Articles
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Sylvia Nasar's "Grand Pursuit'
The liberation of the 90 per cent
Why are we so much better off materially than our ancestors? The author of A Beautiful Mind tells the story of the economists who wrestled with the process that liberated humankind from “the nightmare of the past.”
Articles
4 minute read
Met's "Enchanted Island' in HD-Live
Too much of a good thing, in your face
Big screen opera can be wonderful when its close-ups convey subtle gestures and notes. But as Enchanted Island demonstrates, the same proximity can make you gag when the characters are hamming it up to excess.
Articles
5 minute read
Roman Polanski's "Carnage' (2nd review)
Fear and loathing in a Brooklyn livng room
Roman Polanski's Carnage is, for him, a minor chamber piece, but focused with his usual unerring eye for human weakness and absurdity. It's also a reminder of the judicial farce that has barred the celebrated director from America for more than 30 years.
Articles
4 minute read
Blomstedt conducts Beethoven
What we hear vs. what Beethoven heard
Should Beethoven be performed in the grand Romantic style or in the tighter manner of Beethoven's own times? Herbert Blomstedt managed to straddle both sides of that fence.
Articles
4 minute read
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"Porgy and Bess' on Broadway
Porgy, we hardly knew ye
Can you improve on a classic like Porgy and Bess, let alone Shakespeare or Chekhov? Diane Paulus thought she could make Gershwin's classic more relevant to modern audiences. The result is a merely entertaining show, bereft of the passion and grandeur of the 1935 original.
Articles
5 minute read
"Memphis' and the real dawn of rock 'n' roll
Blacks, whites and rock ‘n' roll: Memphis vs. the real ‘Bandstand'
As rock 'n' roll musicals go, Memphis seems unnecessary. The subject of racial integration among music lovers was well covered ten years ago in Hairspray. A far more intriguing tale— how Bob Horn's “Bandstand” brought black music to white Philadelphia audiences in the early '50s— has yet to be celebrated on stage.
Articles
5 minute read
A better way to destroy Damien Hirst
A free-market response to a truly dotty artist
Damien Hirst, AKA Britain's bad boy of art, sees contemporary art as a con game and the super-rich as his marks. But the rest of us can play this game too. After all, there are 99 of us for every one of them.
Articles
3 minute read
"Townie,' by Andre Dubus III
Behind the literary curtain
How could such a sensitive writer have been such an insensitive father? In Townie, the son wrestles with that puzzle.
Articles
4 minute read
"War Horse': Animals as friends
A four-legged friend goes to war
In northern California, where I live, War Horse touched a special chord. Many of our families depended on horses not so long ago, and we learned to respect them.
Articles
2 minute read
"Ludwig Live' at Kimmel's Innovation Studio
And then in 1822 I wrote…..
Where did Beethoven go wrong? For one thing, he lacked catchy lyrics. For another, he lacked a vivacious sidekick adept at baton twirling and tap dancing. Now he has both.
Articles
2 minute read