| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 6-Feb-2013 Artists for Humanity EpiCenter | James MacMillan's Clemency receives its North American première in Boston |
 In James MacMillan’s Clemency, three strangers visit Abraham and Sarah. The aging couple make them welcome and receive the news that Sarah will bear a son – to Sarah’s disbelief. They appear to be angels, coming to bless the couple. But as the travelers prepare to leave, they reveal that their next stop is one of condemnation. The people of the twin towns, Sodom and Gomorrah, will be destroyed. Abraham begs for clemency, negotiating salvation if the travelers find good souls among the sinners.
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| 2-Nov-2012 Citi Performing Arts Center, Shubert Theater | Boston Lyric Opera finds new ways to break hearts in Madama Butterfly |
 Boston Lyric Opera opened a new production of Madama Butterfly on Thursday night, with gorgeous results. From the beautifully articulated set to the connection of the singers, the production was clean and inspired.
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| 25-Oct-2012 Boston Opera House | Boston rethinks ballet with the Rolling Stones and a world première by Jorma Elo |
 Boston Ballet’s Fall Program is a mix of three contemporary pieces, with music ranging from the Rolling Stones to piano and organ arrangements by J.S. Bach and electronica by Thom Willems. It began and ended on an upbeat, bookending a thoughtful (and thought-provoking) world première centerpiece.
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| 26-Apr-2012 Citi Performing Arts Center, Wang Theatre | Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Boston |
 Celebrity Series of Boston presents Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater every spring, just as the city starts to pop open and come alive. Like the host city, the company is full of life. And like Boston Public Garden down the street, the thrill is in the feeling of power underscoring what we see on the surface. In ballet, dancers make choreography look effortless when it requires the most precision. With Alvin Ailey, they make it look loose when it is tight and most precise. This is the first time Boston has seen the troupe under their new Artistic Director, Robert Battle.
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| 20-Apr-2012 Citi Performing Arts Center, Shubert Theater | A cleverly satirical Inspector at Boston Lyric Opera |
 Just as it seemed that contemporary American opera had sworn off melody completely, composer John Musto brings us The Inspector. Paired with Mark Campbell's brightly comic libretto, Musto's score sweeps the hilarious plot along, punctuated by clever musical references and familiar tunes.
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| 9-Mar-2012 Citi Performing Arts Center, Shubert Theater | Boston Lyric Opera offers an irresistible Barber of Seville |
 Boston Lyric Opera's production of The Barber of Seville looks, sounds and feels like a storybook come to life. Wildly improbable and completely over the top, the story recounts the antics of Count Almaviva and his quest to win the love of Rosina, freeing her from her vile guardian in the process. If not for Rossini's delicious score, The Barber of Seville would be the operatic equivalent of a basket of brightly-colored rubber balls dropped from the flyspace. Instead, it is a ridiculous romp that's as musically gratifying as it is just plain fun.
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| 8-Feb-2012 John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum | Boston Lyric Opera's The Lighthouse makes the dark come to life |
 In 1900, a relief ship arrived at a lighthouse in Northern Scotland's Orkney Islands, and discovered the three lightkeepers had gone missing without a trace. Peter Maxwell Davies' opera The Lighthouse takes this moment of history and explores the possibilities of what may have happened. It is a stormy ride of shifting identities, guilt and fear. Put all these elements in isolation, surrounded by black seas, and there's no knowing what will crawl out of the dark.
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| 1-Dec-2011 Boston Symphony Hall | Harbison's Symphony no. 5 in Boston: A meditation on loss |
 There is an electric guitar on stage at Boston's Symphony Hall, and it is not a Pops concert.
John Harbison's Symphony no. 5 for baritone, mezzo-soprano and orchestra up-ends what we think of as a symphony, presenting the voice as an instrument and recalibrating the form.Read full review... | |
| 4-Nov-2011 Citi Performing Arts Center, Shubert Theater | An ominous evening with Verdi's Macbeth at Boston Lyric Opera |
 Imagine a tattered red curtain, blocking the set but revealing several bodies, bound head to toe in grey, hanging from the ceiling by their feet. It looks like the home of a malevolent, human spider - its prey a silent presence overhead. This is the opening of Verdi's Macbeth, at Boston Lyric Opera.
