Over the last week, we’ve taken a look back at 2018 and its memorable music performances, as well as the enlightening Top Ten lists from film critics Andrew Swafford and Reid Ramsey. But what stories and reviews have Arts Knoxville readers found interesting and intriguing? Read on—I think you may find some surprises.
Here are the Top Ten most-read stories on Arts Knoxville for 2018 based on readership figures.
No. 10: UT Opera Theatre Reviews – Middlemarch in Spring and The Secret Gardener
In what has to be one of the strangest coincidences possible, the reviews of the two UT Opera Theatre productions in 2018—Middlemarch in Spring from last April and Mozart’s The Secret Gardener from November—received an identical number of readers. Hmm?
“…one couldn’t help feeling the parallels between the current real world efforts and composer Allen Shearer and librettist Claudia Stevens’ narrative, a well-crafted poetic storyline which is an extraction from George Eliot’s great 1872 novel Middlemarch.”
Review: UT Opera Theatre Makes Gender Equality a Compelling Subject in ‘Middlemarch in Spring’
“La finta giardiniera’s [The Secret Gardener] musical sparkle can almost allow one to ignore the reality that the opera’s libretto is amusingly and unbelievably convoluted, one that strangely vacillates between comedy, mock-seriousness, and violence.”
Review: UT Opera Theatre’s Colorful ‘The Secret Gardener’
No. 9: Review: Symphony of Voices Make Their Debut on Knoxville’s Choral Music Scene
“…In this atmosphere of arts growth, new theatre and music groups have emerged onto the local scene, representing thresholds being crossed for the first time and creative niches being filled. One such group is Symphony of Voices, an 11-member professional choral ensemble independent of any umbrella organization, that is seeking to fill what is, admittedly, a void in Knoxville’s music scene.”
Review: Symphony of Voices Make Their Debut on Knoxville’s Choral Music Scene
No. 8: Review: Tennessee Valley Players Go Into The Woods
“The Tennessee Valley Players current production in the Carousel Theatre of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lepine musical, Into the Woods, is a perfect example of just how this abstraction can work brilliantly with a little imagination.”
Review: Tennessee Valley Players Go ‘Into The Woods’
No. 7: Review: Clarence Brown Theatre’s Urinetown, the Musical
“…As the audience arrived for the opening night of the Clarence Brown Theatre’s production of Urinetown, the Musical, they had to pass by the theatre’s new and still under-construction restroom facilities that sported a subtle signage tie-in to Urinetown over its unfinished doorways. Catching the visual reference, while not essential for enjoying this supremely entertaining and exhilarating production, certainly made the point that comic satire and parody were to be a goal of the evening. As that audience soon learned, satire and parody were just the beginning…”
Review: Clarence Brown Theatre’s Urinetown, the Musical
No. 6: Review: Violinist Bollinger Awes Audience In Tchaikovsky as KSO Triumphs in Shostakovich Fifth
“While Tchaikovsky must bear a lot of the blame for this quasi-rapture, he was assisted on this occasion by violinist Robyn Bollinger who, frankly, stunned the audience with an inarguably brilliant performance.”
“Demirjian chose the Symphony No. 5 of Dmitri Shostakovich and led the orchestra in a performance that was one of the most compelling and accomplished of the year so far.”
Review: Violinist Bollinger Awes Audience In Tchaikovsky as KSO Triumphs in Shostakovich Fifth
No. 5: Review: Knoxville Opera Wraps Its 40th Season With A Superb Aida
“…the challenge for any company staging Aida is to satisfy the desire for a spectacle without allowing scale to overwhelm the musical and dramatic narrative, a narrative that is essentially a fairly simple operatic love triangle. Was the challenge met? Yes, resoundingly and thrillingly so, thanks to some exceptional casting and the extremely successful integration of a large set populated with a legion of 175 chorus members, dancers, extras, onstage trumpeters, offstage instrumentalists, and a full Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in the pit under the direction of Maestro Brian Salesky.”
Review: Knoxville Opera Wraps Its 40th Season With A Superb Aida
No. 4: Review: KSO Indulges in a Lusty Carmina Burana
“…the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and maestro Aram Demirjian found no reason to over-complicate Carmina Burana with scenic distractions, and, as a result, found a perfectly convincing, and exciting, balance of theatricality, drama, and music. Along with the Knoxville Choral Society and soloists (soprano Lindsay Russell, bass-baritone Daniel Johnson-Webb, and tenor Andrew Skoog), the KSO performance put the spotlight on what is important in the piece: a relatively simple musical language that wallows in the indulgent fantasies of spring, charms and satisfies the listener musically, and supports the bawdy and poetic spirit of the Medieval texts.”
Review: KSO Indulges in a Lusty Carmina Burana
No. 3: Review: CBT/KSO’s Candide – The Best of Dazzling Possibilities
“…In the season opener for both organizations, the Clarence Brown Theatre and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra have thrown their hat into the Candide ring with a joint production that feels like the best of all possible solutions to the work’s narrative challenges. Their concept has the 37-member orchestra and conductor onstage with the singer/actors in staging that seems to tumble out into the audience, thereby creating a fascinating blend of theatre-music and music-theatre that is sonically superb and visually satisfying—a production that deliciously shatters the theatrical “fourth wall.”
Review: CBT/KSO’s Candide – The Best of Dazzling Possibilities
No. 2: Review: Spectacle Abounds in Knoxville Opera’s Turandot
“…Last produced by the company in October 2003, the work virtually cries out for lavish spectacle, given its exotic setting of the Imperial Palace of ancient China and its requirement for a full chorus and a massive assortment of brightly costumed extras in the form of mandarins, palace guards, handmaids, soldiers, and all manner of imperial subjects. This weekend’s KO production of Turandot brought all that to an audience obviously hungry for great voices and great music amidst a superb onslaught of color, pageantry, and sparkle.”
Review: Spectacle Abounds in Knoxville Opera’s Turandot
No. 1: Big Ears 2018 – Q&A With Diamanda Galás
(By Eric Dawson)
“A Diamanda Galás performance is unlike any other performance you’ll ever see — even unlike other Diamanda Galás performances. Since the 1970s the singer has been stunning—and occasionally shocking—audiences with her uncanny vocalizations and theatrical stage presence.”
Big Ears 2018 – Q&A With Diamanda Galás
A big thanks to all the readers of Arts Knoxville—Best wishes for a Happy 2019!
