In what other walks of musical life would a piece composed more than seventy years ago by a composer born more than one hundred years ago constitute new music?
View More Intersection (Curtis New Music Ensemble): “New music” from the rebranded ensemble
Music’s relationship to the natural world is an unsteady one. On one hand, it seems contradictory to celebrate nature using artificial instruments that are, after…
View More Music of the Earth (Curtis Ensemble 20/21): A place in the natural world
Is it possible for a composer to be too German? Sure, the deeply problematic Wagner has long cornered the market on gratuitous Teutonic mythmaking, but it’s his…
View More Spectacular Strauss (Curtis Symphony Orchestra): Germanic overtures
Director Joanna Settle wants you to know that 10 Days in a Madhouse is not just an opera. It is an “announcement … almost a…
View More 10 Days in a Madhouse (Opera Philly): This is not a time for quiet art
Of Yuval Sharon’s reverse-chronology retelling of Puccini’s La Bohème, the Wall Street Journal says, “It’s not just a gimmick—it works.” Of course, if you have…
View More La Bohème (Opera Philadelphia): Time’s arrow
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that there are two types of writers. And because he’s Kurt Vonnegut, he gave them both silly names. First you’ve got…
View More Perry, Schumann, and Mahler (Curtis Symphony Orchestra): Season-closing performance
It was just minutes into the performance, but the crowd at Verizon Hall was already overcome.
View More FARRENC AND BRAHMS (Philadelphia Orchestra) Soloist Seong-Jin Cho dominates a night of high drama
On the day I finally got around to watching Tár, Alpha Classics released a new collection of chamber music performed by virtuoso violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaya…
View More Tár (dir. Todd Field): Film review
Tom Stoppard’s ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD is perhaps the most ubiquitous work of postmodern drama.
View More ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (Wilma): A contemporary classic, in three parts
The elements which displease other writers are what makes this production a success, according to Michael Fisher in review five of the ongoing Critical Mass series.
View More MACBETH (Arden): Rare emotion and rarer straightforwardness [critical mass review #5]
Katherine and Cal seem uncomfortable together, and we soon learn why: they are forever connected by the death of Andre.
View More MOTHERS AND SONS (PTC): Closure, revenge, and life after AIDS
PRIVATE LIVES, as written by Coward, is funny because it exposes the savagery that exists beneath the polished façade of the English upper class.
View More PRIVATE LIVES (Walnut): Who is being mocked?
Campbell’s production allows us to see the raw humanity in these people—or, in many cases, the lack thereof.
View More CLOSER (Luna): The sex is neither sensual nor dirty, it’s tactical
Michael Fisher concludes his multi-part review experiment of ARCADIA at the Lantern Theater Company. Was it a success?
View More “The Experiment”, conclusion: ARCADIA (Lantern)
Michael Fisher continues his multi-part critical consideration of the Lantern Theater Company’s ARCADIA.
View More “The Experiment”, part 3: ARCADIA (Lantern)
Part 2 of Michael Fisher’s multi-part, multi-week consideration of ARCADIA at the Lantern.
View More “The Experiment”, part 2: ARCADIA (Lantern)
Part One of Michael Fisher’s multi-part critical experiment, reviewing the Lantern Theater Company’s production of ARCADIA several times over its run.
View More “The Experiment”, part 1: ARCADIA (Lantern)
Phindie writer Michael Fisher introduces his multi-part critical experiment, using the Lantern’s production of ARCADIA as his guinea pig subject.
View More “The Experiment”: ARCADIA (Lantern), Introduction to an experiment in criticism
THREE SISTERS is the story not only of its title characters—the sisters Olga (Sarah Sanford), Masha (Katharine Powell) and Irina (Mary Tuomanen)—but also of the various characters who shuffle in and out of their country home over the course of a few years. It’s a soap opera on wheels as nearly everyone falls in love, gets caught up in adultery and waxes philosophical, all while sinking deeper and deeper into the exact sorts of lives they never wanted to lead.
View More THREE SISTERS (Arden Theatre): Does the gimmick stick?
In a culture that places heavier value on test scores than on the individual capacity for critical thought, you’re taught to associate. It doesn’t much…
View More SKIN AND BONE (Azuka Theatre): SoGoth Reinvented