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In Review

IN REVIEW: MARRY ME: New concerto inspired by wedding but not bound to it

By Paul Horsley David Ludwig knows better than to attach a “back-story” to a piece irrevocably, although he has openly stated that his new Violin Concerto was inspired by his recent marriage. Composers over the years have learned the perils of announcing beforehand a narrative or program for a piece, only to find later that […]

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IN REVIEW: KC Ballet’s new ‘Nutcracker’ is boisterous, busy, dazzling fun

By Paul Horsley Each production of The Nutcracker is to some extent a balancing act between spectacle and dance. At best it seamlessly integrates the colors and stagecraft that keep holiday audiences coming back with the ballet traditions on which the 1892 Russian classic is based. When the Kansas City Ballet under Artistic Director Devon […]

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IN REVIEW: Lyric’s ‘Rusalka’ explores beauties of ‘Little Mermaid’ tale

By Paul Horsley The Lyric Opera of Kansas City deserves applause for taking on an opera in Czech for the first time in its history, but the opening performance of its Rusalka on November 7th at the Kauffman Center offered mixed results. Dvořák’s shimmering score—with its delicious colors, sophisticated use of motif, and seamless integration […]

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IN REVIEW: KC Ballet’s spring production shows off its contemporary chops

By Paul Horsley Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments is a work of such startling visual clarity, musicality and modernity that it’s astonishing to contemplate that it predates not just most of the contemporary dance we see on the stage today, but also a large portion of the choreography by which we know Balanchine himself. It was […]

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IN REVIEW: Harriman-Jewell delights with ‘Acis,’ KC Rep fascinates with ‘An Iliad’

By Paul Horsley You have to believe in Baroque opera to make it convincing, and Mark Morris believes in it absolutely. His Acis and Galatea, a delightful amalgam of dance, music, theater, costumes and lighting design, remains true to the madcap spirit of Handel’s original masque-opera, and on February 6th and 7th at the Kauffman […]

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CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION: Lyric delivers solid, well-sung version of Puccini classic

Many 18th- and 19th-century operas are just too complicated, with superfluous subplots and random servants running about doing little to further the central story, if there is one. By the end of the 19th century composers and librettists had begun to pare down what I think of as Shakespearean “character overpopulation,” as they found this […]

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POISED BETWEEN STORY AND GORE: KC Ballet’s ‘Dracula’ impresses the eye, frustrates the soul

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is on one level a love story, though it seldom resembles one. In many of the “translated” versions we know of the original 1897 novel, from Murnau’s 1922 film Nosferatu and its Hollywood spinoffs to various literary, stage and even comedic versions, the story of a pitiful creature living under a curse […]

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IN REVIEW: Pianist opens Friends season with enigmatic blend of expression and head-scratching

Clear and mild with occasional light, gusty winds. A weather forecast, perhaps, but this could also serve as a description of Vladimir Feltsman’s recital on September 27th at the Folly Theater, the opening of the Friends of Chamber Music’s 38th season. It was a low-key affair, with flashes of brilliance and no small measure of […]

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BEL CANTO GETS BELLICOSE: New opera tells sad, amazing tale of boxer with surprising secret These days we’ve become accustomed to gays and lesbians inhabiting any field you can imagine, from politics to professional sports to the U.S. Marine Corps. But still – boxing? Champion is a powerfully theatrical piece, and its premiere last month […]

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10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU, JULIA: Kauffman sparks yet another worthy arts project By Paul Horsley First Julia Irene Kauffman put up more than $100 million from the foundation named for her mother, Muriel McBrien Kauffman, and from her own resources to build one of the most grandly spectacular performing arts centers in the […]

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Harriman-Jewell presents up-and-coming violin and piano luminaries on Discovery series Elena Urioste and Gabriela Martinez effect a fine collaboration, playing with a unified and intuitive feel for each other’s musical outlook and direction. At the duo’s violin-piano recital on June 7th, part of the Harriman-Jewell’s Discovery Series, one was aware at times that the sharp […]

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TRIUMVIRATE OF GREATS: Chorale fills Helzberg with rich sound in choral milestones Heavenly is the word that comes to mind in describing the Kansas City Chorale’s performance of Arvo Pärt’s The Beatitudes, the opening choral work on its March 24th program of three masterpieces that also included Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and Duruflé’s Requiem. […]

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CHORAL CLARITY: Three-year-old choir performs works by Harris and others at Bolender Center Kansas City has long been a choral haven, and never as much as today. Of the dozen local professional or semi-professional choral ensembles I can think of just off-hand (not including church choirs), more than half were founded in the last decade. […]

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BRASH BUT HUMBLE: Young Canadian brings honest pianism to Harriman-Jewell Series Young performers these days are so often given to musical excess and personal flamboyance that it’s refreshing to find one with a solid and sensible foundation on which to build a substantial career. Pianist Jan Lisiecki, 18, has excellent technique, sensitive musicality and a […]

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Good People is a remarkable play with a cast of six players and a tangle of ambiguities that send you out of the theater wondering what just happened. Whoare the “good” people in David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2011 play, and what defines them as good? The Unicorn Theatre and the Kansas City Actors Theatre have gathered an engrossing sextet of actors […]

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The Kansas City Ballet’s current season is to some extent a tribute to its visionary artistic director, William Whitener, who bids farewell to the company this spring after 17 years here. The winter program that opened on March 15th at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre highlighted two important aspects of William’s legacy that will continue to echo for years […]

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GETTING WITH THE PICTURE: Lyric production of early Wagner milestone has ups and downs The Flying Dutchman is a tricky opera to get one’s head around, let alone bring to the stage, partly because its mythical story can easily come off as simplistic. A young girl, Senta, grows up infatuated with a fantasy-man whose portrait hangs, […]

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KC BALLET: Ladies with an attitude, fellows in Shakespearean mood The Kansas City Ballet’s current season is to some extent a tribute to its visionary artistic director, William Whitener, who bids farewell to the company this spring after 17 years here. The winter program that opened on March 15th at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre highlighted two important aspects […]

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So far the performances we’ve seen in this second Kauffman Center season have made it clear that the wildly successful first season was not a fluke: The sheer grandeur of the place seems to be spurring local performing arts groups to ambitious new heights. I call it the “Kauffman effect,” as performers in a world-class […]

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Mark Morris is one of the great innovators of American dance, but his works rarely have what you would call “the shock of the new.” In fact his choreography is so deftly and intuitively attuned to the music that it often has an almost organic feel to it, a naturalness that grows from both musicality and […]

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There are good reasons why Emanuel Ax is held in such high esteem in the American classical scene. He has an innate, “natural” musicality that seems to adapt to any period or style, he plays with extreme delicacy but can also tear into a thunderous fortissimo without banging, and he can “sing” you a melody as if […]

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