Articles
6207 results
Page 372
Spanish songs by Lyric Fest (1st review)
Three unpredictable women
Lyric Fest transformed a concert of Spanish and Latin American songs into a complex historical trip through two continents.
Articles
4 minute read
The fog of "Cloud Atlas'
A mess with a message
As a novel, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is a work of sprawling, ambitious complexity linking six stories over three centuries. The film adaptation is equally sprawling and ambitious but makes little sense.
Articles
5 minute read
Ben Affleck's "Argo': CIA in Iran
How not to make a movie
Ben Affleck's Argo, about the real-life rescue of six U.S. embassy personnel from Iraq in 1980, begins promisingly as a satire on Hollywood filmmaking and CIA ineptitude but soon settles into Hollywood formula. Despite Affleck's liberal bona fides, it's finally a contribution to political reaction.
Articles
7 minute read
How composers really work
Advice for aspiring composers: Stop all that strolling, and just stand still
Many people think composers do our composing on long walks. But to get any real work done, you've got to attach your posterior to a chair and have music paper in front of you. Consider how I composed “Softly and Tenderly.”
Articles
5 minute read
"Skyfall': The allure of James Bond
We expect you to die, Mr. Bond — but not just yet
Why do we still care about James Bond? The films are mostly disappointing, and the Ian Fleming novels are downright embarrassing. No matter: We Americans are hopelessly hooked on British suavity and probably always will be.
Articles
4 minute read
"The Music Man' at the Walnut
The way we wish we were
In retrospect, Meredith Willson's corn-fed Music Man has aged better than Leonard Bernstein's pseudo-realistic West Side Story. There's something to be said for unabashed fairy tales.
Articles
3 minute read
Orchestra plays "Alexander Nevsky' (2nd review)
Don't mess with Mother Russia
This dusty old black-and-white film still packs a wallop, and the Philadelphia Orchestra deserves high praise for staging an exceptionally well prepared and powerfully executed production of this masterful mélange of art forms.
Articles
3 minute read
Takács Quartet at the Perelman
More questions than answers
The Takács Quartet brought three substantial works to its recital in the Chamber Music Society series, with Marc-André Hamelin joining it for one. The haunting Britten Third Quartet was the program's centerpiece.
Articles
6 minute read
Theatre Exile's "The English Bride'
Truth, lies and self-delusion
Lucile Lichtblau's fascinating psychodrama deliberately keeps the audience in the dark about the motives and pressures of terrorists, spies and victims. The play's perceptive point is that all of us tell lies— most often to ourselves.
Articles
2 minute read
Orchestra plays "Alexander Nevsky' (1st review)
More than meets the ear, less than meets the eye
I've always loved Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky cantata, drawn from Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film after the fact. But hearing the music performed with this lugubrious film reminded me that propaganda rarely succeeds as drama.
Articles
3 minute read