San Diego Story – Page 453 – Reviews and Views of theater, music, dance and art in San Diego

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San Diego Master Chorale & Jahja Ling Celebrate Haydn

By Ken Herman | December 6, 2014 |

During Jahja Ling’s tenure as San Diego Symphony Music Director, we have come to expect a major choral work in December such as Handel’s “Messiah” and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Happily, the maestro ignored that stale tradition and with the San Diego Master Chorale offered Haydn’s magnificent “Mass in Time of War,” also known by its German name “Paukenmesse” . . .

Good ‘Nutcracker’ Nothing to Be Scared Of

By Martin Jones Westlin | December 4, 2014 |

A fallen hero’s sword is an object of grief for the man’s mother — but little could she have known that the weapon was one key to no less than preserving Christmas for the world. If you want more, you’ll just have to go see New Village Arts’ turn at ‘The Nutcracker’ and watch the Rats get theirs.

An Evening with Capote

By David Dixon | November 30, 2014 |

Truman Capote was one of the few American authors who was equally famous for being a controversial celebrity. Openly gay and unafraid to take risks with his work, Truman was an anomaly whose most famous stories such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood are, to this day, still classics. His grand life is examined in the Diversionary Theatres’ production of the one-man show, Tru. The monodrama opens a week before Christmas 1975, as Truman (Todd Blakesley) spends time in his Manhattan apartment. A few minutes into the show, Truman tells the audience that an excerpt of an unfinished…

Precious and Provocative Chamber Music by Art of Elan

By Ken Herman | November 27, 2014 |

Art of Élan offered Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s clever 2011 “Entracte” for string quartet and a raft of mellifluous French chamber music to their Tuesday (November 25) program at the San Diego Museum of Art . . .