Creditors (August Strindberg)

After seeing Donmar Warehouse's excellent production of Red, I keenly anticipated seeing Donmar's production of Strindberg's seldom performed play, Creditors. By using a new translation stripped of the archaisms of older translations, Alan Rickman directed a play that felt timeless without being contemporary. Motives and emotions are stripped bare, and the audience--in its role as voyeur--becomes as complicit in the betrayals and destructions as the characters.

Highly Recommend.

Battle of Black and Dogs (Bernard-Marie Koltes)

Overwhelming production of a powerful, overwhelming play.

Recommend with caveats.

Wall Street Chamber Players

Gallo's Trio Sonata in G major
Vivaldi's Concerto for Flute, Violin and Cello in g minor
Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in a minor, Op 50

Art (Yasmina Reza)

Generally associated with their Shakespeare in the Park productions, Elm Shakespeare has added this fine production of Yasmina Reza's Art to its repertoire. The production gans particular resonance with its performance in a small art gallery in New Haven's Westville neighborhood. We saw its final performance, played before a sold-out crowd.

The acting was very good, not at all forced or stiff, probably because the space was so easy to fill.

Recommend.

New Haven Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven's 6th and 5th Symphonies, as well as Jin Hi Kim's Monk Dance (2007).

Recommend.

Wall Street Chamber Players

Piano Trio No. 39 in G Major (1795), Joseph Haydn
Divertimento in E for Flute and String Quartet (2002), Andrey Rubtsov
Quintet for Piano and Strings in F minor (1878), Cesar Franck

Orchestra New England

Featured premier of Mark Cuss's Concertino for Viola (2010), as well as performances of Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat (1917) and Joseph Russo's Changes (2010).

Recommend.