Music

Any other conductor would test an audience's loyalty with a Philadelphia Orchestra program featuring particularly bizarre modern music. But Simon Rattle knows his people. And though he programmed György Ligeti (as might Christoph Eschenbach), and, at one point, swiveled around and yelled toward the audience (as did Riccardo Muti), there was no loss of good will and, in fact, a standing ovation on Thursday for Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre . A significant ingredient was Barbara Hannigan, the Canadian new-music diva whose charisma, voice and unreserved sense of showmanship were put to great use in a scene from the Ligeti opera Le Grand Macabre , in which she plays a police chief hysterically, nonsensically warning that the end of the world is near.

Theater 1812 Productions: It's My Party - The Women & Comedy Project An exploration of the role of comedy in women's lives. Closes 5/19. Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St.; 215-592-9560. www.1812productions.org . $28-$38. A Little Night Music Award-winning Sondheim musical. Closes 6/30. Arden Theatre, 40 N. 2nd St.; 215-922-1122. $36-$48; $15 children 12-18. Acting Naturally: Blithe Spirit A novelist finds himself haunted by the ghost of his first wife. Closes 5/19.

There's a jazz man's adage, attributed variously to Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, that goes something like this: "There are two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind. " Don Was, the bass player, producer, bandleader, songwriter, and now president of the storied jazz label Blue Note Records, divides the world differently. "There are two kinds of music," Was says. "Generous music and selfish music. " Was was talking from his home in Los Angeles as he got ready to head to Philadelphia to for the Non-Commvention, the national gathering of mostly public radio non-commercial music stations, hosted annually by WXPN (88.5 FM)

FIVE BALLS in the air, music everywhere. Five receivers running different routes simultaneously, each somehow managing to find one of those balls from the clutter in the air and catching it . . . And not one crash. Amazing. "You zero in on running your route and keep your head up," Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin was explaining after yesterday's OTA at NovaCare. "And whatever ball comes your way, you catch it. We don't really know what quarterback is throwing to what route.

If ever our town could pull together enough ambition to stage a string-quartet festival, it would be like striking a vein of artistic gold. Were any presenter visionary enough to host visits from the world's most charismatic pianists, aficionados would rush in. And if you blended these prospects - along with a singer or two - into a single series, what you would have is the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, which, clocking an impressive one score...

With the possible exception of some Broad Street neighbors who wanted to open windows in the condos that border the NovaCare Complex practice fields, everyone was pretty happy with the Chip Kelly Sound Experience on Monday. This was the first Kelly practice attended by the media - the NFL made him - and it can be reliably reported that if listening to Iron Maiden, Ratt and Judas Priest at very high volume makes a winning football team, then the Eagles are already on their way. The practice was loud and fast for the most part.

By the time he was 18, Adrian Younge had had enough of hip-hop. It was 1997, and Younge, who will perform at the Blockley in West Philadelphia Sunday night with his band Venice Dawn backing Wu Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah, was already growing weary of modern music. "There was a time when hip-hop was a little more novel, unique, and groundbreaking," remembers the 34-year-old producer and songwriter, who is the name-above-the-title force behind two of 2013's most compelling albums.

Immerse yourself in different cultures on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and celebrate Philadelphia's 10 Sister Cities at the Sister Cities Park International Festival. Event festivities include dancing, music, cooking demos, and hands-on activities. There will be cultural activities and performances throughout the day. The Italian Council's Luigi Scotto will sing, the Guang Hua Chinese School troupe will dance, and Taiko drummers will enrich with a Japanese percussion show. Guests can even get a French language lesson at 3:05 p.m. Other activities include a Cameroonian fashion show and Israeli, Polish and Korean dance performances.

FOR ALMOST 25 years, the Prince Music Theater was celebrated nationally for its mission of exclusively staging musical-theater world premieres. But that business model proved unsustainable when the Great Recession came knocking, and, in 2008, the curtain rang down on the Prince's three performance spaces, the largest of which seats about 450. But thanks to a dedicated group of local movers and shakers who bought the property at 1412 Chestnut Street,...