Front Page
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Welser-Möst Conducts the New York Philharmonic
From the Domestic Life of Strauss to Widmann's Streets of Babylon
By: - Mar 01st, 2020Franz Welser-Möst leads what is arguably the best orchestra in the United States, the Cleveland. His mastery of Richard Strauss' music is well-known. He began the program with the US premiere of Babylon Suite by Jörg Widmann, composer in residence at Carnegie Hall this year.
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Aspect Chamber's Musical Enemies: Debussy and Chausson
Grace Park and Gilles Vonsattel Superb on Violin and Piano
By: - Mar 02nd, 2020Irina Knaster founded the Aspect Chamber Music series to provide an enriched communal atmosphere for the performance of music. Concertgoers are invited to come early and drink wine and chat before the concert and during the intermission. Knaster fills the halls at the Bohemian National Center and Columbia's Italian Academy, two beautiful settings. She featured Grace Park and Gilles Vonsattel performing Debussy and Chausson.
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Marie Cuttoli at Barnes Foundation
The Modern Thread from Miro to Man Ray
By: - Mar 04th, 2020A new exhibit at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia features the collection of Marie Cuttoli, an entrepreneur who convinced many of the artists of her time to create designs for her the workshops, first in her own design studio in Paris and then for the tapestry weavers of of Aubusson, France.
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SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage
At the Palm Springs Woman’s Club
By: - Mar 07th, 2020Prolific, award-winning American playwright Lynn Nottage, the only female to win two Pulitzer Prizes in drama, is also considered to be one of the most produced playwrights not only in America but across the world. “SWEAT” is an absorbing and profound production that grapples with the issues plaguing most of America’s workforce today.
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Jazz Pianist McCoy Tyner at 81
Played Boston’s Jazz Workshop with Trane
By: - Mar 07th, 2020In 1963 at The Jazz Workshop I heard McCoy Tyner with Trane. It was Trane's only Boston gig. Later Tyner played Lulu White's and we caught him a few back at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington. His massive attack was much admired by aspiring pianists. He just checked at 81.
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A Florentine Tragedy and Gianni Schicchi
At Livermore Valley Opera
By: - Mar 09th, 2020These two operas make for a highly entertaining evening. The only false note concerns the orchestra, which was skillful in the comedy on opening night. But especially in the overture and early parts of the tragedy, dissonant tracts sounded more out of tune and out of sync as if the orchestra hadn’t mastered Zemlinsky’s more challenging and unfriendly music. It also overpowered the singers at times.
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Metropolis Ensemble Debuts at National Sawdust
Ricardo Romaneiro's Score for Fritz Lang's Metropolis
By: - Mar 11th, 2020Metropolis is a Grammy-nominated Ensemble founded by Andrew Cyr, who encourages artists to realize their bliss. The group was not named for the Fritz Lang film, but the temptation to take on this silent great must have been tantalizing. The live, electronic score by Ricardo Romaneiro was brilliant and brilliantly realized by the musicians. Cyr conducts.
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Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
New York Production Opened and Shut
By: - Mar 13th, 2020With a sexy (for the late sixties) ad campaign depicting all four characters in bed, a headline that read “Consider the Possibilities” – some newspapers would not run this ad – and a titillating R-rated story which dealt with infidelity and wife swapping, the movie—the number 5 moneymaking hit of the year—rang up some 31 million dollars at the box office.
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Mishima and Williams Celebrated in P'Town
The 14th Annual 2019 Tennessee Williams Theater Festival
By: - Mar 14th, 2020A day late and a dollar short, NY critic, Edward Rubin, is notorious for blowing off deadlines. By now the September, 2019 14th Annual Tennessee Williams Theater Festival is a faded memory. Arguably a rose pressed between the pages of a book. But here in loving detail Rubin posts a definitively detailed, documentary account of an historic event. It also serves as a preview of what to expect this September. By then, hopefully, the virus will have passed and we will enjoy the last gasp of summer with magnificent theatre and high jinks by the sea.
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A Puppet Universe Kosmos Invers at HERE
Kalan Sherrard Laucnhes an Electric Take
By: - Mar 15th, 2020Kosmos Inverse is the world below and the world way out there. We have a powerful feeling of infinity as we are being cast into a carnaval space. The central sphere resmbles a mop. Depending on the lights, it can be colored red and green and purple. Pigs, an elephant who strongly resembles Mo Willems’, two classic rubber dolls, and a busty woman bounce before us.
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White Blacks: The Saga of an American Family
Melanie Maria Goodreaux Writes and Directs
By: - Mar 31st, 2020We begin as the guests at a black debutante ball in New Orleans. White staircase, be-gowned young women, stiffly poised young-men stand on the threshold of their presentation to society. Step by step we see the painstaking bows and courtesies of a society steeped in the mores of color and class that are expressions of the history of that city.
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Grammy to Fantastic Mr. Fox by Tobias Picker
Best Opera Recording Conducted by Gil Rose
By: - Mar 19th, 2020The libretto by Donald Sturrock is based on a book by Roald Dahl. Three farmers, Bunce, Boggis and Bean want revenge on Mr. Fox for taking their chickens, their geese and their cider. They are frustrated by Mr. Fox’s clever tactics. Gil Rose brings the music and story to life in this masterful recording which won the 2020 Grammy for Best Opera Recording.
