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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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TT: Synchronicity

October 1, 2013 by Terry Teachout

IMG_14194-01_nn_sat_levels-L.jpgContrary to the impression left by my recent postings, I do have another life in which the impending publication of Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington plays a purely peripheral part. Today, for instance, I’m flying to Louisville to rehearse the premiere production of The King’s Man, my latest operatic collaboration with Paul Moravec, in which we tell the tale of the stormy relationship between Benjamin Franklin and his illegitimate son William, who opposed one another in the Revolutionary War (William, the royal governor of New Jersey, was a British loyalist).
It is–to put it mildly–somewhat disorienting to have an opera going into production just as you’re preparing to publish a book. But I’ve been there before: The Letter, my first collaboration with Paul, was premiered by the Santa Fe Opera one month before Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong went to the printer, a coincidence that took at least a week off my life. So I know how to cope, insofar as coping is possible under such lunatic circumstances.
featured_kings-man-danse-russe-125x125.jpgThe King’s Man is being presented by Kentucky Opera as part of a double bill that also includes the first revival of Danse Russe, our backstage operatic comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring, which was premiered two years ago in Philadelphia.
Needless to say, I’ll be telling you a lot more about The King’s Man between now and opening night, which is set for October 11. In the meantime, though, go here to buy tickets and here to read synopses of the two operas and a short essay that I wrote earlier this year about The King’s Man.
See you in Kentucky!

TT: Lookback

October 1, 2013 by Terry Teachout

From 2003:

I should start by addressing a half-truth, which is that the point of a Rothko, or any other work of art, is the way it looks, not who made it. Art connoisseurs have a phrase for people who get those two things confused: such benighted folk “buy signatures,” which is one baby step up from collecting autographs….

Read the whole thing here.

TT: Almanac

October 1, 2013 by Terry Teachout

“The modern world is filled with men who hold dogmas so strongly that they do not even know that they are dogmas.”
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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