They are called Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, or translated, “The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices.” As enigmatic as the name sounds, they are best known for the incredible sounds they produce, particularly when singing the multi-choral folk songs of their native Bulgaria. Composed of 26 performers, this all-female a capella ensemble is touring for the first time in 18 years, making a rare appearance at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater, Friday, May 16. And the music they make is exceptional. Originally known as the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, Le Mystere was first “discovered” . . .

The latest collaboration between Present Music and Danceworks was performed last weekend at the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center. Six dances by five choreographers were performed to various works performed by the Present Music ensemble. Danceworks’ dancers vary in abilities and maturity. There was a general imbalance to the evening, with seasoned professional musicians playing evolved works for young dancers and choreographers not up to the level of the music making.

Vincenzo Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is the kind of repertory rarity that lifetime opera fans might never encounter. And for good reason. It is not one of the best Bellini scores, nor is it a shining example of Italian opera of its era. So why did Florentine Opera, which only produces three operas each season, feel the need to produce it? The Florentine production, which played for three performances last weekend, was titled Romeo and Juliet. However, the opera is not particularly based on Shakespeare, but rather on Italian novella sources.

In 1870, immigrants from the Kaszuby region in northwestern Poland and Germany took up residence on a peninsula between the Milwaukee and Kinnickinnic rivers, finding it a suitable substitute for the Hel Peninsula on the Baltic coast. After digging a channel to create an isolated island, they lived for many years on this small patch of land, subsisting on the fishing industry which was not only a food source, but also made up their entire economy. By 1920, however, the city had begun to commandeer Jones Island for use in the development of a more lucrative and industrialized harbor. Considered “squatters,” the Kaszubian and German immigrants were forced to move from the area, their presence and impact on the city largely forgotten.

Friday evening at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra was the debut of conductor Edo de Waart, music director designate, who will begin the post in September of 2009. There was a jittery edge to the performance, understandable from an orchestra eager to play for its new maestro. It was exciting, but not always elegant. I returned Saturday night to hear if the performance would become more settled. In most ways it did.

Countless plays, operas and movies have been based on the works of the great Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), varying from word-for-word adaptations to loose borrowing of plot or characters. Among those who owe a debt to Shakespeare is Italian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini (1801-35), whose I Capuleti e I Montecchi (The Capulets and Montagues) is based on the Bard’s immortal tale of love and death, Romeo and Juliet (1595), albeit several times removed. The libretto by Felice Romani that Bellini used was a reworking of Shakespeare’s legendary tale as first intended for use as Giulietta e Romeo by the composer Nicola Vaccai; and in doing so, Romani drew upon the 1818 play Giulietta e Romeo by Luigi Scevola!

The Fine Arts Quartet finished their spring season in fine form last Sunday, proving that well-known works can sound fresh and exciting when performed by master musicians. Violinists Ralph Evans & Efim Boico, violist Yuri Gandelsman and cellist Wolfgang Laufer were joined by pianist Gisele Witkowski in the Quintet in E Flat by Robert Schumann, a staple of the chamber music repertoire. This performance showed the Fine Arts at their best, with a rich sound and effortless musicality. Witkowski proved a fully expressive yet sensitive partner to the quartet, the two forces equal in technique and temperament.

This weekend, concertgoers will get a peek into the future with a performance by conductor Edo de Waart, music director designate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The concert’s first half consists of a work called In Praise of Music by Pennsylvania native Dominick Argento (b. 1927). Typical of many 20th-century composers, his style reflects many influences—tonality, atonality, 12-tone method—but never became “avant-garde,” unlike several of his postwar contemporaries.

Karole Armitage will bring her Armitage Gone! Dance Company to Alverno College for an evening of performance that will include Ligeti Essays and Time Is the Echo of an Axe Within a Wood, two works created by the estimable choreographer for inclusion in a current spring tour. Formerly referred to as the “Punk Ballerina,” Armitage has been a notable personality in the dance world since her first choreographed piece in 1978. She has found success not only in ballet and interpretive dance realms

Classical music is as much about acoustics and a sympathetic atmosphere as it is about literature and performance. I recently attended a Vienna Philharmonic concert in the famous Musikverein, a marvel of a Viennese concert hall. The warmth and intimacy of that great space leaves most modern halls, such as our Uihlein Hall, feeling vast and cold. What would our very good Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra—and its anonymous and coughing audience in the spacious dark—become in a better space? The sudden burst of spring weather matched the theme of the MSO concert last weekend. Andreas Delfs led Beethoven Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”), which began with restraint in its first movement, certainly pastoral in spirit