REVIEW: Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak & Firebird

Bushnell, Belding Theater, Hartford, CT 
www.hartfordsymphony.org
June 5-7, 2026 
by Michael J. Moran 

For the closing weekend of their 2025-2026 Masterworks series and of her 15th season as HSO Music Director, Carolyn Kuan led the orchestra in a phenomenally varied program by five composers, including an HSO premiere, and featuring an imaginative composer-violinist. 

The concert opened with a deeply moving account of 24-year-old Richard Strauss’ surprisingly mature 1888 tone poem “Death and Transfiguration.” Its vivid depiction of an artist’s illness, death, and, as the program notes, his “vision of ultimate beauty as he is transfigured into part of the eternal cosmos” was captured with unerring power and passion by an inspired orchestra and conductor.  

Photo credit: Jim Henkel's 

The mood then lifted with exuberant readings of three "Slavonic Dances," dating from 1878, by Antonin Dvorak. Each was followed by what composer Curtis Stewart called, in spoken remarks, “a riff on Dvorak,” honoring an abolitionist of Dvorak’s era by fusing his music with American slave dances. The most original of these exhilarating pieces was the third, honoring Elizabeth Freeman (“Mum Bett”), which mixes Dvorak with hip-hop and Brazilian samba rhythms and audience participation.     

Stewart, a widely travelled performer and music educator and the HSO’s 2025-2026 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence, next demonstrated his considerable chops as a violinist with an entertainingly personal take on Pablo de Sarasate’s popular 1878 “Zigeunerweisen” (“Gypsy Airs”) for violin and orchestra. Bending notes, extending tempos, and inserting humorous facial expressions and other gestures, but always in the spontaneous spirit of the music, Stewart kept the full house laughing with his technical wizardry and earned an enthusiastic standing ovation.   

A blazing rendition of Dvorak’s festive 1892 “Carnival Overture,” with a tender central interlude, was followed by the concert closer, an electrifying performance of the colorful 1919 suite which Igor Stravinsky drew from his breakout piece, the 1910 ballet “The Firebird,” based on a Russian folktale. Conductor and orchestra sharply characterized all six scenes in the suite, especially a lush “Round Dance of the Princesses,” a terrifying “Infernal Dance of King Kashchei,” and a memorably triumphant “Finale.”   

Next up for the HSO is their 2026 Talcott Mountain Music Festival on the five Fridays of July at 7:30pm at the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center starting July 3 with a program called “Celebrate America!”

Review: Barrington Stage Company, “Driving Miss Daisy”

Barrington Stage, Pittsfield, MA

www.barringtonstageco.org
May 26 – June 21, 2026
by Shera Cohen

Over the 26 years since Barrington Stage Company (BSC) began, most season openers have been big musicals; a strategic and smart choice as an audience draw.This summer of 2026 differs.

photo credit Roman Iwasiwka

“Driving Miss Daisy” is a small play with a few big messages. Essentially a comedic drama (dramady) with a cast of only three, it is the talents of the actors that can make or break the spirit of the story. Add the fourth vital player in the mix -- a tried ‘n true director – and what appears on stage are live characters, telling their story, in a quality production.

Set in 1948, Georgia, is spunky Jewish widow Daisy. Her trappings are upper-middle class, although she refuses to admit it. She is spunky and stubborn. At the start of the play, the world revolves around her. Enters an unwanted hire, who Daisy’s son insists on as Daisy’s driver. Apparently, the widow Daisy has had one too many car accidents. For good or bad, Hoak, a middle-aged, unemployed, African-American man gets the job. The plot becomes the developing relationship between these two disparate people.

Debra Jo Rupp, a frequent player at BSC, as well as one of the audience’s favorites, becomes Daisy, not so much in broad comedy strokes as she has depicted in other BSC plays, but subdued, befitting her character. For the most part, Rupp makes for an ideal Daisy. Even wearing a grey-haired wig, Rupp belies Daisy’s age as 72, and throughout the scenes she ages to 97, the audience must forgive the aging process asfiction. Rupp is too young and cute.

