Stravinsky's Petrushka

The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is bringing Stravinsky's Petrushka to the Belk Theater on Friday, April 30 and Saturday, May 1, 2027. Both performances start at 7:30 PM, so you've got two nights to choose from. Conductor Erina Yashima leads the orchestra, joined by soprano Liv Redpath and the Charlotte Master Chorale.

Petrushka is the big draw here. It's a puppet's tale told across four tableaux, starting with a bustling St. Petersburg carnival and moving through the puppet's dreams, his romance, and his tragic end. The whole thing is held together by the famous 'Petrushka chord' and carried by dazzling orchestration and spirited folk rhythms. This is the 1947 version, and it's the kind of piece that works best when you can hear the full orchestra and chorus in the room.

It's not the only thing on the program. The evening opens with Poulenc's Gloria, a radiant and theatrical work inspired by the composer's religious experience at the shrine of the Black Virgin of Rocamadour. Then there's Lili Boulanger's Of a Spring Morning, which rounds out the bill. Between the three, the program moves from the sacred to the seasonal and finally to the theatrical.

If you want a bit of context before the music starts, there's a pre-concert talk at 6:30 PM in the Mezzanine Lobby. The Belk Theater itself is part of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center at 130 N. Tryon Street, and it's a space worth noticing: designed by Cesar Pelli and opened in 1992, it features a contemporary European horseshoe arrangement and about 2,400 fiber-optic 'points of light' in the audience chamber. Tickets start at $28.26, and you can pick up single tickets or catch the show as part of a Classical Series or Create Your Own package.