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By Bill Marx Steamboat Bill Jr. is my personal favorite among Buster Keaton’s classic silent comedies, and the image (above) of Buster holding an upturned umbrella (this is a publicity still—in the movie he wields the useless brolly during a rampaging storm) is one of the movie’s greatest sight gags, an indelible image of the…
To my knowledge, this is the first time that a composer has undertaken to write a set of preludes and fugues for saxophone quartet. This is typically a keyboard form, with the Bach (“Well-Tempered Clavier”) and Shostakovich cycles representing twin peaks of that repertoire. Michael Pagán’s 12 Preludes & Fugues. Performed by the Colorado Saxophone…
By Steve Elman My conversation with jazz critic Bob Blumenthal circled around two poles. Part one focused on the music of Sonny Rollins. Part two concentrates on the making of the new book, Saxophone Colossus: a Portrait of Sonny Rollins. Text by Bob Blumenthal. Photography by John Abbott. Abrams, 160 pages, $35. Aside from the Saxophone…
Through July 29th, the MFA in Boston is presenting “Alex Katz Prints.” Time to take a look at Arts Fuse Critic Franklin Einspruch’s thoughts on the artist, posted about an exhibition of Katz’s paintings at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine.
Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage. Written and performed by Banana Bag & Bodice. At Oberon, Cambridge, MA, tonight (September 6). Reviewed by Chantal Mendes AF interview with Big Banana & Bodice Oberon is not the kind of place where you think you are going to learn something about what it means to be human.…
By Bill Marx After four years in the position, Louise Kennedy is leaving her post as theater critic for the Boston Globe to work on a book project. I wish her well: she’s had to persevere as the position becomes the afterthought of a Tweet. Perhaps she sees the handwriting on the printer’s wall. Her…
The Arts Fuse began as my blog after the untimely end of NPR/WBUR Arts Online. But, as more writers and critics wanted to make their voices heard, the blog became a magazine. So, I decided to make it a New England focused magazine modeled on other pioneering efforts to cover the news online, such as…
By Chantal Mendes This Sunday the enterprising theater troupe Banana Bag & Bodice brings its distinctively modern adaptation of an ancient classic, Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage, to Oberon in Cambridge, MA. For those of us who missed the recent movie version, Beowulf conjures up sleepy times in early English Literature class. Given…
Even though it’s the time of year when the T is clogged with wide-eyed college freshman trying to find Faneuil Hall, there are still lots of great shows to go see in Boston. By Thomas Samph This month’s selection of pop music begins with an up-and-coming female pop act from the UK whose Family Jewels…
By Caldwell Titcomb September 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29: Free Wednesday afternoon concerts continue throughout the month. September 1: Pianist Benjamin Warsaw plays works by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, and Warsaw himself. September 8: A further celebration of Schumann’s bicentenary brings a program of songs, with soprano Lisa Lynch, mezzo Carola Emrich-Fisher, tenor Jason…
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