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La Ruta an Important Play by Isaac Gomez
World Premiere in Chicago at Steppenwolf
By: - Dec 24th, 2018Steppenwolf Theatre is staging La Ruta, an important world premiere play by Isaac Gomez, based on his own research on the women of Cuidad Juarez, played by an eight-member all-female Latinx cast. Sandra Marquez’ careful direction recreates the work and home lives of these women—and the dangers they live with—in a powerful, emotional way.
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Gardner Museum Loans Its Greatest Treasure
Momentous Decisions for Titian’s Masterpiece Rape of Europa
By: - Dec 23rd, 2018In flagrant violation of the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner the museum's greatest masterpiece Titian's "The Rape of Europa" has been cleaned for the first time and is about to be loaned for up to two years. She stipulated that “[I]f [the trustees] shall at any time change the general disposition or arrangement of any articles which shall have been placed in the first, second and third stories of said Museum at my death,” then the entire collection, the museum building and property would be given to Harvard University to be sold.
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El Nino, a Nativity Oratorio, at Cloisters
Julia Bullock and the American Modern Opera Company Featured
By: - Dec 23rd, 2018John Adams and his frequent collaborator, Peter Sellars, focused on the Nativity when they created El Nino, a Christmas Oratorio. Handel's Messiah, the most frequently performed music for Christmas, sprawls into Easter. Now we have marvelous seasonal music for our time.
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All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
Stranger Than Fiction at Loreto Theatre on Bleecker Street
By: - Dec 23rd, 2018What is remarkable about this production directed by Peter Rothstein with music direction by Erick Lichte is both the simplicity and the complexity of the production. There is no set; the stage is a black box. No orchestra or piano accompanies the actors as they sing; it is a capella. The harmonies arranged by Lichte and Timothy C Takach are wonderful.
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Foss & Ferrandini: A Fruitful Friendship
Tandem at Boston's Gallery Naga
By: - Dec 21st, 2018Jeremy Foss taught painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Design during the 1970s and 80s. It was during the 70s, while Robert Ferrandini was a student at Mass Art, that he and Foss formed a friendship that has lasted to this day. Their exibition Foss & Ferrandini: A Fruitful Friendship will be on view January 4 to 26 at Boston's Gallery NAGA.
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The Lifespan of a Fact at Studio 54
By Playwrights Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell
By: - Dec 21st, 2018Playwrights Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell have balanced the piece carefully. This is based on the essay and book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. They are the John and Jim of the story. But I suspect details have been changed, in fact it is billed as “a new play based on a true-ish story.” It is a tight 85 minutes enhanced by fine performances.
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The Year to Come by Lindsey Ferrentino
At the La Jolla Playhouse
By: - Dec 20th, 2018Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino apparently felt the urge to inform audiences just how disparate are families and their need to share their ubiquitous stories with the world at large. Television has been the delivery system that best gets the comedy job done. Sitcoms have mastered the medium for more than 70 years. . But I’m not quite sure that Ferrentino’s comedy play “The Year to Come” is the vehicle to bridge so many gaps facing our ever changing society.
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Riffing on Ibsen
A Doll’s House, Part 2 in San Diego
By: - Dec 20th, 2018“A Doll’s House, Part 2”, premiered in 2017- garnering 8 Tony Nominations – is a perfect example of how an iconic classic play coupled with talent, and a sense of curiosity from an original thinking playwright can become a fresh, smart, new work, that’s been dazzling audiences wherever it performs. (Lucas Hnath’s 2016 play “The Christians”, received a Tony nomination for his insightful story of a Pastor who questions his belief in God and The Bible).
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Into the Light by Jérôme Brunet
Album of Rock and Blues Images
By: - Dec 19th, 2018The French born Jérôme Brunet started shooting concerts in 1994. This book of just under 200 images in black and white resulted in part from a kickstarer campaign that raised $30,000. There is a mix of celebrity rockers and less well known blues artists. Images include U2, The Who, Cream, Stones, Pink Floyd, Yes, Slash, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Steve Miller, and Bruce Springsteen. Some of the killer shots were of B.B. King one of which is on the cover of a compelling book.
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Affordable Bila-Haut Languedoc Wines
Michael Chapoutier Estate
By: - Dec 19th, 2018The 2017 vintage from Bila-Haut is a very good value. Maybe its the Euro exchange rate,but, these two wines, especially the white are people and party friendly. Michael Chapoutier has a knack for growing the right grapes at the perfect slope. These wines illustrate his mastery.
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Thomas Oliemans at Park Avenue Armory
Malcolm Martineau Joins Baritone
By: - Dec 18th, 2018Thomas Oliemans, a Dutch baritone, sang in the Officer's Room at the Park Avenue Armory. His first line evokes love's bite, suggesting a mix of pleasure and pain that would inform his program. The tall-full-voiced baritone was accompanied by Malcolm Martineau whose delight in the songs of Charles DuParc and Gustav Mahler was apparent.
