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Composer James MacMillan’s musical strategy in this opera is a stylistic patchwork that seems to mean to convey that each character inhabits a different, mutually misunderstood world.
Read MoreRobert Ingersoll is all but unknown in our time. Susan Jacoby sets out to answer why. One answer she proposes is that it was generally assumed that the reactionary expressions of religion Ingersoll contended against would simply fade away over time, to be replaced by education, broader culture and scientific reason.
Read More“As a white atheist male I am told it is none of my business to deal with what‘s going on in the so-called de-colonized societies enforcing their religious laws on their citizens.” — Joshua Sobol
Read MoreWhile The Vaccines Come of Age is a very good album, I can’t listen to it without thinking that maybe the band grew up a little too fast.
Read MoreIn an effort to give the proceedings an intimate, salon feel, the Symphony Hall stage was dotted with a couple of potted plants, three armchairs, and a pair of music stands; the cavernous environ of the space was still very much present, but one appreciated the effort to minimize it, even if only partially successful.
Read MoreI can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones. — John Cage to Richard Kostelanetz, 1988
Read MoreLeaving aside the doctrinal issue of how much of a commedia dell’arte evening should be improvised and how much should be scripted, the Yale Repertory Theatre production, in terms of performance and design, sets a high standard.
Read More“What Sherwood Anderson knew and understood was the nature of inarticulate lives and what people do when they’re in the grip of strong feelings and words fail them.”
Read MoreConsider these few notes my handing The Porcupine of Mind off to you — you read it, you write about it, then we’ll come back and talk.
Read MoreFilms such as Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters deny audiences the capacity to suspend disbelief. Instead, they use technology to make the impossible look real and the magical seem as this-worldly as an old screen door.
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Music Commentary: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest versus French Quarter Fest