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The Chamber Orchestra of Boston’s final concert of the season reaffirmed the city’s high level of musicianship. Reviewed By Helen Epstein Although it is a popular and engaging staple of the concert hall, the fully staged version of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat or The Soldier’s Tale is one of the least performed in the…
But in my arms until the break of day/ Let the living creature lie,/ Mortal, guilty, but to me/ The entirely beautiful. – W. H. Auden, Lullaby The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. The National Theatre production presented by NTLive at the Coolidge Corner Cinema, Boston, MA, on April 22…
By Bill Marx The month contains plenty of summerish entertainment, from a new baseball musical to a campy Alfred Hitchcock parody and a jazzy update of The Mikado. For me, the standouts are the more demanding fare, such as a festival of new American theater pieces and an exciting opportunity see Shakespeare’s rarely staged Timon…
By J. R. Carroll Coming Attractions in Jazz for April 2010 unfortunately was washed away by the Waters of March (“It’s the mud, it’s the mud”), but we couldn’t let this year’s Jazz Week slip by without highlighting a few of the numerous events taking place in the Boston metro area from Friday, April 23,…
Leonard Bernstein was the most charismatic conductor of the last century, and Gustavo Dudamel is the most charismatic one of this century. By Caldwell Titcomb I provided a lengthy update on the phenomenal conductor Gustavo Dudamel here in December. But now there is important fresh news about him. He actually came to town this weekend…
The issues might seem highly technical and of interest only to specialists, but I think they do matter. In the first place they matter as a corrective to our understanding of Rembrandt, but they also matter for the critical insights they offer into the techniques and practices of scholarship. By Gary Schwartz Earlier columns were…
By Bill Marx I have neglected to point out the recent postings at my other gig, the online feature World Books at BBC/PRI’s The World. I just completed my April podcast, a departure for the series because I focus on a classic American author rather than a writer in translation. But this April 21st marks…
Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) came to town for an April 9 Jordan Hall concert under the sponsorship of the Celebrity Series. Geoff Nuttall (violin) and Lesley Robertson (viola) are founding members, while Christopher Constanza (cello) joined in 2004 and Scott St. John (violin) in…
“Musicians take all the liberties they can.” — Ludwig Von Beethoven Opus by Michael Hollinger. Directed by Jim Petosa. Staged by the New Repertory Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA, through April 17. Reviewed by Bill Marx In Opus, dramatist Michael Hollinger belies Beethoven’s frustrated observation about the free-wheeling nature of…
There is now an eighth Judicial Review, with the panel deliberating on the Boston University College of Fine Arts production of the 1990 Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical “Assassins,” which looks at the lives and sensibilities of men and women who attempted (successfully or otherwise) to kill the President of the United States. Below: background on…
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