Is Opera’s Glorious Past Trapping It Or Anchoring It?

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted: December 3, 2019 2:01 pm

The very traditions that appeal to longtime fans may be what holds opera back from gaining new fans. How to tell? – The Telegraph (UK)

Smart play

In today’s Wall Street Journal I review American Players Theatre’s reading of Lydia R. Diamond’s Smart People. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Lydia R. Diamond’s “Smart People,” a hard-edged satire of life among the academic multiculturati, was first performed off Broadway in 2016 in a production directed by Kenny Leon. I... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-27
Replay: Mary Martin in Peter Pan

A scene from NBC’s 1960 telecast of the musical version of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin and adapted and directed for the stage by Jerome Robbins. The song is by Carolyn Leigh and Moose Charlap: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-27
Almanac: James M. Barrie on death

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.” James M. Barrie, Peter Pan Continue reading Almanac: James M. Barrie on death at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-27
How About This: The Cry Baby Clown King’s Latest Con

An email just in tiime for Thanksgiving, asking fopr mloney to help overturn election even after he was officially declared—signed, sealed, and certified—the absolute loser. Meanwhile construction has begun on renovations to his post-presidential living quarters in Florida. Does he believe his supporters are brain-dead suckers? Of course.... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-11-26
Blessings in disguise

Not long after Hilary died, an old friend of mine who is also a psychiatrist said something that stayed with me: “You should try to reach a point where you can see your marriage to her as a blessing.” My Jewish friends have a different way of putting it: May her... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-26
Almanac: Samuel Beckett on how not to live

“VLADIMIR: Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener. (He looks again at Estragon.) At me too... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-26
A U.S. “Ministry of Culture” Under Biden? Just Say No, Joe!

Already anticipating a more culture-friendly president than the one who tried to eliminate federal appropriations for the National Endowments of the Arts and for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, some arts advocates are making noises about the creation of a... Read more

Source: CultureGrrl Published on: 2020-11-25
Snapshot: Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dance Romeo and Juliet

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dance the death scene from Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet version of Romeo and Juliet. The score is by Prokofiev: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) Continue reading Snapshot: Margot Fonteyn... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-25
Almanac: Cesare Pavese on suffering

“There is an art in taking the whiplash of suffering full in the face, an art you must learn. Let each single attack exhaust itself; pain always makes single attacks, so that its bite may be more intense, more concentrated. And you, while its fangs are implanted and injecting their... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-25
What are Learning Outcomes For?

‘Bitzer,’ said Thomas Gradgrind. ‘Your definition of a horse.’ ‘Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.’ Thus (and much... Read more

Source: For What it's Worth Published on: 2020-11-24
The Holy Grail of the Beat Generation Neal Cassady: ‘The Joan Anderson Letter’

When Jack Kerouac read Neal Cassady’s spontaneous rush of words, he claimed it was more alive than any piece of writing he had ever seen. In its effusive style, its freewheeling candor, its Proustian (yes, Proustian!) introspection, the letter touched off a response in Kerouac that reshaped entirely his own... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-11-24
Lookback: a Frank Lloyd Wright tour of Milwaukee and Madison

From 2015: Milwaukee contains five buildings designed by Wright, most of them private residences. More often than not, his houses were commissioned by people who had a fair amount of money to spend, meaning that they were either built on large sites that are still surrounded by trees or in... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-24
Almanac: Walter Benjamin on happiness and the past

“Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past.” Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History Continue reading Almanac: Walter Benjamin on happiness and the past at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-24
An -ing Life

No photo now, or photos. Not of November’s election’s “Dancing in the Streets”: one of my favorites by Martha & the Vandellas, to which we lifted our swaying arms when wracked and strafed Viet Nam was finally left to itself by our wretched and vicious government, like government now. I... Read more

Source: Out There Published on: 2020-11-23
Home fires

I miss Hilary and, I expect, always will. I gather that’s what happens when you lose a partner in the heartbreakingly unexpected way I did. Just the other day I muttered to myself, “Darling, I can’t remember—did you go to that Skin of Our Teeth with me in Stockbridge last July, or... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-23