MA

Visual Arts Review: This Unique Place — Jeff Weaver’s Magisterial Paintings and Drawings of Gloucester

May 14, 2023
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It is as poignant as it is ominous that Jeff Weaver will be among the last painters to document the last gasps of Gloucester as locals have known and loved it

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Theater Appreciation: “Miracle of Miracles” — The Priscilla Beach Theatre Redux

July 3, 2015
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The venerable Priscilla Beach Theatre was in danger of crumbling away — but it has been fully restored and is swinging into a summertime season of musicals.

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Visual Arts Feature: Cambridge’s Magazine Beach — A Fascinating View of Its History

December 10, 2014
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As is the case with all public spaces, Magazine Beach reflects the sensibilities and desires of its users, who ruined, abandoned, embraced, and transformed the area.

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Music Commentary: The 15th Annual New England Metalfest — Blunt Over Pretty

April 23, 2013
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I was curious to see how the Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent events would filter into the fest. It began with my Facebook newsfeed displaying “Going to Worcester to blow off steam”-type messages.

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Music Photos: The Dropkick Murphys Drive the Snakes out of Lowell

March 19, 2012
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The Dropkick Murphys shipped up to Lowell for their 2012 St. Patrick’s Day concert, and the Arts Fuse was there.

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Concert Review: Yeol Eum Son at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA

March 9, 2012
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Ms. Son’s performance of Debussy’s Preludes nos. 3 – 8, while mostly note-perfect, was marked by a tentativeness that kept any of them from really blossoming.

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Concert Review: Concord Chamber Players and Jessica Zhou

January 16, 2012
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In a nice twist, no piece on the Concord Chamber Players program was written before 1907, and that oldest piece came from a fine composer, Camille Saint-Saëns, whose music has fallen somewhat by the wayside since his death in 1922.

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Opera Review: A New Virtual Opera House in Town

December 11, 2011
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This is shorter, no-frills Opera as Cinema than the Met HD supplies: without long intermissions, star interviews and audience preludes and postludes from Lincoln Center, it’s almost an hour shorter.

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Visual Arts Review: Get to Know Pissarro’s People at The Clark

June 26, 2011
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Camille Pissarro lived to be 73. As he aged, he looked more and more like the prototype of a Sephardic Jew. Anti-Semitic rioting accompanied the Dreyfus Affair; the painter found it prudent to stay inside his hotel room in Paris.

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Opera Review: “Nixon in China” at The Shalin Liu Performance Center

February 14, 2011
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Although its interior says 21st century, the Shalin Liu Performance Center has a homespun, American 19th-century facade that made me think of Mark Twain and the provincial opera houses of the California Gold Rush. Care was taken to reference the original Haskins Building that once housed a clothing store called Madras and the local yacht…

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