There are several reasons why you might expect Benjamin Bagby’s performance of Beowulf to fall flat on a contemporary American audience. The renowned medievalist performs the epic as a one-man bard, accompanying himself on […]

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields is one of the most venerated musical establishments in England, one could even say in the history of English music. You know a chamber […]

The final seconds of Yuri Possokhov’s Firebird contain a simple event that is so natural, so poignant and dramatically satisfying that it made my heart clutch up. Naturally I’m not going to spoil […]

Chen Yi’s musical world is a cheerful place teeming with activity and populated by stately emperors, raucous villagers, artful calligraphers and lovers boating through lotus blossoms — always against the backdrop […]

Competition was fierce this year for the best of 2008, for one simple reason: Kansas City’s culture remains on such an upward trajectory that it’s not out of line to […]

One local holiday tradition that changes little from year to year is the Kansas City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, and that will be either good or bad news depending on whether […]

Konstantin Lifschitz, the Ukrainian-born pianist, is one of those restless musical spirits who sails uncharted waters seeking ever-elusive truths behind musical masterpieces. There was a mystical, almost séance-like atmosphere to […]

No one ever accused Puccini of subtlety for his potboiler Tosca. A diva agrees to “give in” to a lecherous villain in return for her lover’s freedom. Instead she stabs […]

At a time when Roman Catholics and Episcopalians seem to be growing ever-further apart, gestures of unity are always refreshing. That’s why Summer Music at the Cathedrals, a musical partnership […]

The plot of Tosca is a pretty crass affair, but even seasoned opera devotees keep returning to the piece because it features what is perhaps Puccini’s most incisive and consistently compelling musical […]

Young people do grow up, a fact we sometimes forget when we expect youthful celebrities to act mature beyond their years. The version of Lang Lang who played Tuesday, September 15 on the Harriman-Jewell […]

Stefan Jackiw played a  beautiful recital on September 26 at the Folly Theater, confirming once again my ongoing impression that he is destined to lead a career at the very top […]

As a vocal student, Lawrence Brownlee wanted to sing the big romantic roles that tenors pine for: Rodolfo in La Bohème, Alfredo in La traviata, Cavaradossi in Tosca. Looking back, he’s awfully glad he heeded the advice of […]

Imagine a future in which Our Town’s nationally renowned ballet company had its own home for the first time in its 52-year history, a dynamic place where professional creativity, community […]

In the center of a giant disc of white lycra covering half the dance studio stands a lone ballerina, Stayce Camparo, wearing the heavy, textured fabric around as a burdensome skirt. As […]

If you want an excellent example of what small-to-medium-sized arts groups in Kansas City can achieve when they team up, look no further than the October 16-18 production of Henry […]

If theater and drama in English began with the plays of Shakespeare, the modern English song began with the works of the Elizabethan singer-songwriter John Dowland and, a bit later, […]

Deborah Voigt is known to the opera world for her portrayals of stern, stately and imperious Wagner and Strauss heroines: Ariadne, Brünnhilde, Elisabeth, Elsa, Isolde, Salome. Her persona in solo […]

Gilbert & Sullivan’s operettas are so durable that directors succeed best when they go easy on shtick and focus on dead-on execution of the shows’ intrinsic rich humor. The Lyric […]

We like to think of the United States as a classless society, where a pauper can rise to the top and anyone can marry for love regardless of rank or […]

Take eight younger singers with decades of rigorous vocal and choral training, hone them to a razor-sharp blend and place them in a church with clean, resonant acoustics, and you […]