Also this issue: Puh-leeze Don't Squeeze the Artwork! Polly Apfelbaum’s work is a tactile wonderland. -Robin Rice Artsbeat -Debra Auspitz Hands Across Veronica -Debra Auspitz Eric Schlosser -A.D. Amorosi Hillary Rodham Clinton Living History -Lori Hill "Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge: Natural History in North America 1730-1860," -Kristina Weise There's Something About Mary -David Anthony Fox These Mortal Coils Norman Rush details a marriage from the inside out. -Justin Bauer

June 19-25, 2003

artpicks

Denyce Graves

Already a popular singer, mezzo Denyce Graves became omnipresent after her post 9/11 National Cathedral appearances -- twinned in overexposure with Renée Fleming as the "acceptable faces of opera" to most Americans. The Mann Center places Graves at the core of its television-bound June 19 gospel, jazz and classical spectacular with ads of her sultry visage framed by the slogan: "They say she has incredible range; that's like calling Mount Everest a hill." Don't go expecting Mariah Carey pyrotechnics; Graves actually has some trouble producing top notes even in her signature stage roles, Carmen and Dalila. But her voice's lower end offers delicious richness. If not an interpreter for the ages, she's a winning personality who "gives good concert"; I'd certainly rather hear this canny, gracious entertainer tackle jazz and pop standards than the waywardly cooing Fleming. Graves brings along both glamour and the confidence to share the Mann stage with Philly's own Patti LaBelle, who could blow anyone away. R&B a cappella sextet Take 6 joins the divas for some serious uplift, so Fairmount Park should really be jumping that night.

Denyce Graves, Thu., June 19, 8:30 p.m., $38-$68, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 52nd St. and Parkside Ave., 215-893-1999.

—David Shengold