Search Results: ralph locke

April Short Fuses — Materia Critica

April 1, 2024
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Opera Album Review: A Gold-Medal Recording of a Baroque Opera about the Ancient Greek Olympics

March 22, 2024
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The shamefully belated release of the first recording (1992!) of “L’olimpiade,” a major work by Hasse (a renowned contemporary of Handel and Vivaldi), featuring some of the best singers of the day, including male soprano Randall K. Wong.

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Opera Album Review: Two Comic Operas Thrive in Frenchified Versions

March 18, 2024
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Much-loved short works by Pergolesi and Mozart storm the stage, thanks to spiffy French dialogue between the musical numbers.

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Opera Album Review: Gluck’s Final Opera Finally Steps into the Spotlight via a Superb New Recording

March 13, 2024
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Rejected in Gluck’s time because it lacked dramatic thrust, today “Écho and Narcissus” proves to be a candy-box of delights.

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Children’s Book Reviews: Exciting Innovators –Three Surprising Picture-Book Biographies

March 25, 2024
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Three lesser-known innovators are profiled in these intriguing picture book biographies.

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Opera Album Review: A Resplendent First Recording of a Forgotten Opera by the Composer of “Manon” and “Thaïs”

March 8, 2024
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With Egyptian-born Amina Edris in the title role, Massenet’s opera engages the musical and theatrical imagination with its rich characterizations of Greek mythic adventures.

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Opera Album Review: A Short but Virtuosic Opera from 1786 Receives Its First Recording

February 17, 2024
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Even without international-caliber singers and players, Giovanni Piaisello’s “Amor vendicato” works much magic.

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Book Review: “Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson” — Generous and Eloquent

March 4, 2024
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This arch-New Englander, descendant of Puritans, is also “the American who resists branding, who will not be commodified.”

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Coming Attractions: March 10 through 26 — What Will Light Your Fire

March 10, 2024
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Our expert 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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March Short Fuses — Materia Critica

March 2, 2024
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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