RADIO RHAPSODY "Performed by the City of London Sinfonia at London's Barbican, "Radio Rhapsody" is one of the most entertaining evenings I've ever spent in a concert hall." - Tim Ashley. The Guardian/ Observer
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Headline: Tales of the Tap-dancing Detective""Radio Rhapsody" -- compiled and written by director Denise Lanctot Balle -- and has already done the rounds of America's orchestras. For this hilarious entertainment's first UK showing, under the baton of the conductor who commissioned it, Marin Alsop, some of London theatre land's top performer recreated the feel of a live radio broadcast in the mid-thirties. Henry Goodman played ...- The Daily Telegraph (London)
The highlight was Lanctot's (Balle's) "Lulu Pinkerton, Dime Detective" a clever spin on the sort of radio serial that was the rage as the time. It was a nail-biting tale of tap-dancing, Morse code and bootleggers." - Matthew Rye, The Daily Telegraph (London) |
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"Denise Lanctot's (Balle's) two-hour extravaganza, which was commissioned by conductor Marin Alsop ... uses musical arrangements that bandleader Paul Whitman's bank played on American radio back in the 1930's." London Independent
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The Guardian/headline: "Lulu and The Dead Floozie"
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"Reviewer Tim Ashley is thrilled by a celebration of radio's golden age ... "Radio Rhapsody, a quirky by Denise Lanctot."
"If you came across a woman got up in a gumshoe's mac and tribly and a bloke in high heels, you'd probably assume they'd strayed from a cross-dressing party. Not on this occasion, however. The woman is Lulu Pinkerton ("tap-dancer by day, gumshoe by night"), a female detective, in a fictional 1930s American radio series. The chap is a sound-effects guy, clattering his feet on planks as our intrepid heroine totters through San Francisco. They both feature in a quirky show called "Radio Rhapsody" the brainchild of writer/director Denise Lanctot (Balle) and conductor (and Bernstein pupil) Marin Alsop."
"Performed by the City of London Sinfonia at London's Barbican, "Radio Rhapsody" is one of the most entertaining evenings I've ever spent in a concert hall." - Tim Ashley. The Guardian/ Observer
"If you came across a woman got up in a gumshoe's mac and tribly and a bloke in high heels, you'd probably assume they'd strayed from a cross-dressing party. Not on this occasion, however. The woman is Lulu Pinkerton ("tap-dancer by day, gumshoe by night"), a female detective, in a fictional 1930s American radio series. The chap is a sound-effects guy, clattering his feet on planks as our intrepid heroine totters through San Francisco. They both feature in a quirky show called "Radio Rhapsody" the brainchild of writer/director Denise Lanctot (Balle) and conductor (and Bernstein pupil) Marin Alsop."
"Performed by the City of London Sinfonia at London's Barbican, "Radio Rhapsody" is one of the most entertaining evenings I've ever spent in a concert hall." - Tim Ashley. The Guardian/ Observer
RAVEL - A MUSICAL JOURNEY
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RAVEL: A MUSICAL JOURNEY by writer-director Didi Balle premiered by The New World Symphony, Stéphane Denéve, Conductor at New World Center in Miami, FL on April 14, 2018.
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"Playwright-director Didi Balle's intelligently conceived "Maurice Ravel: A Musical Journey" is a nearly flawless fusion of musical biography and theater created for and premiered by Stéphane Denève and the New World Symphony." _ L. Budmen, Classical Review
THE ARTFUL TITANS
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In "The Artful Titans" sparks flew between the characters on stage ...Philadelphia Orchestra's principal guest conductor, Stéphane Denève, in light narration and playwright Didi Balle through her engaging dramatic script and direction argued for parallels: Two progressive firebrands each with his own take on populism, with a time and a city in common. Albert C. Barnes made his first collecting move in 1912, the same year Leopold Stokowski began curating a special orchestral sound that would endure for decades." _ Peter Drobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer |
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Didi Balle is the imaginative playwright and director of "The Artful Titans" who wove the story of the culture-shaping encounters between Barnes and Stokowski throughout The Philadelphia Orchestra's two-week concert festival. The theatrical component, along with the music, was pure delight and finessed with humor and wit. She developed the concert-drama as a new genre called Symphonic Plays and has received a dozen recent commissions from symphony orchestras."