Ray Anthony Thomas, a newcomer to BSC as Hoke, comes with an impressive resume. Thomas effectively grows from Daisy’s chauffeur to become her friend. This is Daisy and Hoke’s play against a background of prejudice and racism in the U.S.

Matthew Korinko, as Daisy’s son, serves as the conduit between the other two characters. Boolie’s role doesn’t call for deep analysis.

“Daisy” especially benefits by the direction of BSC’s founder and artistic director of over 20 years, Julianne Boyd. Although now retired, Boyd keeps her creative mind and hand in a few productions this summer. It is assuring that she has not completely left the theatre that she created.

BSC’s St. Germaine Stage provides the intimacy for the acting trio, plus the caricaturized car -- front and center. The venue would offer plenty of stage space even for a much larger cast. A point, however, regards the division of the stage space in three equal sections: Daisy’s home, the automobile, and Boolie’s office. A recommendation would be to minimize the office portion. Scenes that take place here are not as important as those in the other two sections. There is no need for all spaces to be equal.

Effective videos and still black & white photographs tell the audience that years are passing. Immediately following “Driving Miss Daisy’s” run at BSC, it moves a bit up north in geography to Williamstown, MA from June 26 – July 5, 2026.

A personal note: In its first 11 years, BSC operated from rented space at a high school in Sheffield, MA. I remember seeing the world premiere of “The Putnam County 25^th Annual Spelling Bee” performed in the school’s band room. The composer and author sat directly in front of me. “Spelling Bee” went on to Tony Awards and other accolades on Broadway! How fortunate was I?!

REVIEW: Springfield Chamber Players, SCP Oboe Quartet

52 Sumner, Springfield, MA 
https://www.springfieldsymphonymusicians.com/
May 17, 2026 
by Michael J. Moran 

The “SCP Oboe Quartet” closed the Springfield Chamber Players’ second season at 52 Sumner with a typically stimulating and entertaining program of six chamber music selections, mixing old and new, familiar and less known repertoire. The acoustics of this former church are clear, warm, and spacious.

The quartet’s members are: Marsha Harbison, retiring Assistant Concertmaster of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra; SSO oboist and English horn player Karen Hosmer; SSO violist Dani Rimoni; and SSO cellist Boris Kogan. The concert, in honor of the late Dr. William Harbison, Marsha’s husband and an avid supporter of the SCP, drew a sizable and enthusiastic crowd. 

The concert opened with an elegant performance of German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann’s four-movement “Trio Sonata in a Minor.” Next came a century-and-a-half leap forward to the best-known work on the program, Mozart’s cheerful three-movement 1781 “Oboe Quartet in F Major.” The ensemble gave it a sprightly turn, with Hosmer displaying greater virtuosity in the first and last movements than the oboe’s design allowed in Telemann’s time. 

The strings then turned in lively readings of two movements from Beethoven’s early (1797) six-movement “Serenade in D Major, Op. 8:” a charming opening (and closing) march; and an affectionate Polish dance. This was followed by a moving account of Brett L. Wery’s dramatic 8-minute “Passage of Orpheus for English Horn and String Trio.” Depicting Orpheus’s rescue and loss of his lover Eurydice in the underworld, it features soulful work by Hosmer (who is also Wery’s wife) portraying Eurydice alone on the English horn, a slightly larger and darker version of the oboe. 

The concert continued with a bracing rendition of French composer Jean Francaix’s jazzy 1971 “Quartet for English Horn and String Trio.” The three movements exuded alternately bustling and quiet corners of daily life in contemporary Paris. The afternoon ended with a novelty by George Gershwin, “Promenade: Walking the Dog,” in which Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire walk a dog on board a luxury liner in the 1937 film “Shall We Dance?” The ensemble took it for an aptly jaunty spin. 
  
Engaging comments before each piece by Harbison or Hosmer made up for the lack of program notes, and the Players commendably save paper by making a program list and performer bios easily accessible via QR code. 

