Review

Classical CD Review: A Simon Mayr Comic Opera That’s Really Funny — and Performed with Flair

April 16, 2021
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At this point in his career, Mayr is contributing to the development of the musicodramatic conventions that would set the stage for the masterpieces of Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi.

Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Film (Part Two)

April 15, 2021
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1971 gave us bursts of magnificent cinematic iconoclasm that had no future — culturally or politically.

Theater Review: “The Catastrophist” — Celebrating Science

April 15, 2021
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The Catastrophist is an opportunity to begin processing our experience with a pandemic that has fundamentally changed our lives in ways we cannot yet fully comprehend.

Jazz Album Reviews: Pianists Masabumi Kikuchi and Theo Walentiny — Poetic Solo Flights

April 13, 2021
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Two albums, from a late master and a newbie, are notable additions to the current wave of introspective solo piano excursions.

Jazz Album Review: Miguel Zenón’s Law Years Band & Christian McBride’s New Jawn Band

April 12, 2021
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Two pianoless quartets + two restless leaders = some of the best music of the last few years.

Classical CD Review: György Ligeti’s “Études” — Well Played and Clearly Lived In

April 11, 2021
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Throughout these Études, Driver’s playing marries tonal warmth with textural precision.

Television Review: “Exterminate All the Brutes” — A Familiar, and Partial, History Lesson

April 10, 2021
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As an introduction to the progress of colonization and the horrors that white people have inflicted on BIPOC, Exterminate All the Brutes achieves its admirable mission.

April Short Fuses – Materia Critica

April 9, 2021
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Music (April Entry)

April 8, 2021
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Arts Fuse writers continue their countdown of great music celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the list includes Marvin Gaye, Link Wray, David Bowie, Jean Knight, and The Rolling Stones.

Book Review: Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” — Closing the Circle, Perfectly

April 7, 2021
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This is a great work, more linear than Tom Stoppard’s earlier dramas, yet filled with such intelligence and compassion that it will be read and seen for years and years and, perhaps, over time be regarded as his richest, most haunting play.

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