Articles
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Page 418
Poles, Jews and 'Our Class' (3rd comment)
The sorrow and the pity— In Poland, and Philadelphia too
Our Class, which concerns a World War II atrocity committed by Polish Catholics against their Jewish neighbors, is currently raising questions all over Poland, as well it should. But the Polish church has ignored it— and so, apparently, have my fellow Polish-American Philadelphians.
Articles
8 minute read
"The Whipping Man' at the Arden
Free, black, 21— and kosher too
The Whipping Man concerns the tribulations of a former Confederate soldier trying to run a proper Jewish household with two of his ex-slaves. Playwright Matthew Lopez apparently hopes you'll be too busy gasping at his ironies to notice the holes in his plot.
Articles
4 minute read
Ying Quartet at the Perelman
Three Slavs by four Asians
The Ying Quartet's recital offered a late work of the Tsarist era and a late one of the Soviet period. Plenty of history intervened between them, as the scores made clear, but Dvorák's Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81, which rounded out the program, made for a rousing conclusion, with pianist Menahem Pressler adding his special touch to the youthful ensemble.
Articles
5 minute read
Lantern Theater's "New Jerusalem' (3rd review)
Spinoza confronts a 21st-Century jury
In David Ives's play, Baruch Spinoza's very abstract notions test a 17th-Century congregation's tolerance for new ideas, not to mention age-old ideals. But the Lantern Theater production makes it clear that this 21st-Century audience is being tested as well.
Articles
5 minute read
Dutoit and the Orchestra: Breathing easy
The case for self-effacing conductors
A conductor's pacing works best when the audience notices it least. Charles Dutoit's beat created a pace that's akin to breathing, as opposed to the unvarying tick-tock of a metronome.
Articles
3 minute read
Met's new "Don Giovanni' in HD Live
Revolt of the peasants? Not just yet
In this age of complaints about “class warfare” and widening gaps between the “top one percent” and the rest of us, Don Giovanni takes on new meaning. But only two singers the Met's production seemed perturbed about the Don's debaucheries.
Articles
4 minute read
Julian Rodescu: A life in the arts
The courage to take risks: Julian Rodescu's rich life in the arts
My late friend Julian Rodescu was a cellist who became an opera singer, a teacher who became an impresario, a Romanian who became an American, and a New Yorker who became a devoted Philadelphian. His talent opened doors for him, but so did his willingness to try new things and push new limits.
Articles
6 minute read
Philadelphia Singers discover Mendelssohn's sister
The sister also rises
As composers go, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel may have been as talented as her brother Felix. The Philadelphia Singers reminded us that she deserves our attention.
Articles
4 minute read
'Our Class' at the Wilma (2nd review)
Once upon a time in Poland: Truth, lies and history
Tadeusz Slobodzaniek's Our Class recounts the 1941 massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors, and the subsequent cover-up that blamed it on the Nazis. That the Nazis had willing collaborators in their extermination of the Jews isn't news; more interesting than the moral disintegration that led to the massacre is the subsequent history of rationalization and denial, which continues to the present day.
Articles
8 minute read
Graham's "Philly Fan' at People's Light
They booed Santa Claus. Or did they?
Bruce Graham's ranting Philly Fan, updated to reflect his city's latest sports tragedies, is sort of like a sports event where the home team always wins.
Articles
2 minute read