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Reviewed By Helen Epstein An hour and a half before curtain, operagoers are lining up at the AMC 10 cineplex in Burlington, Massachusetts across the road from the mall. Forty-five minutes later, the only available seats in Theater 3 are in the first two neck-craning rows. It’s 12:15 p.m., a sunny Saturday in February when…
Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb Solo piano recitals occur all the time, but concerts by duo-pianists are not common these days. The Celebrity Series filled the gap on February 7 when Richard Goode and Jonathan Biss teamed up for a Jordan Hall program of music for piano duet and for two pianos.
“Avatar” is beautiful and otherworldly, but the film is so grounded in down-to-earth concepts that it restricts the viewer’s imagination rather than broadening it. An infinitely better and more complex recent space opera, “Mass Effect 2,” comes in the form of a video game. Is it art? Yes. By Justin Marble Over the centuries the…
Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb The Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) initiated this week what it calls Opera Annex by moving out of its usual venue for its production of Benjamin Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw. The site chosen was the Park Plaza Castle, built in 1891 as a Boston armory.
If you’re heading out toward the Berkshires and haven’t yet made plans for Valentine’s Day, consider taking your significant other to brunch at Shakespeare & Company for a five-course meal before the matinee. By Helen Epstein Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton. Adapted from the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Directed by Tina Packer.…
There is no doubt that Christian Tetzlaff stands among the very top rank of today’s violinists. Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb It’s not often that one enters Jordan Hall and sees a completely empty stage—no chair, no piano, no music stand. But all that was needed was a bare floor to accommodate the 43-year-old, German violinist…
A recent piece in the New York Times provides further proof of the increasingly pernicious stranglehold marketing exerts on the production of new voices in the theater. By Bill Marx Let’s face it—the fastest growing segment of non-profit hiring in the arts over the past decade or so, marketing, is now pretty much in the…
This Rhode Island theater merits praise for its courage in staging dramatist Sarah Kane’s highly unorthodox portrayal of severe depression. 4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. Directed by Tony Estrella. Presented by The Gamm Theatre, Pawtucket, RI, through February 7. Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb The Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket merits praise for its courage in staging…
by Caldwell Titcomb Time was when Boston had a City Censor, and books and plays drummed up trade by getting “Banned in Boston.” The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, headed by conductor Gil Rose, came up with the deliciously punning title “Band in Boston” for its Jordan Hall concert on January 22. Indeed there was not…
Theater Commentary: Isn’t It a Question of Relevance?
The reviews of the Huntington Theatre Company (HTC) production were generally ecstatic. And what could be timelier than an oft-produced American drama that focuses on the tragic costs of war profiteering?
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