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.
Read the full story »Role Playing: Chuck Spencer flashes a badge of moral courage in Arthur Miller’s ‘The Price’
Interview: Chuck Spencer relishes poking through the piled clutter during his first long, solitary, silent minutes on stage at the beginning of Arthur Miller’s play “The Price,” at Raven Theatre.
In a week to remember, pianist Mitsuko Uchida bridges the lyrical realms of Schubert, Mozart
Commentary: Pianist Mitsuko Uchida’s two appearances this last week at Orchestra Hall, in a recital of Schubert’s late sonatas March 25 and her current concerts playing and conducting Mozart concertos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, resonate not like discrete encounters but rather like an epic testimonial to her phenomenal art.
‘Cascabel’ flips theater on its head with cuisine, acrobatics and upside-down wine
High-wire fun at Lookingglass. 4 stars!
Cultural twins, tied to Chicago and Poland, set to make their mark in the orchestra world
Receive management fellowships.
In ‘Freud’s Last Session,’ an ailing analyst wrestles with death and a Christian convert
Debating God at the Mercury. 3 stars.
It’s ‘The Seagull’ as smoke-and-mirrors romp in stylish Lunt-Fontanne frolic ‘Ten Chimneys’
Review: That master of the modern English comedy of manners, Noel Coward, might plausibly have written “Ten Chimneys,” the light-hearted toss of a play now occupying Northlight Theatre. It is so stylish, so wry, so – well, ephemeral. ***
August Wilson’s legacy resonates in vitality of African portraiture by playwright Danai Gurira
Report: All 20 precociously accomplished high school actors who took part in the August Wilson Monologue Competition at the Goodman Theatre were offered, as part of their winnings, free tickets to American playwright Danai Gurira’s “The Convert,” onstage at the Goodman through March 25. I hope they took the Goodman up on it. Wilson’s legacy is strongly continued with Gurira’s reflection upon her own African roots in a former capital of British colonialism.
Role Playing: Rebecca Finnegan finds lyrical heart of a lonely woman in ‘A Catered Affair’
Interview: So perfectly does Rebecca Finnegan blend her painful lyric pauses into the narrative flow of “A Catered Affair,” at Porchlight Music Theater, that you scarcely notice she has ramped up from speech to song. Then the swelling power of that voice grabs you, and you realize you’re watching something special: an accomplished actor who’s also a genuine singer.
Nathan Lane and straight man Brian Dennehy break the ice with a blitz of interview zingers
A bit o’ comic relief at the Goodman.
Surprise! Renée Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma spring serenade on lunch crowd at Thompson Center
Soprano and cello, burgers and pizza.
Williams’ ‘Camino Real’ reshaped as director sets lyricism on a collision course with libido
Carnal carnival at Goodman. 3 stars.
Solemnity rules as Riccardo Muti guides CSO through musical perspectives on human spirit
Review: Riccardo Muti has given Chicago many reasons to celebrate his music directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but perhaps the most perfect expression of his belief in art’s purpose comes in the current run of rarely heard works for chorus and orchestra by Brahms, Schoenberg and Cherubini. ****
Role Playing: Bill Norris pulled the seedy bum in ‘The Caretaker’ from a place within himself
Interview: The scruffy creature with darting eyes who calls himself Davies looks like his last bed was a cardboard box on the street. He is the elusive but palpably real character at the core of Harold Pinter’s play “The Caretaker,” now on the boards at Writers’ Theatre, and he’s brought to wheedling, calculating life in a masterful piece of acting by Bill Norris.
Raven Theatre sifts through debris and debate of ‘The Price,’ but can’t deliver the payoff
Arthur Miller on memory’s attic. 3 stars.
In a program of Handel arias, Iestyn Davies illuminates Baroque art of the countertenor
Review: You’ve got to hand it to countertenor Iestyn Davies and conductor Harry Bicket. When they take a night off from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where they’re performing music of George Frideric Handel, they’re in another part of town performing … George Frideric Handel. Is this love or what? ****
Virtuosity on display, CSO and Zukerman burnish Brahms concerto, 2nd Symphony
Review: Sometimes, in the course of a symphony orchestra season, it’s good just to hear the band dial up the core German repertoire and show what it can do. That’s exactly what the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and music director Riccardo Muti did March 8 in a sumptuous double dose of Brahms, the Violin Concerto with soloist Pinchas Zukerman and the Second Symphony. *****
Soprano Hui He takes over as Aida in Lyric’s new cast, and suddenly the chemistry bubbles
“Aida” with four new singers. 4 stars!
With a vision of grace in the Arizona desert, Strawdog draws life from ‘Petrified Forest’
Desperate souls in a diner. 4 stars!
Chicago Shakespeare’s teen-length ‘Shrew,’ pulling out laugh stops, shows way to do Will
Spunky side of the Bard. 4 stars!
In a bold CSO debut, English conductor meets twin challenges of Mahler and Schoenberg
Review: Stepping in to pinch hit for Pierre Boulez may not be the least stressful way to make one’s conducting debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Subbing on short notice to take over Boulez’s rare pairing of Mahler’s song-symphony “Das Lied von der Erde” and Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto – that’s quite a debut.****
Handel trips back to the future as Lyric Opera proclaims the outrageous genius of ‘Rinaldo’
Not your grandfather’s Handel. 4 stars!
Lyric Opera commissions a young Peruvian’s first stage work, setting of Lima hostage crisis
The Lyric Opera of Chicago has commissioned the first opera from 33-year-old Peruvian composer Jimmy López, and will present the new work’s world premiere in December 2015.
As German bombardment strands Leningrad, political fear feeds desperation in ‘Hunger’
Portrait of duress at Lifeline. 4 stars!
‘Meistersinger’ to ‘Streetcar,’ Lyric Opera’s new season offers scenic route with 9 stops
The Chicago Lyric Opera’s new season begins and ends with shows that should attract aficionados of opera and theater: “Elektra” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Here’s the show-by-show breakdown.
In Porchlight’s ‘Catered Affair,’ a musical about ordinary people proves a dramatic jewel
A play verging on opera. 4 stars!
Darn that ‘Dream’ – Chicago Shakespeare does double take on Bard’s lovers, fairies
It’s a midsummer night… 4 stars!
Wrestling with sins of the flesh, a porn star finds salvation comes at a cost in ‘Hesperia’
Sex and religion at Writers’. 4 stars!
Lyric Opera ventures into American musical with a ‘Show Boat’ that you can’t help lovin’
Song and dance on the Delta. 5 stars!
Riccardo Muti, Chicago Symphony unleash alternative energy of Mason Bates, Anna Clyne
Feature: Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances in California and at Carnegie Hall will introduce new works by young resident composers Feb. 14-19 and Oct. 4.
It’s all about the verbs, present and veiled past, as lies collide in ‘The Girl in the Yellow Dress’
Student-teacher clash at Next. 4 stars!
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