The lusty month of May has arrived, although the “gusty” month of May is probably more accurate. Whether May is a cause for excitement or not depends on one’s awareness that the 2022-23 season is now beginning to wind down…
Review: Knoxville Opera Triumphs With ‘The Marriage of Figaro’
BY ALAN SHERROD Knoxville Opera began its life at the Bijou Theatre in 1978 as the Knoxville Civic Opera. Returning to its birthplace this weekend, the company triumphed there to wrap up its 2022-23 season with a production of…
Review: UT Opera Theatre’s ‘Hänsel und Gretel’
BY ALAN SHERROD It felt like it had been forever since the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre had trod the boards at the Bijou Theatre—but the company was back last weekend with a production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und…
Review: Clarence Brown Theatre’s ‘Hair’
BY ALAN SHERROD Hair, the rock musical that opened off-Broadway in 1967 and had a substantial Broadway run of four years, practically defined a generational era in American cultural history, not just with its statements of love, peace, and…
Review: A Powerful Mozart ‘Requiem’ from Knoxville Symphony and Knoxville Choral Society
BY ALAN SHERROD Any discussion of past or present requiems inevitably begins with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 1791 Requiem, a work that has found itself the subject of myth and speculation, largely due to the fact that the composer died…
This Weekend: Entertainment Choices—and decisions—Abound
This week/weekend will be one of those that offers something for every one with an arts and/or music interest. Unfortunately, you may find yourself confronted with some painful choices and inescapable conflicts. Here is our rundown of events you may…
Review: William Shaub and Friends Make Sense of Beethoven’s Final String Quartet
BY ALAN SHERROD The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster Series with William Shaub has one more performance of “The Late Genius: Beethoven’s Final Days”, Thursday evening, April 6, at 7:00, at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Tickets and Information …
Review: Big Ears Magic-Shara Nova and the Knoxville Symphony in ‘The Blue Hour’
BY ALAN SHERROD As the 2023 Big Ears Festival was winding down on Sunday evening, a couple of performances by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra remained: violinist Tessa Lark performing Michael Schachter’s Violin Concerto: Cycle of Life, followed by vocalist…
Review: Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Journeys Through Higdon, Copland, Sibelius
BY ALAN SHERROD If you sat back, closed your eyes, and indulged your imagination for just a bit, it was entirely possible that the evening’s music could conjure up a vision of the blue hazy mountains of the Appalachians…
Review: ‘Men on Boats’ at Clarence Brown – Old History, New Perspective
BY ALAN SHERROD On its most basic level, the Jaclyn Backhaus play, Men on Boats, which opened Friday evening in the Lab Theatre of the Clarence Brown, is a retelling of the 1869 exploratory journey made by John Wesley…
