Culture Club

After the final decisive cadence of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances splashed across Uihlein Hall Friday afternoon, the members of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra looked like a smiling bunch of students just back from their senior class trip. It’s been quite a year, their faces seemed to say. It’s great to have so much fun as it draws to a close. And fun it was. Conductor Gilbert Varga helped the orchestra tap into the joy of these high-stepping symphonic miniatures. He had a pretty good time too, at times seeming ready to caper off the podium and break into a Skočná himself.…

#5: Jackie Evancho at the Pabst Theater. Why? Because seeing Jackie Evancho’s name on this list has likely prompted you to think one of two things: “Who?” if you are not a regular witness to the yearly America’s Got Talent spectacles, and don’t recall this 10-year-old pulling a Susan Boyle with a rendition of Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” (from Gianni Schicchi, for those keeping score at home).  Or “What?” if you are a little shocked to see the now 13-year-old Jackie in the company of august ensembles like the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Fine Arts Quartet. Well, hell. It’s…

The Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca was not exactly an “it’s all good” kind of guy. As a follower of the Greek “Stoics,” he believed in the supremacy of reason (over emotion), and the absolutism of certain “universal” laws. Hence his drama Phaedra, an adaptation of the Greek story about the consequences of a woman’s lust for her stepson. Needless to say, the gods in Seneca’s imagination did not look down on Phaedra and declare: “No worries.” The firebrand British playwright Sarah Kane, who wrote only a few plays before her death at the age of 28, wrote her own…

It is a time for somber reflection, but this holiday weekend also signals the start of summer, and it’s usually more about boats, brats and beer (as opposed to being about Beethoven, Balanchine or Beckett.) But there are a few substantial offerings for those who are particularly serious about their art and culture. #3: The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Why? Because the MSO’s so-called “Chamber Series” offers some of the most interesting programming in its season, including this concert featuring the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus and principal violist Robert Levine. Francesco Lecce-Chong is again…

Back when Karl Marx was digging the scene, it may have been true that history repeated itself as tragedy and then as farce. But these days, we’re more likely to revisit it as a Heineken commercial or a fashion layout in The New York Times’ T Magazine. Which is why I had reservations about the Skylight Theater’s production of Hair, the 1967 musical that brings back the era in all its tie-dyed, joint-rolling glory. Like most people, I knew some of the songs from the pop-chart crossovers by the Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night, and, yes, The Cowsills. But despite…

                                        Photos by Mark Frohna courtesy of Milwaukee Ballet Company. There is a little something for everyone in the Milwaukee Ballet’s new production of Mirror Mirror, unless you’re a kid who wants to chuckle over the zany antics of Doc, Sleepy or Grumpy. Michael Pink’s balletic treatment of Snow White goes straight to the source, the old German fairy tale that was put to print by the Brothers Grimm. And as with all fairy tales, it reaches for something psychological and richly elemental in the story it tells and the characters it imagines. In that reach, Mirror Mirror recalls…

#5: Broadway’s Elite at the Wilson Center for the Performing Arts. Why? Because you’re a Broadway Baby! You love your Cats, you love your Beauty and the Beast. And you even like some shows that feature people rather than animals and talking teapots. This concert tour features the legendary Donna McKechnie (Chorus Line), Ken Page (the original Deuteronomy in Cats) and Lee Roy Reams (The Producers), swapping stories, singing songs, and doing the sort of thing Show People do.  #4: The Bel Canto Chorus at the Milwaukee Center. Why? Because Carl Orff’s choral classic is just the thing to pump…

The scenario seems straight from a Nora Ephron movie: Two couples change partners in a late-life divorce swap. Hijinks ensue. In Theatre Gigante’s new show, Alex (Isabelle Kralj) and Jeffrey (Mark Anderson) are married with a daughter (Tina). Their friends Elaine (Deborah Clifton) and Peter (John Kishline) have a son (Jimmy). Time runs its course, and the marriages disintegrate. But the couples “recouple” with each other’s former spouse, and find new love (Alex with Peter, Jeffrey with Elaine). In the meantime, Tina (played with spunky brio by Megan Kaminsky) and Jimmy (Evan James Koepnick) fall in love, and announce to…

In recent years, there’s been a welcome expansion of the repertory performed by the Florentine Opera Company. But even with these forays into Baroque and contemporary opera, it’s nice to know the company is still able to deliver a rousing production of a bread-and-butter classic. They did to open this season (the company’s 80th) with La Traviata. And they did it again with this weekend’s smashing production of La Boheme. It had all the ingredients of old-fashioned Grand Opera: lavish sets (rented from the Arizona Opera, but evocatively lit by Noele Stollmack), a solid (and large) chorus, and lead performers…

#5: Ensemble Musical Offering at Cathedral Church of All Saints. Why? Because Johann Sebastian Bach’s “creative powers” went beyond his inventions, cantatas and concertos. He also “created” a slew of children, some of whom grew up to be celebrated composers in their own right. At the top of this list is Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach (known to his pals as C.P.E. Bach), who was one of the musical minds that helped Western music make the transition from the Baroque to the Classical style favored by Mozart and his ilk. March marked Carl’s 300th birthday, and the early music ensemble EMO…