REVIEW: Springfield Symphony Orchestra, “Brahms and a Modern Voice”

Symphony Hall, Springfield, MA 

https://www.springfieldsymphony.org/

May 2, 2026 

by Michael J. Moran 

The SSO’s season finale, sponsored by the Harbison family in memory of amateur violist and SSO supporter William “Bill” Harbison, who died earlier this year, began by honoring his wife Marsha Harbison, retiring as SSO Assistant Concertmaster after 49 years in the orchestra. She told several short anecdotes about Bill, one involving a piece on today’s program, which set a warm, welcoming tone for the large house at this concert. 

Guest conductor Courtney Lewis, Music Director of the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony, opened the program with the first of three suites of “Ancient Airs and Dances,” arranged for modern orchestra by Ottorino Respighi from lute pieces of early Italian and French composers. Lewis led the SSO in sparkling accounts of a stately “Balletto” (Molinaro), graceful “Gagliarda” (Galilei), charming “Villanella,” and lively “Passo mezzo e Mascherada” (both anonymous). 

Photo Credit Silver Photography

Next, American violinist Charles Yang was a brilliant soloist in the concerto “For a Younger Self,” which film composer Kris Bowers wrote for Yang in 2019-2020. Bowers’ musical story-telling skills (he also wrote the score for the series “Bridgerton”) were well suited to Yang’s rock star personality and flamboyant performance style. 

 

Following Bowers’ instructions, Yang expressed the “chaos and anxiety” of the young artist in the “Moderato ma non troppo,” “gently” navigated the quiet “Larghetto,” and dispatched the “Presto” finale “with [the] ease and confidence” of a mature artist. Lewis and the orchestra were agile accompanists. 

A standing ovation brought Yang back to perform what he called “an unscripted, improvised” encore, playing and singing Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” with dazzling rhythm and blues chops. 

The program closed with a powerful rendition of Johannes Brahms’ 1877 second symphony. A dramatic “Allegro non troppo,” a serene “Adagio non troppo” (where the cellos played their opening passage “with love,” in Marsha Harbison’s words), and a lilting “Allegretto grazioso” led to an outburst of joy in the closing “Allegro con spirito.” With perfectly judged tempos in all four movements, Lewis may have surpassed even his impressive SSO debut on short notice last year, drawing inspired playing from all sections of the supercharged ensemble. The enthusiastic audience would clearly welcome more return visits by this dynamic conductor. 

The SSO will next present a Juneteenth concert on June 19.

Preview: Author Talk, A Biography of Eleanor Powell, Springfield Native

Thursday, May 28, 2026, 7pm-8:30pm

Hope Center for the Arts

150 Bridge St., Springfield MA

FREE, open to the public!

Lisa Royere, co-author of a biography of of Eleanor Powell

will speak and show a video on her book.

Watch on YouTube

Review: The Bushnell “& Juliet”

The Bushnell, Hartford, CT

www.bushnell.org

through May 10, 2026 

By Geoff and Linda O’Connell

Early in the bold musical “& Juliet,” the character William Shakespeare declares he can navigate his wife Anne’s demand that she rewrite his classic love story. “Where there’s a Will, there’s a way,” he says, emphasizing the pun. That assertion emerges as the theme as all the characters find the will to redefine themselves and chart their destinies. 

Perhaps the greatest will of all was exerted by the book’s writer David West Read, who disrupted the plot – and even subplots – of “Romeo & Juliet,” using a bucketful of the Bard’s tricks: surprise, slapstick, word play, genderbending. Read did all this while improbably, but dazzlingly, interweaving the dialogue to connect 30 of the biggest selling pop songs of the 1990's composed by Max Martin, who has produced more #1 hits for the American market than all comers except Paul McCartney.

Some critics have dismissed this kind of mash-up of dialogue with pre-existing songs as a “jukebox” musical. Director Luke Sheppard and his team acknowledge the criticism from the get-go, placing a glitzy jukebox near center stage. Then, the real fun begins.

Cast members appear one by one, smiling, dancing, waving at audience members and “breaking the fourth wall” by sitting on the edge of the stage and interacting with patrons, not as characters but as friendly actors. 

The fourth wall stays permeable with the arrival of real-life boy-band superstar Joey Fantone of ‘NSync. Fantone is there to play a character in the musical, who is welcomed loudly by adoring fans of his previous incarnation. Fantone portrays his character Lance with Falstaffian verve and sly nods to his status as a former teenage sex symbol. Fantone still has his signature moves but can parody them deftly as well.