LL Holt, Broad Street Review, Philadelphia |
THE RACHMANINOFF TRILOGY
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The Rachmaninoff Trilogy by writer-director Didi Balle consists of three Symphonic Plays performed over three consecutive evenings at Verizon Hall on April 27, 28 and 29, 2017.
The Rachmaninoff Trilogy will feature Principal Guest Conductor Stéphane Denève and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra sharing the stage with a cast of professional actors portraying Rachmaninoff and seminal figures in his early life in Russia and members of the renowned Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1920s and 1930s. Read press release HERE. |
TCHAIKOVSKY: Mad But For Music
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"Didi Balle adds another winner to her catalog of "Symphonic Plays" with one about Tchaikovsky and his Fifth."
Tim Smith for The Baltimore Sun. April 2015 Full Article |
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"The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has had its share of resident composers over the years, but it appears to be the first orchestra in the country to merge these two [music and theater] hallowed traditions by engaging a playwright in residence." Baltimore local NPR station interview. Listen HERE
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Read more HERE
SHOSTAKOVICH: NOTES FOR STALIN
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"Sharing that enhanced experience with listeners is incredibly rewarding and the Baltimore Symphony is the perfect partner. After all, how many orchestras have a playwright on staff?" - Marin Alsop
Read More |
CSI: MOZART
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"Don’t even try to tell me that there’s a cooler job in the whole wide world than the one created for Didi Balle at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She may be the only “playwright-in-residence” for a major symphony orchestra and ... Read More
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"Whether it’s “The Magic Flute” soundtracking a medical mystery on “House, M.D.” or “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” lightening the mood of a forensic investigation on “Body of Proof,” Mozart’s works have permeated pop culture... perfect that playwright Didi Balle has cleverly employed the police procedural format to help audiences hear Mozart with fresh ears — and figure out how he died." - Sadie Dingfelder, February 27, 2014
Read the entire article HERE |
Applause Magazine, Jan/Feb 2014 Issue
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A COMPOSER FIT FOR A KING: Wagner & King Ludwig II
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Interview with Didi Balle and
Matthew Spivey, V.P. of Artistic Operations, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra |
CSI: BEETHOVEN
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The Baltimore Sun"Sound diagnosis for BSO's 'CSI' ... an innovative program of Beethoven mixes music and medicine ... Didi Balle's script achieved concision, naturalness and good flow ... a look beneath the epidermis of a musical giant, "CSI Beethoven" cut smoothly and entertainingly."
- Tim Smith, Music Critic for The Baltimore Sun. Feb. 29, 2008 "CSI Beethoven used historical research, medical diagnosis, theatrical impersonation, slide projects and music in an innovative fashion ... Beethoven himself held forth, having taken leave from the spirit world to see what he could learn about his sorry fate back in 1827." - Tim Smith, Music Critic for The Baltimore Sun. Feb. 29, 2008 |
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“A theatrical presentation that’s an inevitable part of classical music’s future. And that’s not a bad thing.”
“Concert fun enough that Beethoven wouldn’t be rolling over in his grave!” “CSI: Beethoven … a multi-media program the ever-innovative Alsop co-created with writer, director and producer Didi Balle … offered a fresh, fun take on the familiar composer that was informative … combining music with commentary, visual aids and theatrics.” - The Denver Post, Oct. 9, 2010 |
Magazine of the League of American Orchestras
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In 2008, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented a "forensic" investigation into Beethoven's hearing loss and cause of death. The orchestra's CSI Beethoven team, clockwise from top left: writer-director Didi Balle, Dr. Philip Mackowiak, Beethoven scholar William Meredith, Dr. Charles Limb, actor Tony Tsendeas, and Music Director Marin Alsop.
