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ABOUT "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" AND ITS AUTHORS 
This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout, Laura Demanski (otherwise known as Our Girl in Chicago, or "OGIC" for short), and Carrie Frye (who signs her postings "CAAF"). Terry, who lives in New York, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the chief culture critic of Commentary. more

ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS 
Terry's latest book, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, will be published in December by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S. and JR Books in England. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance, published last year by Pantheon. He contributed an essay to Coudal Partners' Field-Tested Books (as did OGIC) and wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback edition of Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. more

SEE TERRY TALK 
To watch Terry's wsj.com review of Guys and Dolls, go here.

ABOUT TERRY'S OPERA 
Terry collaborated with Paul Moravec on The Letter, an operatic version of Somerset Maugham's 1927 play that was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera in 2006 and opened there on July 25. To read his reports on the writing, production, premiere, and reception of The Letter, click on the link. more

TERRY'S TWITTERS 

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CONTACT
tteachout@artsjournal.com
ogic@artsjournal.com
caaf@artsjournal.com

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TOP FIVE

A list of new things we've liked (subject to unexpected and wildly capricious updating).

BOOK 
Richard Stark, The Seventh/The Handle/The Rare Coin Score (University of Chicago, $14 each). Three more titles in the University of Chicago's uniform edition of the out-of-print Parker novels of Richard Stark (alias the late, lamented Donald E. Westlake) are out this week. All are lean, laconic, tough-minded installments in the endlessly rereadable saga of the ultra--professional burglar you hate to like. Nine down, six to go (TT).

CD 
Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall--The Private Collection: Mussorgsky and Liszt (RCA Red Seal). Stupendously vivid performances of the Liszt B Minor Sonata and Pictures at an Exhibition (the latter in Horowitz's own beefed-up transcription) recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1948 and 1949 and released here for the first time. Connoisseurs of transcendental virtuosity need not hesitate (TT).

PLAY 
How the Other Half Loves (Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Conn., closes Aug. 15). If The Norman Conquests whetted your appetite for the blacker-than-it-looks comedy of Alan Ayckbourn, this fizzy regional revival of his 1969 who's-sleeping-with-whom farce about three unhappily married couples will fill the bill with ease. Catch it while you can (TT).

OPERA 
The Letter (Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, N.M., in repertory July 25-Aug. 18). Adultery, murder, lies, blackmail, confession, trial, hallucination, acquittal, confrontation, disaster, blood, blackout--all in ninety minutes with no intermission. An opera noir, in other words, based on the 1927 Somerset Maugham play and staged by Jonathan Kent (Faith Healer). Patricia Racette is the star, Hildegard Bechtler the set designer, Tom Ford the costume designer. Music by Paul Moravec, words by yours truly. A rattling good show, if we do say so ourselves (TT).

BOOK 
Lauren Braun Costello and Russell Reich, Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft (RCR Creative Press, $21.95). I can barely boil water, but I know an immensely informative guide when I read one, and this one fills the bill. Fans of Reich's Notes on Directing, among whom I number myself, will recall the drill: Notes on Cooking is a 143-page list of 217 dos and don'ts for cooks, aspiring and otherwise. Some are starkly practical ("Fish should not smell") and others subtly suggestive ("Embrace the mundane"). The advice--I'm told--is sound, the writing crisp, the design pleasing to the eye. Stuff a stocking or two with this one, and buy another for yourself (TT).

Out of the Past

Not new, but still worth a look or listen (and no less subject to change without notice).

DVD 
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 1 (Warner Home Video, five discs). Having just written the libretto for an opera noir, I'm struck by how many of the people I met along the way knew little or nothing of the Hollywood film genre on which The Letter was based. If you're one of them, the best way to get up to speed is to acquire this immaculately chosen box set, which contains five classics of film noir, John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy, Edward Dymytryk's Murder, My Sweet (a film version of Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely), Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past, and Robert Wise's The Set-Up. It's all here: the chumps, the dames, the hard-edged backchat, the shadow-stained cinematography, the fear and hopelessness, enacted by the likes of Jane Greer, Sterling Hayden, Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe, Dick Powell, Robert Ryan, and Audrey Totter. Treat yourself to a long weekend of despair (TT).

ANTHOLOGY 
Louis Kronenberger (ed.), The Portable Johnson and Boswell. This one's for OGIC, who's teetering on the edge of reading James Boswell's magisterial but long-winded Life of Samuel Johnson. In 1955 Louis Kronenberger abridged Boswell's Life for the Viking Portable series, filling out the volume with a judicious selection of other writings by Johnson and Boswell. This now-forgotten book, which has been out of print for years and years, is an excellent way to experience the Life without braving its occasional longueurs. Used copies are blessedly easy to find (TT).

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