CJ Eldred slides in and out of this “fourth wall” while playing Shakespeare; and Crystal Kellogg, as his wife, courses over multiple planes of reality.

More lines cross with Costume Designer Paloma Young’s mixing Elizabethan wear with 1990's concertgoer aesthetic. Scenic Designer Soutra Gilmour smushes eras – a DJ booth at a Renaissance ball! Lighting Designer Howard Hudson and Video Designer Andrzej Goulding join the team with clever scrims and other devices to conjure up Verona and Paris, boudoir and ballroom. Confetti bombs and pyrotechnics make it a party.

And what a party it is when Fantone’s character gets the family band back together. The Elizabethans break into “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” as the fourth wall comes tumbling down. Jennifer Webber’s high voltage, pulse-pounding choreography surges around the stage captivating audience members to dance, sing, and ecstatically scream along.

The musical is a remarkable ensemble cast with strong belting voices all around. High, sustained notes have particularly become a key benchmark in ranking pop divas. 

The scenic design features a three-dimensional logo that morphs from “Romeo & Juliet” to “& Juliet.” It raises and answers the question that Anne put to her playwright husband: “Are you a strong enough man to write a stronger woman?” Read channels the Bard of Avon to tell a complex, often funny, sometimes bittersweet tale of humans struggling to see who they are. All the world’s a stage.

Review: WAM Theatre, "Rooted"

Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA 
www.wamtheatre.com
through May 16, 2026
by Jarice Hanson 
  
When walking into the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, audiences may wonder whether a show can live up to a scenic design so intricate and so creatively rendered. 
 
There are plenty of clues to what this enigmatically named play, Rooted, could possibly mean. Branches hang from the theatre ceiling and living plants onstage all establish that this production is set in a well-loved treehouse, somewhere in a rural area. When meeting Emery, talking into her laptop and demonstrating her experiments by dropping plants, the mystery of the play’s name begins to unfold. 
  
Rooted, by the highly original playwright, Deborah Zoe Laufer, works by creating metaphors that don’t provide answers—but they do raise possibilities.  Emery (Marcy McGuigan) looks like a seasoned gardener. It takes a few minutes to realize she’s talking to her fans on her YouTube channel. She considers herself a scientist, but her fans consider her a cult-like personality who holds the secret to life itself. 
 

Photo Credit: WAM Theatre

Her sister, a waitress at the only restaurant in town, Hazel (Jennie M. Jadow) climbs up through a trap door to deliver food, and the necessities Emery needs while squirreled away in her tree house with her plants. Soon it becomes apparent that Emery’s followers have come to the treehouse to hear her words of wisdom, but Hazel thinks it would be much better if Emery abandoned her “science” and came back to the real world below. 
 
When they are joined by the third character, Luanne (Mei MacQuarrie), a new set of circumstances begin to unfold and the audience is left to figure out how these women connect, and how their different beliefs influence how they make sense of the world inside the treehouse and outside in the rest of the world.  
  
There is much to praise in this highly original production. The three actresses are outstanding and have done the playwright proud by demonstrating these complex characters.
 
Director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill has a wonderful eye for bringing out the comedy in the script and she keeps the pacing lively and visually interesting (a major accomplishment since the playing space inside the treehouse is limited). Nora Marlow Smith’s scenic design is outstanding and should be nominated for a Berkie Award this year, and David Lane’s use of puppetry adds to the wonders raised by the details of the set. Madeleine Hebert’s lighting design is subtle and effective, and Jane Shaw’s sound design adds whimsy and a contemporary feeling that helps create the total environment. Stella Schwartz’s costumes are perfect for an audience looking for clues to a character’s backstory.   
  
This is the type of play in which the audience participates (silently) to find the meaning. There are moments of wonder about the kind of celebrity a YouTube Content Creator cultivates, what brings people together at certain times in social life, and the role of nature as having healing power. Many more contemporary issues are hinted at, and the audience is free to interpret at their will.   
  
As WAM’s first mainstage production of the season, Rooted anchors a season of powerful plays by-and-with powerful women, that have meaning for all.