Also this issue: Under the Radar Jim Putnam is not an undercover Brother. -Paul Burress Summer Monster The package tour -- something wicked this way comes. -Patrick Rapa Coming Up Rosey The rising pop star wants you to get Dirty. -Nicole Pensiero Beat Box -Ain� Ardron-Doley The Gig -Nate Chinen

July 12-18, 2002

musicpicks

Misia

In a time when most Mediterranean musical mistresses seem, by law almost, forced to make wriggly dance pap, Misia is a divine presence, an elegiac Portuguese singer whose luminescence is but topped by her tragic portrayals of women on the edge of romance and ruin. Like Callas, Rodrigues or Evora, Misia contemplates life's murky mysteries while maintaining the magnified emotion with a magnificent intensity to which only fado can attend. Ritual (Erato) is an exquisite title for this record. Rather than dabble in just making music, Misia haunts "Lagrima" and its poetic abatement as if compelled by spiritual force. After you hear Misia, you better think twice about calling anyone else "diva" on a casual basis, chums.

Sun., July 14, 7 p.m., $25, Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center, 260 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org.

—A.D. Amorosi