The long-forgotten Il paria (1829), a work that Donizetti himself prized more highly than many of his other works, has now been reconstructed by a scholarly team and given a splendid recording.
WATCH CLOSELY: “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” Ends on a Sentimental Note
I will miss Chilling Adventures of Sabrina more than I may care to admit.
Album Review: “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen” — Kid Cudi Finds Himself, Again
Occasional slip-ups shouldn’t obscure appreciation of Kid Cudi’s fantastic vocal performance.
Opera Album Review: Leonardo “no-dah” Vinci’s “Gismondo” — Quite Wonderful Stuff, Splendidly Performed.
Lovers of Baroque opera will want to scoop this one up quickly. I certainly have more respect and affection for Leonardo Vinci, now that I’ve come to know several of his operas.
Book Review: “The Ocean House” — Infiltrating the Beachheads of Memory
Mary-Beth Hughes’s penetrating glimpses into the depths of her characters’ lives make us more deeply aware of our own.
Music Remembrance: MF DOOM — The Artist as Supervillain
The sonic thumbprint of MF DOOM will live eternally in the forensics of hip-hop DNA and underground culture as a whole.
Book Review: “How 1984 Became Pop’s Blockbuster Year”
Music fans who miss, or missed, the long party that was mainstream music in the mid-’80s will be skillfully taken back to fast times in Can’t Slow Down.
Book Review: “I Died a Million Times” — Upwardly Mobile in Film Noir
I Died a Million Times is an enjoyable and informative read for film noir aficionados and casual movie fans alike, offering a cogent analysis of ’50s gangster noir as a cinema of social commentary.
Book Review: “Desert Oracle” — Dwelling on the Fringe
Desert Oracle is an omnibus, a kind of hand drawn map, as well as a bit of a crackup — something you will peruse and possibly find the route leading to a deeper dive.
Book Review: “Savage Kiss” — Children’s Criminal Crusade
Maybe the greatest value of Saviano’s narratives is that they rebuke the complicity of silence; they are acts of dissent that refuse to kowtow to the oppressive omertà.