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Campania's Giuseppe Maglione Follows Tradition
The New Generation Of Pizza Makers
By: - Dec 18th, 2018Following his grandmothers footsteps, Giuseppe Maglione is the new generation of pizza makers that dot the Campania food scene. Pizza dough is his canvas and he is the artist. We visited recdently in Avellino.
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Actor/Director Charles Weldon at 78
Was Artistic Director of The Negro Ensemble Company
By: - Dec 18th, 2018During the recent NY conference of American Theatre Critics Association Charles Weldon was a lively participant on a panel focused on diversity. He was Artistic Director of The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) since 2005. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in 1970 and acted in many of its classic plays including "A Soldier's Play," "The Great McDaddy," "The Offering," "The Brownsville Raid" and the Company's Broadway production of "The River Niger."
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Strange Window at Next Wave, BAM
Marianne Weems Re-invents Henry James
By: - Dec 16th, 2018The Builder’s Association re-invented Henry James’ Turn of the Screw for today. Strange Window takes its title from a story James heard from the Archbishop of Canterbury. A woman was so fearful of strange figures who appeared in the windows of her home that she moved to protect her children.
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Delacroix at the Met
Major Works Missing from Exhibition
By: - Dec 16th, 2018Organized with the Louvre Museum in Paris, where it appeared with more works, the Met show presents some 150 paintings, prints and drawings in a dozen large galleries. Major works did not travel to New York resulting in an inadequate view of a major 19th century artist. It remains on view through January 6.
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The Wiz In South Florida
Classic Musical At Stage Door Theatre
By: - Dec 14th, 2018Stage Door Theatre's mounting of The Wiz is uneven. The production largely lacks magic and sound is a problem. However, the production improves in the second act, with strong singing and acting. Actress Nayomi Braaf makes a refreshingly bright-eyed, optimistic Dorothy.
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J'nai Bridges and Mark Markham at Carnegie
Songs and Spirituals Tell a Story
By: - Dec 14th, 2018J’nai Bridges told us stories at her concert in the Weill Hall of Carnegie. The program began with a spiritual arranged by Bridges and her stunning partner on piano, Mark Markham. Spirituals and lullabies bracketed the program.
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Josef Albers Life and Work by Charles Darwent
First Biography of 20th Century Master
By: - Dec 12th, 2018Although it is the first full biography of Bauhaus master, Josef Albers, it has been worth the wait. Charles Darwent has writen a meticulous, insightful, absorbing and masterful book. Best know for the 2,300 surving works from "Homage to the Square" he is regarded as among the foremost abstract artists and teachers of the 20th century.
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Matthias Goerne at the New York Philhamonic
A Journey into Mystery
By: - Dec 11th, 2018For their last program before the annual dive into holiday season concerts, Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic gave their audience something unique: a song cycle created from the work of two composers and featuring the voice of Matthais Goerne, the German lieder specialist who sings Wotan on van Zweden's new recording of Wagner's Ring.
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Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
Shotgun Players at Ashby Stage
By: - Dec 11th, 2018As expected from any Stoppard work, Arcadia is highly literate and entertaining. It is also full of passionate characters, crammed with information, and plays like a grand detective story as the moderns unravel the mysteries of the past while entwining themselves in amusing interactions
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Honoring Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues
All Stars at The Cabot in Beverly, MA.
By: - Dec 11th, 2018The Cabot in Beverly, Mass. is gearing up for its Centennial in 2020. It escaped the wrecker's ball a few years ago and is now in the midst of renovation, Toward that end there was a gala, all star benefit tribute to a 1920s icon Bessie Smith The Empress of the Blues. It was a night to remember and indicator of the next chapter of a venerable venue.
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Scat Singers Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton
Keeping Jazz Alive at 90
By: - Dec 10th, 2018Now 90, in 2012 Sheila Jordan was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. With fellow singer and educator, Jay Clayton, they conducted a workshop. Last night they, and nine singers, performed during a pot luck gig at The Firehouse in swinging downtown Adams, Mass.
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The Prisoner by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne
Large Questions at Theatre for a New Audience
By: - Dec 09th, 2018We are in a neutral country, anywhere in the world where crimes are committed and people are punished. The question that pervades the quiet space of The Prisoner by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne concerns appropriate retribution.
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Golden Parachute for Van Shields
Soft Landing for Berkshire Museum Director
By: - Dec 09th, 2018Recent IRS filing reveals that when former Berkshire Museum director, Van Shields, abruptly departed he was given $92,000 in two payments. The second is due in January. There are also figures for the costly legal battles that resulted in selling 22 works of art to raise $53.25 million. From July 1 to Dec. 31, 2017, the museum incurred $1.6 million in legal costs. In April it paid off the full $1,852,426 outstanding balance on a $2 million line of credit.
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Onsite Opera Follows Menotti's Star
Amahl and the Night Visitors Reimagined
By: - Dec 08th, 2018Amahl and the Night Visitors was commissioned as a Christmas television special a half century ago. The composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, would appear often at its live presentations. He often pointed out that this is a story of a boy who has problems with his mother. He would ask members of the audience to raise their hands if they did. Most of the audience held their hands up high. That is not the only reason to enjoy this Christmas classic to which OnSite Opera has brought a new vision for today.
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