Chicago From September 2014

Our first selection “Sing Sing Sing” re-visit a Krupa classic known as the “killer driller” when the great showman drummer stole the show from his band leader, Benny Goodman at the historic Carnegie Hall concert of 1938. For this particular version recorded in New York 1954 we hear Krupa alongside Eddie Shu on clarinet and Teddy Napoleon on piano for a fine ten minute workout! Nice! Our next selection “Gene Krupa Quartet” finds Krupa in a “first” as this is his first recording as a Quartet. Recorded in New York and Los Angeles in 1954 and 1955 he is joined again by Eddie Shu and Bobby Scott with Milt Hinton on bass in L.A. and John Drew on bass in New York…

“If we weep from emotion on hearing it, it’s nothing to be ashamed of” Richard Wagner on Bellini’s most famous opera Norma, the most successful work by the last and greatest composer of bel canto. This new production of Norma, directed by Grammy Award-nominated opera, theatre and film director Kevin Newbury and starring Sondra Radvanovsky as a “powerful, elegant” Norma (New York Times) and Gregory Kunde as Pollione, is “something very special. The word ‘historic’ is used perhaps a little too often but tonight there really is no other adjective to describe the sensational performances offered to us by Sondra Radvanovsky and Gregory unde.” (operatraveller.com)