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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2019

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Theatre

In the Count’s garage where he keeps the cars in tip-top shape, Figaro (Evan Hughes, r.) helps Susanna (Emily Birsan) imagine their upcoming nuptials in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “The Marriage of Figaro.” Photoraph by T. Charles Erickson.

Boston Lyric Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro at John Hancock Hall

// Music, Theatre

By James Foritano In Boston’s venerable John Hancock Hall, a few steps down Berkeley Street and just off Copley Square, our own Boston Lyric Opera roars into town with an enduring classic, a smoking hot bedroom comedy that offended one emperor, Joseph 2nd of the Hapsburg Empire, and King Louis XVI. Threats of censorship loomed, then dissipated. It was 1780, the height of the Age of Enlightenment, when the light of reason shone everywhere, especially bedrooms. So perhaps these two royal heavyweights second guessed themselves, deciding: Better bedrooms than halls of state! Besides, their own aristocracies were revolting, in both senses. Firstly, this was the way the aristocracy behaved offstage, all the time. And they wanted to see themselves as much as their underlings wanted to see what they were mostly missing. And who better to portray deliciously ‘bad’ behavior than … [Read more...] about Boston Lyric Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro at John Hancock Hall

Tom Rakewell (Ben Bliss) falls captive to Mother Goose’s ladies (Photography by T Charles Erickson © T Charles Erickson Photography).

Boston Lyric Opera presents The Rake’s Progress

// Boston Lyric Opera, Music, Theatre

By James Foritano Boston, MA - A new production by director Allegra Libonati illuminates the Cutler Majestic’s historic stage and house with a tale at once simple and profound. Simple because, to the delight of this opera lover, the characters to keep in view form a neat triad of hero (Tom Rakewell, sung by Ben Bliss), heroine (Anne Trulove, sung by Anya Matanovic) and villain (Nick Shadow, sung by Kevin Burdette). Tom Rakewell is our wavering hero who charges off to London with a new inheritance, eying the goal of tasting all London’s sophisticated — and mostly low pleasures — while keeping intact the purity of his love to Anne Trulove. Nick is a dope, but a dope with the complication of deeper qualities which shine progressively albeit tragically stronger as his fate closes around him. Villain Nick Shadow is no dope; he’s a hunter of human folly so astute you might think … [Read more...] about Boston Lyric Opera presents The Rake’s Progress

Boston Opera House, decked out for The Nutcracker

Boston Ballet Presents Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker Boston Opera House, November 25, 2016

// Theatre

By Kate Kenney Boston, MA - The night is both decadent and magical, with grand Christmas trees lining the entrance of the spiral staircase leading to the theater doors of the Boston Opera House, whose walls, dressed in warm golds and deep, velvety reds, and ceiling glittering in ornate gilded designs, are hosting Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, presented by artist director Mikko Nissinen. This evening, its audience will see 182 costumes featuring 200,000 jewels and multiple tutus hand-dipped in gold paint. In the lobby, signed blush pointe shoes are for sale, scuffed from use and hard work. One pair of shoes is signed wonderfully, “Live What You Love!” by ballerina Dusty Button. The theater itself is majestic, lined with ornate paintings from its original 1928 French and Italian architecture. The orchestra, led by principal guest conductor Beatrice Jona Affron, opens the … [Read more...] about Boston Ballet Presents Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker Boston Opera House, November 25, 2016

Caroline Worra (l.) and Amanda Crider (r.) comprise a two-headed Sphinx that torments Eddy (Marcus Farnsworth) who has set out to defeat them and stop their plague on his city in the Boston Lyric Opera production of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Greek. (Photograph by Liza Voll.)

Boston Lyric Opera Annex presents Greek; Opera 101 at Boston Public Library Dec. 8

// Boston Lyric Opera, Theatre

Boston Lyric Opera Annex presents Greek; Opera 101 at Boston Public Library Dec. 8 By James Foritano Boston, MA - “Greek,” which was performed as part of the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Opera Annex” series from Nov. 16-20 at Washington Street’s Emerson Paramount Theater, while bold and daring, bit off more than it, and we, can chew. At least in this reviewer’s opinion. This is not to damn the production, since experimental theater/opera is supposed to take chances, and the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Opera Annex” series is purposed to “shake up the grand-opera model,” according to approving praise from the Wall Street Journal that was quoted in this opera’s program. Perhaps, though, some classics are better off left alone, or at least approached with more modesty — lest the approach itself be “shaken up.” To start at the very beginning would be to start around 2,500 years ago … [Read more...] about Boston Lyric Opera Annex presents Greek; Opera 101 at Boston Public Library Dec. 8

Alexander Platt (Laertes) and Poornima Kirby (Ophelia) by Nile Scott Shott

Actors’ Shakespeare Project presents Hamlet at Boston’s Historic Church of the Covenant

// Theatre

By James Foritano Boston, MA - Once again, the Actors Shakespeare Project has found the perfect venue for their play: in this case, “Hamlet,” performed in the awesomely cavernous venue of Boston’s historic Church of the Covenant, just one long block down from the Public Garden on Newbury Street where it crosses Berkeley Street. Both the gloom and the promise of this holy ark of a building, after hours, seem so right for the atmosphere of “Hamlet.” Hamlet is that “kid with everything” sung with such wrenching sweetness in the popular song. Indeed, his mother is as beautiful as the queen she is and his father, kingly rich. Not to mention all those glittering comrades ready to entertain this prince of men’s every youthful folly or deepest passion — except, of course, a slow but steadily accelerating passion for revenge. There’s a wide pink slip in the program which mentions, … [Read more...] about Actors’ Shakespeare Project presents Hamlet at Boston’s Historic Church of the Covenant

Alejandro Simoes & Sarah deLima in Marjorie Prime (Photo: A.R. Sinclair Photography.)

Marjorie Prime at Central Square Theatre

// Theatre

By James Fortiano Cambridge, MA - Looking at my ticket for an opening week performance by the Nora Theatre Company of Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, I’m wondering whether I was more entertained or simply mildly intrigued. I’d choose intrigued. I’ll be up front — I’m a good times guy. I like to be entertained, or at least transported somewhere else for the duration of an 90-minute, no intermission play. It was a heady play, for me, as in, ‘What exactly is happening right now on stage?’ The main characters seemed to be mostly confused, and/or in some mental pain — or otherwise ambiguously situated. More on that later. No mystery, since the four players consist of an 85-year-old grandmother suffering from fading memory, her daughter and daughter’s husband, scrambling to make her and themselves comfortable in the same narrow household, and a futuristic personage — read a … [Read more...] about Marjorie Prime at Central Square Theatre