If you ask a hundred opera lovers why they are drawn to the art form, you’re likely to get a hundred different answers. After all, it is essentially an unanswerable question. While all arts appeal to individuals in distinctly particular…
Review: CBT’s ‘Blue Window’ Explores the Simplicity and Complexity of Everyday Lives
A focus on the ensemble has been a defining—and satisfying—characteristic of the Clarence Brown Theatre season so far—and it continues on that course with Craig Lucas’ Blue Window in the Lab Theatre of CBT. This vehicle, though, is a bit…
Review: UT Symphony Continues Its Amazing Journey With Shostakovich 10th
There’s a lot of audience talk going around these days regarding the rapid ascent of the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra this season into the lofty ranks of the best music school orchestras in the U.S. At this past Sunday’s…
Knoxville Opera Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary with a Gala Concert
A 40th birthday is looked on by most as an unfortunate, but inevitable, milestone—particularly if you happen to be 39. Outside of the human context, though, 40 years is a mark of admirable longevity. For example, the original Star Wars,…
Review: KSO’s ‘Red, Hot, & Bolero’ – A Feast for the Eyes and Ears
Every symphony concert is like a bubbling cauldron of ingredients, a mixture of music, performers, and performances that takes on a dynamic life of its own. Add or remove one ingredient, or alter the mixture’s balance, and something new emerges.…
This Weekend: An Overwhelming Diversity of Events
Gospel music, opera, Agatha Christie, Ravel, Shostakovich, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Opera, horror films, documentaries, home movies, Appalachian Ballet — oh my. For at least 10 years, we’ve been predicting a time would come in Knoxville’s surging arts and…
‘The Mousetrap’ at Theatre Knoxville Downtown
It is said that novelist and playwright Agatha Christie always became quite angry when reviewers would reveal the plot, and possibly even the surprise endings, of her mystery works. To keep the spirit of Christie at bay, I shall not…
Review: Into the Woods with Flying Anvil Theatre’s ‘The Love Talker’
The hypnotic drone of cicadas smoothed over by a warm Appalachian mountain breeze; sun-dappled fields of tall grass that give way to dark, forbidding woods; a simple cabin of rough-hewn boards inhabited by two sisters at the mercy of their…
New Faces in the KSO — 2017 Edition
There was a time when American symphony orchestras had the reputation for stubbornly resisting change, entities that embraced neither innovation nor diversity in their ranks. However, the last 25 or 30 years have brought miraculous changes to the makeup of…
Review – Marble City Opera Explores Human Communication in ‘The Telephone’ and ‘The Human Voice’
Human communication via the telephone—both the attempt and the psychological result—was the broad premise of Marble City Opera’s compelling productions this weekend at the Square Room via two one act operas, The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti and The Human…
