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MOST THEATERS IN ATLANTA remain dark due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the Atlanta Opera has reimagined its 2020-21 season as an outdoor event presented underneath a gigantic circus tent. Executive and artistic director Tomer Zvulun pivoted toward small-scale operas and concerts, short in duration and well-suited to the circus-style venue. On October 22, AO opened [...]

Guest violinist Blake Pouliot and guest conductor Thomas Søndergård inspired the Thursday night audience at Symphony Hall to applaud between movements. (Photo by Jeff Roffman) Review: Violinist Blake Pouliot wows audience with ASO debut playing Sibelius STEPHANIE ADRIANFEBRUARY 21, 2020 If Finnish composer Jean Sibelius were alive today you might find him perusing the self-help [...]

ON MARCH 7, Atlanta Opera offered the local premiere of Francesca Zambello’s staging of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, first seen at The Glimmerglass Festival in 2017. The set, a corroded, two-tiered tenement house on Catfish Row was a stark contrast to the most recent Atlanta production, staged by Larry Marshall in 2011, which utilized a multitude [...]

TOMER ZVULUN’S NEW ATLANTA OPERA production of Salome, which opened at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on January 25, was a gamble for the company to be sure—it represented a sizable financial investment in the creative powers of scenic designer Erhard Rom, costume designer Mattie Ulrich, and choreographer Amir Levy. Based on the opening night performance [...]

Yoel Levi returned to Atlanta Wednesday night to guest conduct the orchestra he once led. (Photos by Jeff Roffman) MARCH 13, 2020 Concert seasons are planned far in advance and when the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced that violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman would be playing Max Bruch’s most famous violin concerto at Symphony Hall on March 11, 2020, [...]

Jermaine Smith as Sportin’ Life and Talise Trevigne as Bess are part of a standout cast in The Atlanta Opera's "Porgy and Bess." (Photos by Rafterman Photography) MARCH 10, 2020 Travel on SC Highway 171 south from Charleston for about eight miles and you’ll arrive at Folly Beach, a simple seaside town with a lighthouse [...]

Guest conductor Thomas Søndergård returned for the second straight week to lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. (Photos by Jeff Roffman) FEBRUARY 28, 2020 When solar winds convey charged particles from the sun, they collide with gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere and create a natural wonder, the Aurora Borealis. These dancing lights in the sky, milky-white [...]

Guest conductor Karina Canellakis led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with grace and skill Thursday night, receiving at least three curtain calls. (Photos by Jeff Roffman) JANUARY 31, 2020 Robert Spano announced exactly two years ago that he’ll soon step down as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s music director.The New York Times calls him the man who made the ASO “a force [...]

Snellville native Jennifer Holloway (right) brings dimension to the controversial character of Salome. (Photos by Rafterman Photography) JANUARY 28, 2020 “Two souls with but one nasty thought; two pens that drool as one” wrote New York critic W.J. Henderson in 1907, finding Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss well matched when it came to the play [...]

IN CELEBRATION OF ITS FORTIETH anniversary season, Atlanta Opera kicked off its Discoveries series with Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s Frida at the newly-minted Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center (seen Oct. 5). Frida had its premiere at Philadelphia’s Atlanta Music Festival in 1991 and was named by TheNew York Times as “Best Opera/Musical of 1991,” but subsequent performances in the U.S. were few and [...]