On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be all that much Beatle-ness to Stanton Welch’s The Long and Winding Road, a 25-minute ballet that the Houston Ballet II performed on the Harriman-Jewell Series on October 30 at the Folly. Peter Breiner’s arrangements of the songs are more Vivaldi than George Martin — they sound so much like Baroque concertos that […]

Considering the number of elements that must come together for an operatic production to succeed, it’s a miracle that it ever happens. When it does, it’s sometimes hard to say why it does, but it nonetheless makes for an extremely satisfying evening of theater. At the Lyric Opera’s Norma, which opened November the 6th at the Lyric Theatre, all the […]

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero and French cellistGautier Capuçon are acclaimed musicians with international careers, and their gifts on their respective instruments are prodigious. Gautier has made a mark in collaborations with his brother, violinist Renard, and Gabriela you might remember from her appearance at President Obama’s inauguration withItzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma. Yet their Harriman-Jewell Series recital on November the […]

Few things in concert life are as satisfying as hearing musicians who have attained near-legendary status actually live up to those legends. On November the 19th at the Folly Theater, Pinchas Zukerman and Yefim Bronfman played the Brahms’ Second Viola Sonata so gorgeously and insightfully, and with such detailed nuance and color, that one was reminded why these artists have […]

The Kansas City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker remains one of the city’s most refined holiday offerings, with Balanchine- and Robbins-influenced choreography by Todd Bolender, great dancing by the company members, well-trained kids from the Ballet School and a Christmas tree that grows to enormous proportions. At the December the 11th opening night performance all the elements were […]

What if I told you that there was once a composer as great as any who ever lived, as famous and beloved during his day as Bach and Beethoven were during theirs – but that you might never have heard a note of his music? On February 5th the Friends of Chamber music brought the marvelous a […]

It’s hard to imagine Joyce DiDonato’s vocal artistry getting any better: The world-renowned mezzo-soprano from Prairie Village stands at her absolute prime. Her Harriman-Jewell Recital on February 13th—which happened to be her 42nd birthday—demonstrated the full range of her capabilities, offering a generous array of arias, scenes and French and Italian songs. Her mezzo is gorgeously […]

“Oh, What a Lovely War!” is a curious piece of theater, a combination epic musical, black farce and history lesson that does not preach but still manages to “bring home” the horrors of war—in this case World War I. The Kansas City Actors Theatre production that opened on February 17th, a collaboration with UMKC Theatre […]

Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment is perhaps more sentimental comedy than farce, though the wanton absurdities of its plot invite elements of silliness. The Lyric Opera’s production of the 1840 bel canto classic plays it somewhere in the middle, and the result is an entertaining evening with strong singing and a generous portion of well-grounded comedic action. If […]

Adam Schoenberg’s American Symphony adopts an accessible style but does not stray so far into a Hollywood idiom that it grows cheesy. The agreeable new piece, a Kansas City Symphony commission, received its world premiere on March 4th at the Lyric Theatre, with the Symphony led by music director Michael Stern. If the finale felt prolix in proportion […]

Tenor Stephen Costello possesses a natural, rich-auburn voice with a durable top, a pleasantly feathery lower register, a sweet head-voice that can shift into full voice with fetching ease, and a big capacity for warm pathos. The American artist, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 and won the Richard Tucker Award in 2009, seems destined for a […]

The dancers of the Kansas City Ballet are known for their proficiency in a wide variety of styles, and we sometimes forget that classical ballet remains at the core of their training and artistry. The company’s mastery of this centuries-old art form—which stands at the center of Western dance—was on glorious display at its production […]

The Akademie für alte Musik Berlin performs Baroque music with a bright, solid sense of style, technique to spare and, where necessary, a sense of playfulness and mirth. Their performance on March 11th at the Folly Theater, part of the Friends of Chamber Music’s series, offered delights and, at times, frustrations but was ultimately a satisfying […]

The Kansas City Ballet threw heart and soul into Lambarena, Val Caniparoli’s heady mixture of ballet, modern and ethnic dance set to Africanized arrangements of the music of Bach, and the result was if anything more beautiful than when the company performed the work in May 2004. The sheer look of the piece is irresistible: Sandra Woodall’s scenic and costume […]

Once you got over the in-your-face shock of a full symphony orchestra on the Folly Theater’s tiny stage, the Russian National Orchestra’s concert on Friday had much to recommend. The all-Slavic program showed off a well-oiled string section and some fine principal players, though at times I found myself noticing disparities more than uniformity. Because […]