REVIEW: Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - September 25, 2015September 25, 2015 Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, now playing at Park Square Theatre, is the sort of stage work where knowing too much in advance is against the audience interest. This staging of an intergenerational tale of experiences in and around the U.S. military is moving and gripping. Some preliminary notes: It's best to eat
Chameleon Theatre Circle Opens 100th Production Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 25, 2015September 27, 2015 As the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Julianne Amendola can tell you, it's not every year that your institution turns 100. In this respect, the MIA has a leg up on almost every arts organization in the area in terms of longevity and head starts – just ask the Children's Theatre Company. The
The Yellow Brick Road to the Box Office: Children’s Theatre Company Extends Wizard of Oz Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 Opening night for the Children's Theatre Company's production of The Wizard of Oz is still five weeks away, but advance sales are already flashing like Judy Garland's ruby slippers. CTC announced today that it was extending the run of this classic musical by one week. The Wizard of Oz is set to
Minnesota Opera’s Popup Plan Arts Music Opera by Basil Considine - September 15, 2015March 11, 2017 Popup events are all the range now, and Minnesota Opera has decided to get into the game in a big way. Starting on September 19, MNOpera is sending its musicians out for free daily performances around town in the build-up to its season opener. The promotion, succinctly styled 7 Days of
CANTUS Brews, Sings New Music Loves Arts Music by Basil Considine - September 15, 2015September 15, 2015 When The Manchurian Candidate premiered at Minnesota Opera last winters, reviewers sang the praises of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts' score. Across town, however, Minneapolis-based ensemble CANTUS is singing a different Pulitzer Prize-related tune in rehearsal. The all-male vocal ensemble's latest concert offering, The Four Loves, features four new song commissions: “Manifesto,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning
CD ANNOUNCEMENT: VocalEssence’s Nordic Christmas Arts Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 Minneapolis-based choir VocalEssence has a new CD coming out on October 11. The disc, entitled Nordic Nativity, features traditional holiday music from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. This live album includes the trademark voices and Nordic fiddling by Sara Pajunen of Aallotar. (Pajunen studied violin in Minneapolis and Helsinki.) The 18 tracks on Nordic Nativity include
REVIEW: Twin Cities Fringe Opera’s Don Giovanni Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 In the composer Hector Berlioz's memoirs, he recounts traveling through Germany in the mid-19th century. Away from the refinement of Paris, he saw countless performances where the orchestra was fortified by the local military band, or a traveling opera company joined by members of the local music society in the pit. While
The Ivey Awards: What’s Growing at the State Theatre Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 10, 2015September 12, 2015 When the State Theatre opened on February 5, 1921, it was the largest theatre in Minneapolis – and, local journalists trumpeted, the most technologically advanced in the country. It featured a state-of-the-art air conditioning system (something the audience wouldn’t test out for several months, and were probably less excited after
10 Scene-Stealing Theatre Performances from 2014-2015 Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 9, 2015September 12, 2015 We asked the Twin Cities Daily Planet's Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic Basil Considine for a retrospective top 10 list of favorite shows from the 2014-2015 theatre season in the Twin Cities. Basil refused to play favorites, but offered this list of 10 scene-stealing performances, loosely construed and in no