Articles
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My mother's greatest gift
Everything I needed in life, my mother taught me at the piano
My mother, the descendant of slaves, was a piano teacher who never pushed her kids to become musicians. But she insisted that all of us learn to play the piano. The sense of dedication we'd derive from that experience, she reasoned, would lead us to succeed in a profession that provided a good living, whatever it might be.
Articles
8 minute read
Wagner's 'Ring' cycle (Part 1)
An egomaniac for all seasons: Learning to love Richard Wagner
The Metropolitan Opera's current Ring cycle may be the last ever produced in the traditional four-night, 15-hour style envisioned by Richard Wagner. I've attended Wagner's operas for decades. Now I must persuade my neophyte wife to appreciate this brilliant (albeit obnoxious) composer before it's too late.
Articles
6 minute read
EgoPo's "Bluebird' (1st review)
A child's garden of antidotes (c. 1908)
How should we instruct a child to go forward in life after a tragedy that deprives him of a treasured sibling, his only source of happiness? To answer this question, EgoPo stages an ambitious production of Bluebird, based on Maurice Maeterlinck's similarly titled mythical fable of 1908— a production so rich that it largely disproves Maeterlinck's thesis.
Articles
5 minute read
Picasso's last years, in New York
A genius confronts extinction: Pablo Picasso's final years
The late work of Pablo Picasso has received short shrift, but it's the magnificent culmination of the greatest artistic career since Goya— or Rembrandt and Velazquez, the 17th-Century masters whose persona Picasso adopted for his own. Curated by John Richardson, who knows more about Picasso than any man living, the current show at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea is a triumph in every respect.
Articles
6 minute read
Lynn Nottage's "Ruined' on Broadway
What did you do in the war, mama?
Lynn Nottage's Ruined is an intense and searing play about the endless civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose primary victims are not soldiers but women. It's filled with robust, individualized characters who— despite their scars, their limps, their deformities— reveal their stamina and their humanity.
Articles
3 minute read
Wagner's "Ring' cycle (Part 3: "Das Rheingold')
Gold, power, sex, love: Wagner's Rheingold daydream
Wagner's Das Rheingold introduced a new form of opera, far removed from the tradition of Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi, and even different from Wagner's own earlier romantic operas like Lohengrin and Tannhauser. The orchestra states the themes, sets the mood and remains pre-eminent throughout.
Articles
7 minute read
Opera Company's Ravel/Puccini double bill
Ravel meets Puccini (with a little help from a projector)
Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges runs only 45 minutes, and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi barely 55, but in tandem they make a full and satisfying evening, thanks especially to clever staging and excellent performances.
Articles
4 minute read
Megan Mazarick's "Avatard'
Through the virtual looking glass: Planet Cunningham?
Megan Mazarick's playful and imaginative Avatard joined the illusionistic cultures of video games and science fiction into a loopy mix.
Articles
2 minute read
"Waiting For Godot' on Broadway
Worth the wait
The new Broadway production (the first in more than half a century) of Waiting for Godot, under Anthony Page's rollicky direction and with its surprising casting, works by driving home Samuel Beckett's existential truths with laughter as well as pain.
Articles
3 minute read
Curtis Orchestra plays Russian masterworks
Are second thoughts best?
Curtis Orchestra's final concert of the season featured second thoughts on Russian masterworks by Prokofiev and Stravinsky. I'm not sure why Philadelphia couldn't hear some of Valery Gergeiev's recent traversal of the Prokofiev symphonies (which went to Washington), but the Curtis performances were at least a consolation prize. The caliber of this student orchestra, despite the annual changeovers of its graduation cycle, easily stands comparison with most professional groups anywhere.
Articles
4 minute read