. The paintings are finished in the studio. Through Echos finished paintings and works in progress are on view at TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, in the Berkshires.
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Murasaki's Moon at Metropolitan Museum
Michi Wiancko's Opera Debuts
By: - May 20th, 2019Musical artist Michi Wiancko under the wing of the American Lyric Theater’s development program and backed by Opera America has written a new opera with librettist Deborah Brevoort. The 17th century Astor Chinese Garden Court was the setting of a modern take on the 11th century Tales of Genji. It was written by court lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu who lived between 973-1025 C.E. in Japan. She was the daughter of a petty court noble.
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