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Auld Lang Syne is the kind of poorly made play that withholds important and obvious elements of development in order to score artificial dramatic points late in the action.
Updated. The year 1962, the terminus of Richard Vacca’s new history of Boston jazz, marked an end to an era. Fifty years later, with the cutbacks in jazz programming at WGBH, are we approaching a similar inflection point?
WGBH is exploring an interesting question — how little can you invest in arts coverage and still have the chutzpah to ask for money from supporters who mistake crumbs for a loaf?
Updated.As many Boston listeners feared, WGBH has put its jazz programming on the road to extinction. What is to be done?
Orango is one of the tantalizing “what might have been’s” of musical history: a biting social commentary on Soviet society on the fifteenth anniversary of the October Revolution, written when Shostakovich was at the height of his musical powers and popularity.
At Land’s Edge is a creepy and wonderful piece of art that will more than likely inspire a mind-altering live experience.
If you’re a Gil Evans devotee, or even a casual appreciator, have I got good news for you: Ryan Truesdell’s Centennial, more than 70 minutes of Evans that we never thought we’d hear, 10 tunes realized so beautifully and brilliantly that they should win a Grammy for Truesdell and a second, posthumous Grammy for Evans.
In his novel, Sayed Kashua paints such a vivid picture of modern Jerusalem that I found myself longing to see that city again; he also portrays a whole spectrum of Arab life in Israel — from the poor families visited by the social workers to the ambitious Arab mothers and their sometimes feckless sons — with empathy and humor.
What continually impresses about A Far Cry is their discipline, ability to keep complicated rubato under complete control, well-modulated dynamics, beauty of sound, and really interesting programming.
Arts Commentary: Critical Rule #1 — Don’t Write Like a Publicist
Early on I was given these words of wisdom by my friend, the late theater critic Arthur Friedman: “Criticism should not read as if it had been written by a publicist.
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