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"Writers who try to prove something are unattractive to me, because there is nothing to prove and everything to imagine."
Eugène Ionesco, Paris Review interview, fall 1984
Posted February 20, 2013 12:00 AM
ABOUT "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" AND ITS AUTHORS ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS ABOUT TERRY'S PLAY AND OPERA LIBRETTI To see John Douglas Thompson on stage in Satchmo at the Waldorf, go here. To watch a Wall Street Journal-produced video interview with Terry, go here. To read Terry's program note, go here. To read the Boston Globe review, go here. To read the New York Times review, go here. To read a New York Times feature about the play, go here. To listen to a radio interview with Terry and John, go here. To see a video of excerpts from the 2011 Orlando production of Satchmo at the Waldorf, starring Dennis Neal, go here. • Terry and Paul Moravec, his operatic collaborator, are currently at work on The King's Man, a one-act drama about Benjamin and William Franklin that will be premiered by Kentucky Opera in the fall of 2013. For more information, go here and here. The King's Man is a companion piece to their second opera, Danse Russe, a one-act backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring that was commissioned by Philadelphia's Center City Opera Theater and premiered there 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 and Paul began their collaboration with The Letter, a full-evening 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, staging, premiere, and reception of the original production of The Letter, click on the link.
THE LONG GOODBYE MORE ABOUT "POPS"
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A list of new things we've liked (subject to unexpected and wildly capricious updating). CD NOVEL CD BOOK PLAY
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LITERARY HISTORY FILM
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 critic-at-large of Commentary. His Wikipedia entry is here.
Terry is the author of Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, which will be published by Gotham Books in the fall of 2013. His last book was Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S., JR Books in England, Larousse in Brazil, and United Press/Alpina in Russia. He wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback editions of Richard Stark's Flashfire and Firebreak and Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance, and he contributed notes on recordings by Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, and Oscar Peterson to Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology.
Terry's first play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, was performed in 2012 at Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, Mass., Long Wharf Theatre of New Haven, Conn., and Philadelphia's Wilma Theater. The production was directed by Gordon Edelstein, with John Douglas Thompson appearing in the triple role of Louis Armstrong, Joe Glaser, and Miles Davis.
To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here.
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.
tteachout@artsjournal.com
ogic@artsjournal.com
caaf@artsjournal.com Search
TOP FIVE
Maria Bachmann and Adam Neiman, French Fantasy (Bridge). Sensitive yet bracingly incisive performances of sonatas by Franck, Saint-Saëns (the D Minor, familiar to Proustians as the model for the "sonate de Vinteuil"), and Debussy, with a lovely performance of Jascha Heifetz's violin-and-piano arrangement of Debussy's "Beau Soir" thrown in for good measure. Bachmann, who doubles as the violinist of Trio Solisti, is one of the outstanding soloists of her generation, and Neiman is no mere "accompanist" but a sonata partner of impeccable authority. This one's a winner (TT).
Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man (New York Review Books, $14.95 paper). Back in print for the first time since 1963, this taut exercise in noir fiction tells the terrifying tale of an intern who picks up a hitchhiker in the desert and finds himself plunged into a they-won't-believe-me nightmare. Best known today for writing the novel on which Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place was based, Hughes turns out to be a first-class thriller writer who deserves to be far better known. A word to the wise: do not peek at Walter Mosley's afterword until you've finished reading The Expendable Man! You really don't want to spoil the surprise (TT).
Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928-1945 (Mosaic, seven CDs). The first large-scale box set of its kind, this digitally remastered collection, drawn from Sony's archives, contains 171 tracks that cover Hines' twin careers as a radically innovative solo jazz pianist and immensely potent swing-era bandleader. Included are recordings originally released by OKeh, Victor, Brunswick, Vocalion, Bluebird, and Signature, including a considerable number of his finest 78-era sides. Brian Priestley's detailed liner notes are as good as anything that's ever been written about Hines, and the sound, as usual with Mosaic, is pristine (TT).
Douglas Smith, Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30). This harrowing chronicle is, incredibly, the first full-length history of of the mass murder of Russia's aristocrats and noble families in the wake of the Russian Revolution. It's a superb piece of work, utterly direct and unforgettably honest, which tells the truth without falling victim to dewy-eyed nostalgia for the "good old days" of fantastic wealth and working-class immiseration. Recommended without reservation (TT).
Picnic (Roundabout/AA, 227 W. 42, closes Feb. 24). A very strong revival of one of the least sufficiently appreciated American dramas of the 20th century, back on Broadway for the first time since 1994 in a production that fully conveys its beauty and power. If, like most people, you know William Inge's once-famous plays only from their buffed-up screen versions, you'll find Sam Gold's sensitive staging to be a revelation. No, Picnic isn't a big-budget Hollywood soap opera: It's a plain-spoken portrait of small-town life that manages at the same time to be both critical and sympathetic (TT).
Out of the Past
Richard Huggett, The Truth About Pygmalion. Originally published in 1969, this deftly written, admirably concise study of how George Bernard Shaw's most popular play made it to the stage is forgotten today save by Shaw specialists. It shouldn't be. Few such books pack more information into a smaller package, and fewer still do so with such engaging wit (TT).
Local Hero. If, like me, you have a weakness for whimsical portraits of small-town life, you'll love Bill Forsyth's 1983 comedy about a slightly cracked oil-comedy boss (Burt Lancaster) who dispatches a no-nonsense junior executive (Peter Riegert) to a tiny Scottish seaside village in order to buy it out and send the locals packing. No, the outcome isn't in any way surprising, but Local Hero is delicately fey and completely charming (TT).
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