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Home Alone
Coping with Self Isolation
By: - Mar 21st, 2020I was joking with one of my daughters this morning about masks. She works in law enforcement, and was sharing a few stories about people who have called 911 about running low on toilet paper, and people who have come to her station to complain about a spouse who won't take this "virus thing" seriously. She wears a department-issued N95 mask, but she asked me if I knew where she could get a mask to protect her from stupid
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Boston Gallerist Arthur Dion
Gallery NAGA on Newbury Street Since 1977
By: - Mar 25th, 2020Gallery NAGA, with a lease from Church of the Covenant, was organized as a cooperative in 1977. In 1982 Arthur Dion was hired as director and soon became sole owner. With a commitment to painting and studio furniture it prevails on what was formerly Boston's gallery row. Now director emeritus Dion stepped away from daily management. As part of compiling an oral history of contemporary art in Boston, Dion shared insights of his remarkable career.
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Terrence McNally at 81
Renowned Playwright Succumbs to Coronavirus
By: - Mar 25th, 2020Prolific playwright Terrence McNally loses his battle with coronavirus. McNally was an American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. The prolific writer also won five Tony Awards.
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MFA Director Matthew Teitelbaum
A 1993 Interview with the Acting Director of the ICA
By: - Mar 29th, 2020A native of Toronto, Matthew Teitelbaum, departed Boston in 1993 to take a curatorial position at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In this interview he was acting director of the Institute of Contemporary Art. Then 37, it provides insights of his curatorial vision and process. He went on to be director of the AGO. In 2015 he returned to Boston as director of the Museum of Fine Arts.
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Rafael Mahdavi: Corona Chronicles
Pandemic News from France
By: - Mar 30th, 2020During a time of confinement we reach out to family and friends by phone and e mail. From France my artist friend, Rafael Mahdavi, wrote a wonderful detailed note. He also sent a remarkable new work that inspired this piece. Art represents hope and salvation through the darkest moments of human condition.
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Jacob's Pillow Cancels 2020 Season
Response to Pandemic
By: - Mar 31st, 2020For the first time in its 88-year history, the Jacob’s Pillow Board of Trustees and Executive Leadership have made the decision to cancel the 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, previously scheduled for June 24-August 30 along with its annual gala scheduled for June 20.
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La Mama Presents Pananadem
Philippino Act of Remembering Dramatized in Dance and Music
By: - Apr 01st, 2020Full of color and a driving beat, this special Philippine dance group presents Pananadem. The term means “remembering” in the language of the Meranao people (Philippines). It is a way of looking back across time, to gain inspiration and perspective from one’s ancestors.
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Documentaries on Art and Design
What to Stream When Home Alone
By: - Apr 02nd, 2020Most of us are now hunkered down and isolated, inundated by 24/7 news coverage of depressing medical and economic conditions, compounded by failed White House leadership. To lighten our burden, just a bit, here is a list, with thumbnail reviews, of nine excellent documentary films about architecture and design.
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Update from Shakespeare & Company
Letter from Allyn Burrows
By: - Apr 03rd, 2020Shakespeare saw the theatres closed two times in as many years due to the plague, and he subsequently must have viewed the world through the lens of what the epidemic wrought.
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Intimacy Direction/Choreography
A Relatively New but Growing Discipline in Theater
By: - Apr 04th, 2020An Intimacy Director/Choreographer is responsible for creating and setting moments of intimacy onstage in a convincing, safe manner. The relatively new theatrical field of Intimacy Direction/Choreography is growing. Some see the field as vital in a post-pandemic world. South Florida theater companies are among those nationwide employing Intimacy Directors/Choreographers.
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Berkshire Artist Ricky Darell Barton
Rethinking Real Eyes and Three Other 2020 Exhibitions
By: - Apr 04th, 2020This was to be the breakout season for Berkshire artist Ricky Darell Barton. This week was to be the launch of a solo exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams. Three other solo and group shows by Barton are scheduled to follow throuth the summer. Social distancing, which is likely to extend for the coming months, changes everything. For now a single painting by Barton is displayed in the window of the gallery with more work available for on line viewing on the Real Eyes website.
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New Music Virtual Town Hall
Our Digital Present and Future Explored
By: - Apr 07th, 2020Many of us sense that coming out of lockdown we will find ourselves in a very different world. Ideas that have emerged from isolation suggest ways in which a wider group of people, worldwide, can connect. Music is a universal language. Organizations like the International Contemporary Ensemble have led the way into a musical future unimaginable before the most recent technology revolution. Gathered to discuss subjects like how to make an audience out of disparate listeners and platforms available for cooperation and sharing, many other organizations offered insights.
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Yin and Yang
Facing Fear and Uncertainty
By: - Apr 09th, 2020There is a line from the movie “Tombstone,” spoken by Doc Holliday to Wyatt Earp: “There is no normal life, Wyatt. There is just life.”
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