This one from Tom Purdom, in the Broad Street Review. It’s another wonderful review; enjoy the excerpts below and read the whole thing, if nothing else for the truly inspired last line. No, we will not give the spoiler here.
For its first early music concert, Lyric Fest joined forces with an early music expert, Matthew Glandorf of Choral Arts Philadelphia. The result was an entertaining survey of Medieval and Renaissance songs devoted to sex, nature and the delights of the alehouse.
Glandorf opened the afternoon with a combination of music and showmanship that exploited the comfortable size of Lyric Fest’s new Center City venue, the compact Helen Corning Warden Theater at the Academy of Vocal Arts. […]
Glandorf’s troops bounced through their interacting lines with the high spirits of acrobats communicating their joie de vivre by turning cartwheels and back flips. […]
The program also included a stunning new work by Mark Rimple, who served as lutenist for the occasion. Rimple’s Nouveau Chansons des Oiseauxfollowed a 16th-Century Chants des Oiseaux, and the juxtaposition provided a striking lesson in the development of our attitudes toward the natural world. […]
Soprano Leslie Johnson provided one of the afternoon’s most arresting interludes […]
Mezzo Maren Montalbano added color and personal liveliness; bass Colin Dill contributed a pleasingly unforced masculinity; and tenor Steven Bradshaw spanned a broad range with a knowledgeable feel for the nuances of period music. They’re all notably expressive vocalists. […]
A Lyric Fest regular, actor Jim Bergwall, set the scene with well-chosen recitals from Chaucer, Shakespeare and other appropriate wordsmiths. […]