Review
Films like Ben is Back will not foster an understanding of how drug addiction ravages the lives of the poor, the incarcerated, the uneducated, and the less fortunate.
Despite its serious treatment of surreal art, Monsters & Myths is a real delight.
Roma is Alfonso Cuarón’s gorgeous, neorealist ode to his formative years growing up in ’70s Mexico City, and to the housekeeper he took for granted as she carried him through that tumultuous decade.
This volume is clearly critic Nate Chinen’s resounding response to the “jazz is dead” chant.
The Tallis Scholars are unquestionably today’s most renowned exponent of Renaissance sacred music.
The company’s staging is dynamic and vivacious, and the unconventional seating arrangements give audience members the chance to place themselves in the center of the action.
None of the opera recordings I have reviewed this past year beats this Cradle for dramatic vitality, musical imagination, and ongoing political relevance.
The success or failure of this show rests primarily on the physical presence, voice and acting of the actor playing the celebrated lyric tenor Roland Hayes.
Acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Michael Cristofer’s script is very open about portraying Emile Griffith’s sexuality.
Handel & Haydn Society’s Haydn and Mozart is about as good as it gets; Martyn Brabbins’ recording of A Sea Symphony is one of the year’s best releases; and for elegance and technical command, you can’t go wrong with Tilson Thomas and his San Francisco Symphony.
August Short Fuses — Materia Critica