Posts

Concert Review: Leila Josefowicz and the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen

April 16, 2012
Posted in , ,

As the BSO searches for its new music director, Mr. Salonen’s name is sure to come up. While he’s probably a long-shot candidate, any orchestra that has him on their podium for a week or two a season should count itself lucky.

Read More

Poetry Review: Poet D. A. Powell Redeems the Wasteland

April 16, 2012
Posted in ,

In D. A. Powell’s latest volume, the dominant landscape is that of the wasting body, which is crisscrossed, investigated, confronted, and made useful again as a map in the hands of raw youth.

Read More

Theater Review: An Amusing “She Stoops to Conquer” from the National Theatre

April 15, 2012
Posted in , ,

It is a pleasure to report that — driven by the lively direction of Jamie Lloyd and the skills of an energetic cast — the National Theatre production proves that even after two centuries Oliver Goldsmith’s classic can still dole out plenty of comic delight.

Read More

Book Review: “Fairness and Freedom” — A Study in Binocular History

April 14, 2012
Posted in ,

“Fairness and Freedom” is a cultural/political/social history of the United States and New Zealand in one volume. To the general reader’s likely question, “Why would anyone put the two in one book?”, author’s answer and binding theme is that both former British colonies are open societies with liberal democratic systems, but with a difference.

Read More

Concert Review: Paco de Lucía — The Rock Star of Flamenco Guitar

April 13, 2012
Posted in , ,

There was nothing in the program about the pieces he and his fellow musicians would be playing, but no one seemed to care. Most already knew the music from Paco de Lucía’s recordings. They were coming to hear him live, and there was not an empty seat to be seen in the Boston Opera House.

Read More

Theater Review: “The Luck of the Irish” — Serious About Real Estate

April 13, 2012
Posted in ,

Though rooted in Boston history, “The Luck of the Irish,” with its racial, class, marital and inter-generational conflicts, could be set anywhere in the world.

Read More

“The Bad Backwards Walking” — A Dispatch from William Kentridge’s Fourth Norton Lecture

April 12, 2012
Posted in , , , , ,

William Kentridge spoke of the value of using a mirror to re-learn what he already knew how to do; the clear implication was that we are daily surrounded by mirror-images that we do not see for themselves but that hold the potential to alter our relationships to our tools and to our visions.

Read More

Short Fuse: Basketball, “The Hunger Games,” and Postmodernism

April 10, 2012
Posted in ,

What struck me about “Hunger Games” is that the rules change in Katniss Everdeen’s battle to survive against others like her, including others she likes, might even love.

Read More

Visual Arts Essay: Gods in the Gallery — A Visit to the Museum of Russian Icons

April 10, 2012
Posted in ,

If the icon is both a window into the mystical experience of the painter and a door allowing the saint to come into the believer’s world, am I, unbeliever that I am, hoping to stand in the line of sight, to see what I can intercept of this uncanny conversation?

Read More

Classical CD Review: “Sounds of Defiance” (Yevgeny Kutik, violin/Timothy Bozarth/piano)

April 9, 2012
Posted in , ,

This recording heralds a serious, probing musician exploring some vital, if unfamiliar, twentieth-century violin repertoire, and, as such, presents a more-than-welcome addition to recent solo violin discography.

Read More

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives