Chicago Sun-Times

Renee Fleming keeps Lyric’s ‘Streetcar’ on course

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:54:00 -0500

In Lyric Opera’s semi-staged “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Renee Fleming’s intense commitment, Brad Dalton’s direction, a largely strong cast, Duane Schuler’s lighting wizardry, Johann Stegmeir’s effective period costuming and a good connection between American conductor Evan Rogister and the score and orchestra, create surprisingly moving performance, but it’s one much more of the theater than the opera.

Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards: I don’t own an iPod

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:12:00 -0500

NEW YORK — He’s rock royalty and likes to keep it old-school: Keith Richards says he doesn’t own an iPod. The Rolling Stones guitarist says he isn’t a fan of the ultra-popular music device. “I don’t have an iPod. ... I still use CDs or records actually. Sometimes cassettes. It has much better sound; a much better sound than digital,” he said in a recent interview. The 69-year-old believes music lovers are “all being shortchanged” with the sound that comes out of an iPod, launched in 2001. “My old lady’s got one. My kids have got them. I say, ‘Look …

Evgeny Kissin once again proves he’s an heir to keyboard greats

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:09:35 -0500

In some ways, what Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin is doing at 41 is more astonishing than what he was sharing with a jaw-dropping world as a 12-year-old and teenager in the 1980s. He was a prodigy, without question, whose debuts in concert and recital around the world and live recordings were events. But Kissin has not only continued to play with formidable technique and intelligence as an adult, he has restored the idea of the pianist as a star, and as a star based on actual playing, not on glitz, flash, hype or hair gel, concepts apparently wholly alien to …

Chance the Rapper continues his artistic climb with ‘Acid Rain’

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:38:01 -0500

The second mixtape from Chance the Rapper positions him as Chicago’s biggest breakthrough hip-hop artist since Kanye West.

PHOTOS: Fitz and The Tantrums bring their energy to Double Door

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:38:01 -0500

Chicago has been somewhat of a second home to Fitz and The Tantrums, and Tuesday night at Double Door was no different as the band played a sold out show.

Nico Muhly composes music without limits

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:18:39 -0500

Whether writing a new work for the Metropolitan Opera or performing an indie-rock band like Antony and the Johnsons, Nico Muhly is at home in a wide range of musical settings. Indeed, the 31-year-old Brooklyn composer and keyboardist is among the best known of a new iPod generation of classically trained musicians who jump from one genre to another without giving much thought to musical boundaries. “The minute I stopped worrying about genre,” Muhly said, “was the minute that I realized that people my age, we’re all making music, we’re all trying different things, and there’s really no sense in …

Lyric seeks the ‘Oklahoma!’ OK from a seasoned choreographer

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:18:21 -0500

NEIL STEINBERG: 91-year-old Gemze de Lappe, who danced with the original national company in 1943, brings her expertise to a Lyric Opera production that honors the historic legacy of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s landmark musical.

Sweet home Aurora: Top blues stars skip Chicago fest, head west

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:27:45 -0500

Buddy Guy, others opt to play at Blues on the Fox instead of the Chicago Blues Festival a week earlier in June. Going to the Grant Park festival is free. Aurora’s is not.

Indie pop group Fitz and the Tantrums set to play Double Door

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:18:41 -0500

Stepping out from the LA scene, Fitz and the Tantrums are ready for their closeup.

Chicago Sinfonietta superbly explores freedom with oud concerto, rare Dawson symphony

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:20:00 -0500

Audacious. Invigorating. Superbly executed. As it continues a transitional period following the retirement of its founder and longtime music director Paul Freeman, the Chicago Sinfonietta under Freeman’s successor Mei-Ann Chen is playing at the top of its form in programs that are fascinating both on paper and in performance. Friday evening at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park bore the title “Political Awakenings,” originally inspired by last year’s Arab Spring uprisings. Ideas of freedom ranging from Mozart’s comic opera about a Turkish harem, through individual expression for the ancient Arab lute, the oud, to a rare revival of the least-performed …

Chicago Opera Theater singers, musicians carry Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Maria’ in overdue Chicago debut

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:13:13 -0500

Chicago Opera Theater continues its new “more of the different” mission in dramatic form under general director Andreas Mitisek with the much-belated Chicago premiere of Astor Piazzolla’s 1967-68 “tango operita” “Maria de Buenos Aries,” which received an enthusiastic ovation at its Saturday night opening at the Harris Theater. Perhaps because it was long linked to dance more than opera — as recently as last month it was presented in New York at the new music basement nightclub Le Poisson Rouge — this continuous 75-minute work, conceived and developed in Buenos Aires and neighboring Uruguay by Piazzolla with the poet Horacio …

Fulcrum Point plays score live to enhance ‘Altered States’

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:37:17 -0500

As part of celebrations marking composer John Corigliano’s 75th birthday, the ensemble will accompany a screening of the 1980 sci-fi cult classic with a performance of its Oscar-nominated music.

Muti celebrates Spring residency with fine classic Austro-German survey

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 02:11:38 -0500

Riccardo Muti’s spring residency has featured extensive public rehearsals with the Civic Orchestra, the professional training arm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; a meeting with incarcerated youth at the West Side Cook County juvenile detention facility who performed their own compositions for the music director; and a celebratory evening with Chicago’s Italian-American community and Italy’s new general consul here. With the CSO itself, Muti is in the midst of a three-week, three-program survey, basically chronological, of classic Austro-German repertoire from Bach through Schumann. Conductors get overcategorized — and often contribute to this pigeonholing themselves — as “specialists” in certain genres …

Studio, live shows keep Three Dog Night in the hunt

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:44:00 -0500

As a founding member of classic rock band Three Dog Night, Danny Hutton could easily sit back and bask in the fame and successes of yesteryear — surround himself with four decades of accolades and line the walls of his recording studio with gold records. “Nope, there is nothing on the walls having to do with Three Dog Night in here,” he laughs. “This house used to be Alice Cooper’s, and my sons were the ones who went in and really did the studio up right. It’s their studio. They don’t want anything to do with the old man’s stuff. …

Josh Abbott Band rides wave of success

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:21:24 -0500

It has been said that there really is no magical formula when it comes to musical success. Yet, to hear singer/songwriter Josh Abbott talk makes one think that the former grad student from Texas just might be on to something. “I think everything in life is a bell curve, whether it’s the life of your car or the career of a music singer trying to make it in country music,” says Abbott during a recent interview. “Once you hit the top, it’s a downhill struggle to maintain what you are doing. You are always slamming your feet on the brakes …

Thielemann, Dresden Staatskapelle make a welcome return to Orchestra Hall

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:33:36 -0500

Wireless communication meant that the world was too much with many of us, late and soon, on Sunday at Orchestra Hall. Just before the much-anticipated Dresden Staatskapelle concert and the long-awaited return to Chicago of its new principal conductor Christian Thielemann, e-mail brought news of the death the night before of trumpet legend Adolph “Bud” Herseth, 91, a Chicago Symphony Orchestra fixture over six decades. Then, by intermission, Twitter carried word from the London Symphony Orchestra that the widely revered Colin Davis, laureate conductor of the Dresdeners, had just died at 85. That both men were true professionals and that …