Year: 2012

Classical Music Review: BMOP Revitalizes the Concept of a Concerto Concert

January 29, 2012
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Though there were differences in quality between the compositions in the BMOP concert, all of the pieces fulfilled the primary requirement of a concerto: they showed off the capabilities of the solo instrument in question, often memorably so.

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Coming Attractions in Film: February 2012

January 29, 2012
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You may be still catching up on the Academy Award, Golden Globe, People’s Choice, or SAG picks. But this month offers some rare and wonderful treats for film fans of all kinds.

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Book Review: Niccolò Ammaniti’s “Me and You” — a lightly charming, digestible morsel

January 27, 2012
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Italian writer Niccolò Ammaniti usually writes with an unadorned style about moral predicaments of the young in small-town Italy. “Me and You,” a slender effort in all respects, covers this ground as well, with the difference that fourteen-year-old protagonist Lorenzo Cumi is from an affluent Roman family.

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Book Interview: S.T. Joshi on Ambrose Bierce — The Underappreciated Genius of Being Grim

January 24, 2012
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Bierce proffers a satiric temperament gone wild and woolly, partly propelled by a revulsion at the criminal vulgarity of the Gilded Age. Given the current triumph of the 1%, his fury at power mad corporations is worth an admiring look.

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Stage Interview: Antonio Ocampo-Guzman on Directing a Tragicomic “Art”

January 23, 2012
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In “Art,” playwright Yasmina Reza uses theater to explore how powerfully we defend our fears and rationalizations.

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Classical Concert Review: The BSO Handles a Last Minute Cancellation with Aplomb

January 22, 2012
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Guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, music director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, is a big man who conducts with big gestures. In the first half of “The Rite of Spring” I wasn’t quite sure if his podium mannerisms (which culminated in jumping jacks during the concluding “Dance of the Earth”) were helpful or distracting.

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Film Review: The Hilarious Hells of Reza and Polanski

January 21, 2012
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As in the plays of Harold Pinter, Reza realizes that violence seethes underneath our words; our language betrays our better nature.

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Poetry Review: Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer’s Divided Self

January 20, 2012
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Certainly part of the power of Tomas Tranströmer’s poetry resides in how, having established a jagged consciousness, he leaves us in between—in a world full of questions that are not easily resolved.

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Jazz Preview / Commentary: Jason Moran’s Monk Project

January 19, 2012
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So Jason Moran has decided to re-create something that is already a pinnacle of a master’s work –- something that could hardly be improved on. You could be expected to ask Why? and How?

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Book Review: “The Secret in Their Eyes” — An Impressive Work of Art

January 19, 2012
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The novel is a brilliant psychological thriller, and several other things as well — a very quiet love story, a narrative of a remarkable friendship between two men, and an exploration of the corruption rampant in Argentine politics in the late 60s and 70s.

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