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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. His Wikipedia entry is here. more

ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS 
Terry's latest book is Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S., JR Books in England, and Larousse in Brazil. He is currently at work on Mood Indigo: A Life of Duke Ellington. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance. He contributed notes on recordings by Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, and Oscar Peterson to Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology and wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback edition of Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. more

MORE ABOUT "POPS" 
To read reviews of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, watch TV interviews and listen to radio interviews and podcasts about the book, and find out the answers to frequently asked questions about Armstrong and Pops, click on the link. more

ABOUT TERRY'S OPERAS 
Terry is collaborating with Paul Moravec on Danse Russe, a backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring that will be premiered by Philadelphia's Center City Opera Theater on April 28, 2011. To read more about Danse Russe, go here and here. To view excerpts from the opera and see Paul and Terry talk about its creation, go here.

Terry previously collaborated with Paul 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, 2009. To see excerpts from the opera, go here. To read Terry's 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).

CD 
Percy Grainger, The Complete 78-RPM Solo Recordings 1908-1945 (Appian, five CDs). The composer of "Country Gardens" and "Molly on the Shore" was also one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, a marvelously idiosyncratic virtuoso whose style ranged from tender lyricism to explosive extroversion. Most of his 78s have been unavailable in any format since their original release. This much-needed box set solves that problem--and does it right. Ward Marston's digital transfers of such classic Grainger recordings as Chopin's B Minor Sonata, Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, and Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" are crystal-clear and scratch-free. The liner notes are by Grainger biographer John Bird. I doubt there'll be a more important classical reissue in 2011 (TT).

DVD 
The Norman Conquests (Acorn Media, three discs). Now on DVD for the first time, the 1977 TV version of Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy of interlocking comedies about hanky-panky at a country house, starring Penelope Keith and Tom Conti and directed by Herbert Wise. If you missed the Broadway revival of this darkly funny masterpiece, make haste to catch up in the comfort of your living room (TT).

CD 
Modern Jazz Quartet, The Quintessence (Fremeaux & Associés, two CDs). An exceptionally well-chosen anthology of classic MJQ recordings made between 1952 and 1960, imported from France and worth every penny. If you're in need of an introduction to one of the great working jazz groups of the postwar era, this one will do the job with plenty of room to spare (TT).

DVD 
John Gielgud, Ages of Man (Entertainment One). Courtesy of the Archive of American Television, the 1966 broadcast version of the great actor's one-man Shakespeare show, which aired on CBS on two consecutive Sunday afternoons (the network suits didn't think anybody would sit still long enough to watch the whole show in one go) and has been in limbo ever since. Contemporary Shakespeare style has changed beyond recognition since Gielgud's day, but his elegant delivery and exquisitely modulated voice remain as seductive--and intelligent--as ever (TT).

PLAY 
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Washington, D.C., closes Apr. 10). Tracy Letts, the author of August: Osage County, stars in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's stunningly direct and unadorned production of Edward Albee's best play, backed up by a perfect ensemble cast and directed with precision and simplicity by Pam MacKinnon. I saw it a week too late to cram it into my best-of-the-year list, but you can be it'll be there come 2011 (TT).

Out of the Past

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

DVD 
Topsy-Turvy (Criterion Collection, out Mar. 29). Mike Leigh's 1999 film about Gilbert, Sullivan, and the making of The Mikado, newly remastered and reissued by the Criterion Collection with all the usual goodies, is the best backstage movie ever made, as well as a surpassingly fine exercise in cinematic time travel. To watch it is to feel closer to the tone and texture of Victorian life than you ever thought possible. Intelligent, provocative, hugely entertaining...what's not to like? (TT).

BOOK 
Simon Nowell-Smith, The Legend of the Master: Henry James as Others Saw Him. The subtitle says it, but conveys nothing of the elegance and resourcefulness with which Nowell-Smith put together this 1947 anthology of first-hand anecdotes and impressions--all of them carefully verified. To see James through the widely varied eyes of Arnold Bennett, E.F. Benson, G.K. Chesterton, Desmond MacCarthy, H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, and dozens of other contemporaries is to see him with the utmost immediacy, and the results are far more readable, even for pure pleasure, than any volume of this kind has any right to be (TT).

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