Coming Attractions
Arts Fuse critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
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The Arts Fuse Currents
Music
Opera Album Review: A Fittingly Fresh First Recording of a Flexible One-Acter by Donizetti’s Teacher
Johann Simon Mayr’s delicious L’Accademia di musica gets a spiffy performance from the “Rossini in Wildbad” Festival.
Visual Arts
Film
The first American release of a 1961 Italian comic treasure that spoofs corruption in postwar Italy.
Books
Vivid descriptions of the oppression activists fighting for democracy in Hong Kong have faced – and continue to – elevates this novel above the usual YA bromides.
Poetry at The Arts Fuse
This week’s poem: Askold Melnyczuk’s “Prayer of Origin.”
Dance
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s Curriculum II is no intellectual exercise. It is a gut-wrenching journey into the heart of darkness, offset by flashes of compassion and light.
Theater
Set designer Sara Brown creates theater wizardry through the assistance of digital tools, not a magic wand.
Television
What made Barry such a hit was that it was deliciously funny; the laughs were a balm for the uneasiness viewers felt as the body count rose from episode to episode.
Podcasts
Host Elizabeth Howard talks to poet, novelist, and essayist Joshua Whitehead about his essay collection “Making Love With the Land.”
Short Fuses
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Food
Flux Gourmet occasionally reminded me of the films of Peter Greenaway, who often juxtaposed the grotesque or disturbing with the beautiful and ethereal.
About the Arts Fuse
The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication's over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. Support arts coverage that believes that culture matters.
Design Commentary: Department of Play — Creating a New Urban Planning Paradigm
Participatory, small-scale planning is a powerful step forward because it doesn’t pay lip service to cliches about “listening to the community.”