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Based in London Lolita Chakrabarti is an actress and playwright. An earlier play, Red Velvet, was previously produced by Shakespeare & Company. She returns with a tightly crafted two-hander, Hymn. precisely directed by the masterful Regge Light.

Handel’s 1724 opera masterpiece “Julius Caesar,” dealing with Caesar’s victories in Egypt in 48-47 B.C.E. shortly before his return to Rome and death in 44 B.C.E., may be considered a prequel to Shakespeare's theatrical masterpiece. 

Puccini’s music is beautiful and his notes sit particularly well in the human voice. Music written for the voice, as Puccini did, attracts audiences, especially when it is delivered by a stellar cast. Along with a rich musical mix, deep characterization draws us in.  In the current revival of Otto Schenk production at the Munich State Opera, character is on full display amidst bantering bohemians and the flirtatious Musetta.

Michael Henderson was just 20 when I heard him with Miles Davis. "Stolen" from Stevie Wonder the young bass player gave Davis the funk he was seeking during the aftermath of his seminal fusion, double album Bitches Brew. For five years and several albums Henderson was the heart and soul of the band. Cut loose in 1976 Henderson recorded seven album for Buddah Records, His last, for EMI was in 1983 although he continued to perform.

It has been a very warm week in Munich, yet a lovely one. Occasionally walking along Maximilian Street in the center of town, a breeze catches up and cools. The Munich State Opera, unquestionably the lead opera company in the world, is holding its annual July Festival, a chance to catch up with interesting productions from the last decade.Concerts too attract.  Munich Regular Jonas Kaufman will return for his first post Covid appearance.

Phil Kline is at MASS MoCA next weekend. He says: I'm a bit of an outsider, not part of the "classical" world, or even the more sanctioned wings of the avant-garde. A composer without portfolio. Go hear his work in North Adams, Massachusetts!

Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch have long been partners in song.  Kaufman recently withdrew from performances at the Royal Covent Garden opera house due to the impact of Covid 19 on his voice.  His return was welcomed at the National Theater in Munich.

Wudang is the center of Daoism in the world, where the early monks went to hide from the Emperor’s soldiers.  The Chinese emperors were fearful that the people would follow the Daoist priests and monks instead of them, and they killed many of them, destroying thousands of temples over the centuries.  

Out of the blue I got a call from Ira Kaufman in Israel. The name was vaguely familiar but didn’t click until he said “It’s me from The Brata Gallery.” Then it all locked in. By phone and e mail we recalled the Downtown scene in New York in the 1960s as well as the Figurative Expressionist and Rhino Horn movements.

The lavish and expensive-to-produce “Follies” earned 11 Tony nominations and won seven, but was a box office disappointment with barely 500 performances on Broadway.  Yet, the show became a classic.  San Francisco Playhouse has taken on the challenge of producing this massive and demanding project.  The result is a worthy rendition of a great American musical.

Other than an explosive ending the Pulitzer Prize winning Anna In the Tropics proves to be quite tepid as produced by Barrington Stage Company. Set in a Prohibition era cigar factory the lictor is reading Tolstoy to the workers. Themes of infidelity, jealousy and revenge in Anna Karenina weave their way into the plot by playwright Nilo Cruz.

Ian Bostridge is the go-to performer for Franz Schubert's Winterreise. He notes that 'Even as a child I was unnaturally obsessed with love and death, so in that sense I really was born to sing lieder'. This concert is another testament to his natural affinity for the form and for the composer.

Kirill Serebrennikov, the brilliant Russian director, brought The Nose to Munich via Zoom. He is detained by the Russian government in Moscow. The production is superb.

Julia Bullock has made a big opera career outside conventional wisdom. At the Aix Festival in Provence this year she sang Olivier Messiaen's Harawi, a challenging work to which she brings unusual insights.

Most Happy in Concert, now at Williamstown Theatre Festival is not a revival of the 1956 musical Most Happy Fella with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It's a tear down and deconstruction by director Daniel Fish. He similarly ripped apart Oklahoma which won a Tony award. Let's see if he again cruises Broadway with an even more radical production of a vintage musical.

Catching up recently with Sheffield based artist, Stephanie Blumenthal, she commented on having work in the last two annual juried shows of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield. They are photographs in the manner of 17th century Dutch still life paintings entailing fast food. I asked her to send images which proved to be intriguing.

In August, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is unveiling two newly renovated galleries for Italian Renaissance art as well as a newly renovated French Salon, an opulent setting for nearly 100 highlights from the MFA's Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. Collection of French silver.

This summer, the Cape Ann Museum presents a special exhibition of works by contemporary artist Vincent Castagnacci. Notes from a Quarry will focus on Castagnacci’s drawings and paintings from the mid-2000s to the present, pulling in earlier works that reflect the strong influence Cape Ann has had—and continues to have—on the artist.

The play opens with Dr. Pap addressing a classroom – the audience.  The content of the lecture is unimportant, yet those brief moments absolutely hook the viewer.  There is no waiting to get involved with the story line. 

The opening premise of the fiction is that Janet van de Graaf and Robert Martin, played by the charming and talented pair of Maeve Smith and Stephen Kanaski, are to be married on the day that the musical takes place.  The reality of the show’s evolution is that “The Drowsy Chaperone” began as a spoof of old musicals that was performed at a stag party for a real engaged couple with the same names as the characters in the show.  Got that?

Portia Gwen Harcus, 88, of Boston, passed away Thursday, July 14, 2022. Graveside services at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham St., Sharon, MA on Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 9:45 am.

Teenage angst is not necessarily the material for meaningful drama. Athena by Gracie Gardner one of two plays at Thrown Stone Theater in Ridgefield reveals the hazards. It, and the other play Hysterical! run in repertory through Sunday, Aug. 6.

n Philip Glass’s adaptation of a trilogy of Cocteau films to opera (the others being “Orphée” and “Les Enfants Terribles,” both previously produced by Opera Parallèle), the composer saved his most imaginative treatment for this most uncommon love story. 

Barrington Stage Company in its tradition of encouraging new voices is providing playwright May Treuhaft-Ali with her first professional production. She has created a topical work based on ripped from the headlines reporting on the crisis in American public education.

Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley’s quintessential adult getaway, and renowned local artist, Gordon Huether, today unveiled “L’Esprit du Soleil” (The Spirit of the Sun), a commissioned multi-panel art piece designed especially for the newly remodeled entrance to the award-winning hotel and its Michelin Star Restaurant.