- Symphony Magazine July/August 2010 |
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“CSI: Beethoven© was wildly successful. It drew far larger audiences than anticipated for mid-week performances. It exceeded our expectations in terms of attendance, and people are still talking about the show.” - Eileen Jackson, VP of Marketing, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra |
ANALYZE THIS: MAHLER & FREUD
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“Draws listeners into a composer's world by enfolding the music within a presentation of drama, projections and narration… Analyze This: Mahler and Freud, an imagined dramatization of a four-hour meeting and psychoanalytic session between the two titans the year before Mahler died in 1911. Freud made no notes of the session, and there are only indirect and cryptic mentions in a few letters of Mahler and his wife, Alma. Thus, dramatist Didi Balle had a blank canvas upon which to paint. As an exercise in drawing listeners deeper into a composer's world and engendering increased interest, the program is well thought out and worthwhile.” - Robert Battey, The Washington Post Nov. 11, 2010
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Read Author Didi Balle and Marin Alsop’s engaging NPR essay “A Composer On The Couch: Mahler Meets Freud”
depicting the events that led the celebrated conductor and composer to seek help from Vienna’s own shrink to the stars: Dr. Sigmund Freud. |
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FEATURED PREVIEW ARTICLE - Mahler On The Couch, Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun, Nov. 4, 2010
Given how Gustav Mahler's music generated so much antipathy in his lifetime, with critics pulling out words like "grotesque" and many listeners suspecting the composer harbored horrid neuroses, it's not surprising that he decided to consult Sigmund Freud. But Mahler's famous four-hour meeting with the father of psychiatry in 1910 came about for somewhat less artistic reasons. Read more at the Baltimore Sun. |
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For a first hand report on the making of Analyze This: Mahler and Freud check out Bret McCabe’s fun and fascinating Q&A with writer-director Didi Balle published in the Baltimore Paper.
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PENELOPE: A Song Cycle
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"Across town, three more new song cycles premiered at the 92nd St. Y: The hit of the evening "Penelope" was written by librettist Denise Lanctot (Balle) ... This seven song meditation by Odysseus's abandoned spouse had an arc and a point, and it leapt to dramatic life." - Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal (Leisure & Arts)
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THE SCHOOL OF JOLLY DOGS
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"The School of Jolly Dogs" is an old-fashioned happiness fest, song and dance the English Music Hall way ... This bright parody of the British music hall tradition includes whatever material seems theatrically, rather than historically correct ... The evening's flavor remains consistent nevertheless, undisturbed by the brand new "True to the Bard", a clever tune composed by Leslie Steinweiss, the show's musical director, with lyrics by Denise Lanctot (Balle), the company's artistic director ..." - Leo Seligsohn, Newsday
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Manhattan Rhythm Kings: Live at Rainbow & Stars
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"The trio's delightful show is a seamless, fast-paced mixture of songs, tap-dance routines, spoofs of vintage radio shows and amusing trivia (a look at the year 1939 includes invented radio ads for a "veil of youth" corset and an early home movie camera with which "you can turn your home into Hollywood.") These comic bits only enhance the nostalgic flavor of the musical program ..." Stephen Holden, The New York Times
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"The close-harmony trio opened its first-ever engagement at Rainbow & Stars with a show that's as deftly paced, tuneful, and just plain fun as any I've seen in quite a while." - New York Post
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Beautiful Soup
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"Using a pastiche of 19th-century children's literature - Nesbitt, Dickens, Carroll and Kipling, - Denise Lanctot (Balle's) tightly written script has great potential in its very successful attempt to turn classical literature into rollicking good entertainment." - Mark Gevisser, The Village Voice
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The Story of Gloria: A Young Woman of Manhattan
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"Like his Prairie Home Companion", Keillor's "American Radio Company", which premiered last November, (broadcast weekly live from BAM, Brooklyn Academy of Music) offers an eclectic mix of comedy and music ... He also has a new repertory company - The Broadway Radio Theater - that each week performs "The Story of Gloria," a musical-comedy serial chronicling the trails and tribulations of a New York career woman. The script - co-written by Denise Lanctot (Balle) and Garrison Keillor, though he uses the on-air name of "Elaine Lois Blintz" - is charged with whimsical observations on New York life ... " - Entertainment Weekly
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OF THEE I SING
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"Maestra Marin Alsop and stage director Denise Lanctot (Balle) steered the large cast with high-gloss polish through the long and entertaining production of George and Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind's Pulitzer-prize winning musical "Of Thee I Sing", presented by the Oregon Festival of American Music in the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall ... It was a mix of the Marx Brothers, Gilbert & Sullivan, a whiff of opera, a dash of revue and even a bit of "American in Paris" ..." - The Register-Guard (Oregon)
Hult Center For the Performing Arts, Eugene, Oregon Eugene Symphony Orchestra and a cast of 70! Stage directed by Denise Lanctot (Balle) |