REVIEW:Trouble in Paradise — Double-Bill at Curtis Opera (for Parterre Box)
Chas Rader-Shieber’s conflation was simultaneously over-conceptualized and insufficiently thought through.
REVIEW: Glamour, Reconceptualized: the Final Day of O18 (for Parterre Box)
Two final events at O18 sum up the wonders of this extraordinary festival.
REVIEW: When Queens Collide: Queens of the Night at O18 (for Parterre Box)
Blythe’s virtuosity actually anchors the show to opera; Martha not so much.
REVIEW: Dramatic A.R.C.: Glass Handel at O18 / Opera Philadelphia (for Parterre Box)
Imagine you are at Disneyland, and there’s an Anthony Roth Costanzo ride.
REVIEW: Dark Shadows: Lucia di Lammermoor at O18 / Opera Philadelphia (for Parterre Box)
If only Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, a setting of Walter Scott’s gloomy novel in which the heroine is traded like a piece […]
REVIEW: Elle Is Other People: Ne Quittez Pas at O18 / Opera Philadelphia (for Parterre Box)
The two-part evening starts arch, but ends in triumph.
REVIEW: Grand Tourists: Duet Recital at O18/Opera Philadelphia (for Parterre Box)
In a delightful song program, Ashley Robillard and Siena Licht Miller show exceptional promise.
REVIEW: Touch the Sky: Sky on Swings at O18/Opera Philadelphia (for Parterre Box)
It would be hard to imagine a better metaphor for O18 than this poignant new opera.
The Sun Shines Nellie (Review of Taylor Mac, Part II at PIFA, for Parterre Box)
Warmth, humor, and joyful out-and-proud-ness dominate the mood, yet there is considerable darkness in Mac’s view of both past and present.
Mac & Me (Review of Taylor Mac, Part I at PIFA, for Parterre Box)
A particular tension—between angry political resistance, and gloriously buoyant queerness—fuels TM24’s immense energy.