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| 3-Nov-2011 Boston Opera House | Boston Ballet's production of John Cranko's Romeo & Juliet |
 In John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, the story moves beyond star-crossed lovers and becomes a study of contrasts and conflicting forces. With set and costume design by Susan Benson, Boston Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet adds layers of nuance to an old story, giving the audience much to ponder after the final bows.
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| 29-Oct-2011 Boston Opera House | Boston Ballet's "Night of Stars" lights up the 2011/12 season |
 In the opening remarks of Boston Ballet's “Night of Stars” Saturday night, Executive Director Barry Hughson thanked the audience for filling the seats and concluded “we will not let you down.” The curtain then opened on an evening of artistic diversity so finely executed, there remained no doubt that Hughson spoke the truth.
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| 21-Oct-2011 Cutler Majestic Theatre | Béatrice et Bénédict is a charmingly complicated relationship in Boston |
 Opera Boston, whose mantra is “Only innovative repertory. Only original productions” has created a new production of Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict for Boston. Seductively charming, the production's depth and complexity become apparent with time and acquaintance – just like any worthwhile relationship.
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| 12-May-2011 Boston Opera House | Balanchine and Robbins at Boston Ballet |
 If you "don't get” ballet, you may be thinking too hard. In the words of one friend who went to see Boston Ballet's Balanchine/Robbins program with me on opening night, “you look past it and it appears.” While many ballets tell a story or convey a theme, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins encourage us to appreciate beauty for the sake of beauty. We don't try to understand a moonrise, after all.
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| 6-May-2011 Cutler Majestic Theatre | Maria Padilla Claims Her Crown At Opera Boston |
 Donizetti's Maria Padilla is a canvas for sumptuous costumes, regal staging and bel canto voices. The royal court, the wedding finery and the homes of Spanish nobility add up to a visual feast. Even without all this, the opera stands up musically. While some operas benefit (or are saved) by a grand production, Maria Padilla passes the “in the car” test. I sometimes ask myself if I would listen to a particular opera in the car, or if its charm stays on the stage at the end of the evening. This music is gorgeous and illustrative, evoking the story and images.Read full review... | |
| 30-Apr-2011 Boston Opera House | Bella Figura in Boston |
 A friend of mine once said “life is ugly. I want art to be beautiful.” I would add to that “life tells us enough stories. I want ballet to let my mind breathe.” As much as I love the story ballets, I seem to need poetry more than prose these days. Choreographers like William Forsythe, Helen Pickett and Jiří Kylián are fluent in the poetry of movement and give all the breathing room one could wish for. In their recent program, Bella Figura, Boston Ballet was in turns meditative, stylized, comical, exotic and mysterious.Read full review... | |
| 29-Apr-2011 Citi Performing Arts Center, Shubert Theater | Britten and the Bard at Boston Lyric Opera |
 From the opening glissandos of Britten's opera, we know this is not Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Where the Mendelssohn / Balanchine ballet is romantic, dreamy and reminiscent of an illustrated fairytale, Britten's opera borders on the nightmarish and eerie. Boston Lyric Opera's production highlights the disorienting, ominous and chilling aspects, leading us (quite willingly) ever deeper into the woods. While we are rewarded with a comical, operatic send-up at the end, we can't help but hope that the fairies of Athens are not inclined to visit our own gardens.Read full review... | |
| 21-Apr-2011 Boston Symphony Hall | The Passion According to St John - Boston Symphony Orchestra |
| I took my nephew, a vocal arts student, to see Bach's Passion According to St. John partially so he could experience Boston Symphony and partially to introduce him to choral music – which is some of my favorite. I hadn't been to Symphony Hall since my childhood and was glad to see nothing had changed. One has the sense that generations have passed through the hall in a continuous flow. The leather and wood seats are exactly as I remembered and are probably the same seats my mother sat in when she subscribed in high school. Read full review... | |
| 16-Mar-2011 Citi Performing Arts Center, Shubert Theater | Agrippina at Boston Lyric Opera |
 By all rights, Agrippina should be a tragedy. It begins with news of Claudius' death and ends with a roll call of doom, with political intrigue, power struggles, infidelity and dysfunction filling in the blanks. The Roman Empire is rife with opera fodder, and operas are rife with tales of Greek gods and Roman heroes (and anti-heroes). Characters behaving badly make for an irresistible story line, and when it's based on history, all the better. Handel's Agrippina is full of these characters, each with his or her own weakness.Read full review... | |
