Commentary: Pianist Yevgeny Kissin offered two encores after his typically astonishing recital program May 17 at Orchestra Hall. We’ll get to the first one in due course. The second, which can still be heard and seen, was unprecedented for this beloved pianist and very possibly unexampled anywhere ever: a video apology that Kissin posted to explain to his “dear listeners, dear friends” why he had played just one encore when he’s famous for lavishing them by the double handful.
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Alexander Hanna, 26, was groomed at Curtis, Tanglewood and Verbier.
On the Lyric Opera stage, pianist Lang Lang lends Schubert, Chopin a tenor of virtuosity
Review: Lang Lang’s debut at Chicago’s 3500-seat Civic Opera House was quietly elegant, cogently argued and intensely focused. That is, until the abundantly gifted pianist gave himself over to some astonishing fireworks. With a technique like that, who can blame him? ****
Vivid characters and some great singing carry the day for ‘A Little Night Music’ at Writers’
Sondheim’s paean to love. 4 stars!
‘Melancholy’ cometh, draped in dolorous fun, as Grey Ghost Theatre bows with Ruhl’s play
Review: When Tilly shows up, she elevates the common funk to dolorous heights so seductive, transporting and rarified — cue the cello — that only the Japanese have a word for it, or is it the Scandinavians? This is Sarah Ruhl’s 2001 “Melancholy Play,” a gentle misery-loves-company fable of high wit. ***
ATC and About Face hang fresh ‘Rent’ sign on a production of street-level intimacy, energy
Musical classic, new again. 4 stars!
Theater Wit chases depression into sharp bite of comedy with Rosenstock’s ‘Tigers Be Still’
Bittersweet therapy with beast. 2 stars.
Chicago Symphony plans Asian tour with Muti, and adds Mexico debut to fall Carnegie opener
Beijing, Mexico City, Seoul among stops.
Lang Lang, star pianist and global citizen, will bring Chopin, other friends to Chicago recital
Preview: When Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang steps onto the stage at the Civic Opera House for his recital Saturday night, it will be a special moment for everyone in the house – including the pianist.
Goodman’s well-honed ‘Iceman Cometh’ slices through a boozy, painful cloud of pipe-dreams
Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane. 5 stars!
Chicago Shakespeare’s lean and brisk ‘Timon’ zooms in on crash-and-burn of a needy Midas
Mega-rich tycoon falls low. 4 stars!
‘Pride and Prejudice’ at Lifeline: Mirroring Austen’s vivacious novel in memorable faces
A stew of great characters. 4 stars!
Strawdog taps 17th century vein of blood lust with Webster’s murderous ‘Duchess of Malfi’
Lust, greed and mayhem. 3 stars
Ian McDiarmid, revving the engines of anger, ready to take on Shakespeare’s raging Timon
Preview: The Scottish actor, a Shakespeare veteran, talks with Chicago On the Aisle about the dark and turbulent mindscape of “Timon of Athens.” The play opens May 2 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Profiles explores psychological shadows as LaBute drops siblings in deep, dark woods
‘In a Forest, Dark and Deep.’ 4 stars!
Digital: ‘Four Seasons’ and Haydn symphonies flash style, finesse under McGegan’s baton
CD Reviews: The latest evidence of the Philharmonia Baroque’s mastery of 18th century fare is a CD release of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” – plus three more violin concertos by the Red Priest, as Vivaldi was known – featuring the orchestra’s wizardly concertmaster and all-world Baroque star Elizabeth Blumenstock. ****
From the Bard to Beethoven: Actor Simon Callow to return to Chicago in June with Symphony
‘Beyond the Score’ with Riccardo Muti
Handel’s early vengeance opera ‘Teseo’ shines amid Chicago Opera Theater’s vocal splendors
Medea’s very, very jealous. 4 stars!
It’s the Bard’s birthday! Simon Callow reflects on the fanciful weave of ‘Being Shakespeare’
Interview: As “the soul of the age” turns 448 on April 23, the celebrated actor talks with Chicago On the Aisle about his one-man play “Being Shakespeare,” presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater at the Broadway Theatre through April 29.
Steppenwolf captures pulse and horror of war with Sherman’s march through Georgia
Doctorow’s novel on stage. 4 stars!
Chicago Opera lavishes style on Shostakovich comedy about romance — and finding a flat
‘Moscow, Cheryomushki.’ 4 stars!
‘Fish Men’ at Goodman: When chess hustlers bait their hooks, slippery truth snaps at the line
Con game in the park. 3 stars.
‘Angels in America’ at the Court: Viewing AIDS and the yearning heart through a perfect lens
Tony Kushner’s classic soars. 5 stars!
Exploring the starry night at Adler Planetarium, ‘Starball’ will invite audience to shape new myths
Preview: The stars are dream-catchers and story-tellers. Humans have always thought so, hence the mythic characters and lore written into the constellations. But, hey, if the ancient Greeks could puzzle out stories in the stars, why can’t we – and have a ball doing it? No wonder the community myth-making adventure on tap April 19 at the Adler Planetarium is called “Starball.”
Conductor Charles Dutoit leads French lesson as CSO matches Impressionists with Dutilleux
Review: From the admixture of opulence and asceticism that constituted conductor Charles Dutoit’s program of French music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this weekend, one might have taken away good lessons offered in a perhaps subversively gleeful spirit. ****
Jazz composer’s song-cycle for Dawn Upshaw tops Chicago agenda for Australian ensemble
Preview: It sounds like a perfect mix of guests for a dinner party, the composers queued up for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s concert April 15 at Orchestra Hall. George Crumb and Anton Webern will be arriving together, so to speak, along with Schubert and Grieg – and a newcomer whose radical voice should give the affair a good jolt.
‘Butcher of Baraboo’ sharp on characters, wit but the dicey plot could stand another whack
Dark comedy at A Red Orchid. 2 stars.
‘We Are Proud to Present’ a play that crawls before it walks – and then knocks you flat
A stunner at Victory Gardens. 4 stars!
Remy Bumppo romp: Blessing’s ‘Chesapeake’ evades leash, mutes bark of political theater
Shaggy dog revenge story. 3 stars.
CSO debut: Pianist Lugansky shows Russian school still thrives with grand Rachmaninoff
Review: Sensational. That, in a word, was Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky’s debut April 5 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Charles Dutoit. The tall, assured pianist – one could only think of the young Van Cliburn – made epic poetry of Rachmaninoff’s formidable Third Piano Concerto in a performance that probed a deep vein of lyricism and simply transcended technical issues. ****
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