The performance was was an amazing feat! The orchestra was excellent, with many outstanding solos, the vocal soloists were truly magnificent and came through the noise even at its loudest. The huge chorus was very well prepared and exciting. I’m sure they were singing what was on their music, although it was impossible to tell since much of the time it seemed to the auditor that each singer was singing a different part in different keys and different rhythms. Much of the time the choral and orehestra together sounded like Times Square at midnight on December 31., crowd noises with insistent percussion sounds It was such a relief when at the end of Act 3 and the end of the marathon we finally heard an orchestral and choral chord.
In short, this is a tough ride for the listener looking for music, but an amazing show!

Wonderfully rich and excellent. The integration of Bach and Tango was provocative and rwevealing! I would love to hear more of them. Hope they can come again!!

The two women’s roles were truly outstanding. with lush voices and exquisite control and dynamics used perfectly to express the emotions needed at the time. The Bass Baritone was even more effective in dramatizing his emotions, and was vocally stunning. I’, not a fan of pants roles, but she had the flashiest aria, of the afternoon and did it spectacularlly- vocal fireworks!
Finally, Radamisto: I don’t love countertenor voices, but he was the best I’ve heard. The milissmas were astounding be every singer. All in all, a remarkable production
Rob Northrup

What an amazing evening. The breadth and scommand of each of the genres was astonishingbut the jazz took my heart, Just fabulous

Rob Northrup

Clearly nature was telling us to pay attention to the Andersen aProject. We had a powerful experience getting to the Power center, and an equal or even more powerful experience in the theater. How can anyone oppose this enchanting and moving argument for theater which is hard to pigeonhole in our usual designations. Bravo Renegades!!

The musicians all were highly skillful, , but the performance was off-putting, from the unprofessional clothing of some of the band members, to the almost canned feeling of much of the playing despite the great chops (“Listen to me, I can play more notes than you can”, and finally the overwhelming level of amplification. The man next to me had his fingers in his ears most of the time. Instead of making me want to stand up and dance, it all seemed designed to make me run away.
So I did, at intermission, and went to the Earle for a glass of wine and a jazz trio that played with their brains, rather than with the knob on the amplifier..

Cloud Gate demanded of me a different mode of appreciation and understanding. How does one “understand” a cloud, its movements, its tempo, its changing colors? i felt the same challenge to my cognitive self — and soon realized that that self was the wrong way to appreciate this presentation. What was needed was the approach to appreciating a sunset, a rising thunderstorm, a view of waves coming across a lake. I gained a new perspective on dance through this remarkable performance.

And how eloquent is its creator!!!

Rob Northrup

ahmad Jamal was a surprise and a puzzle. His amazing virtuosity was awesome, and the quartet was masterful, creating ever-changing environments of sound and rhythm.

but I found myself frequently baffled. Although the quartet clearly knew where a piece was in its progress, I found it nearly impossible to define where they were in the piece. With no tune definable to my ear, almost no repetition to allow defining whether we were in the A section or B section or wherever, I found my ear and mind adrift, adrift in a beautiful kaleidoscopic haze, watching the images move by likemagically changing sets sailing by on the shore.
Wonderful, but puzzling. Guess I need training in modern jazz structure.

What a STUNNING (pun intended!!)performance. With the murders done NOT off stage, NOT somewhere else, NOT merely reported, suddenly we see — in progress — all the bloodshed and violence that this brilliant sociopath strew about himself as he clawed and killed his way to the crown. While the director described the white coats as consistent with a hospital, I felt I was back in the abbatoir of the earlier play he described. Except the meat was inside body bags, not hanging from hooks.
The drastic cutting of the book for this version was brilliantly effective at focusing the audience squarely at the horror of what Richard had done. The incredible energy of the actors, and that slight smile from time to time on the actors’ faces, kept us as a bit of distance from the characters, much more than in the original, so that the point was painfully clear. The most upsetting Richard III I have ever seen!! Powerful!!
Rob Northrup

The Glass was quite wonderful — enough repetition to be sure we knew it was Glass, but just the right amount so that we could enjoy the changes, the sequences, the excitement of the performance. McDuffie's playing in both pieces was exemplary – his technique is impressive, and his movements — almost dancing — engaged us all

My wife and I were quite overwhelmed by this powerful and provocative performance. I felt as if I had personally traveled – and travailed – the millions of years from the awakening of man to early civilization to destructive and bloody so-called civilization, to religion and a sense of a structure surrounding life and humankind, to a final glorious dawn of a new day, a new paradigm. The music was quite wonderful in tracing a similar development, moving from formless shakings and low noises to atonal and arrhythmic sequences of individual notes, to early rhythm and two note chords, to three and more note chords, ultimately to a triumphal near symphonic end. I was carried forward both emotionally and vusually, at one point even feeling a sense of danger and claustrophobia. Truly a remarkable and unforgettable experience: so much more than just an amazing dance performance.

A grey and decidedly cool Saturday afternoon was perfect — we felt we were in
Scotland, along with some of the players and speakers. I fwelt as if I was in a poem, where the metaphors were somehow come alive. The crspness of the musical interludessharpened my interpretation of them and how they became part of the action of the drama.That feeling at first, Who are these people?? – was inexorably shifted to understanding and appreciation as we met and remet the actors — or more accurately,re-met their words.
All, it was a magical piece. I often prefer to have my own imagination engaged, rather than being given a more realistic real figure. The mystery hightens the appreciation.