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“As an artist, you probably know when a project pulls at you, sometimes kicking and screaming. Shylock definitely has me by the back of the neck.”
Arts Remembrance: The Man Who Colored Outside the Lines — An Appreciation of Remy Charlip, 1929-2012
The late Remy Charlip always crossed from the visual to the kinetic and back again.
A rare visit from trumpeter and composing improviser/improvising composer Arthur Brooks, a farewell evening of Ecuadorian fusion by ÑAWI, and trumpeter Brian Lynch’s “Unsung Heroes” project are the high points in a surprisingly full second half of August.
Bassist Michael Feinberg has done many things right in his richly varied tribute to the great percussionist Elvin Jones.
This daring musical version of “The Merchant of Venice” provides a fascinating re-imagining of a classic play that explores many of the themes and tropes of the original more deeply than many modern productions do.
Matt Bunsen and the Burners proves that comedic music can not only be funny, but also well-crafted and artful commentary.
Helen Constantine’s new translation of Balzac’s “The Wild Ass’s Skin” serves this wonderful and weird book well. It is one of the great, black comic fables in world literature, a dazzlingly demented exploration of a society’s lack of imagination.
In the heartrending “Three Strong Women,” award-winning novelist Marie NDiaye infuses her Senegalese women characters with a personal sense of dignity and a strong belief in self.
When the performance ended and I sat there, silent, reveling with the rest of the audience in the goose bumps that inevitably occur after such an experience, I knew, in my bones, that no movie, however good, could be as good as this.
There are plenty of amusing moments when dramatist Charles Busch makes effective use of his gift for exaggerated wit and whimsy — no dramatist can drop the word ‘canasta’ with as much hilarious finesse.
Classical Music Commentary: Boston’s Lost Opportunity — How the BSO Board Chose Charles Munch over Leonard Bernstein