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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for May 11, 2020

Flying low—but still flying

May 11, 2020 by Terry Teachout

It’s no secret, since I haven’t made it one here or elsewhere, that I’ve been having a rocky time of it for the past month. Grief maintains its own inexorable schedule without reference to the grieving person’s wants or needs, and the fact that I’ve been forced by the pandemic to mourn my beloved Hilary in total solitude has been—to put it mildly—taking its psychic toll.

The good news is that I continue to be able to work: I have yet to miss a Wall Street Journal or Commentary deadline since Hilary’s death, and I have an essay coming out in the June issue of Commentary in which I speak at length about our marriage and pay tribute to her special qualities, both as a woman and as a life’s companion. I can’t exactly say that the piece was a comfort to write, but it was definitely necessary, and I hope I captured something of her in what I wrote.

As for the rest, I am fortunate to be in the case of a psychiatrist who figured out early on that I was having serious trouble with insomnia and did something about it. No matter how hard the day has been, I know at its end that I will sleep deeply and well. And in between? All I could do at first was work and watch movies, but now I’m reading again—I’m working my way through Barbara Pym’s novels for the first time in years—and I am, first and foremost, staying in touch with the close friends who are collectively pulling me through the long, hard process of coming to terms with the death of a spouse.

To all of you who’ve expressed concern, you’re right to do so, but fear not: I’m being looked after, and I seem to be able to maintain enough altitude to stay above the trees. That’s all I can hope for at present, but it’s working, and I am, if not exactly content, coping.

Just because: the Hollywood Quartet on TV

May 11, 2020 by Terry Teachout

A rare 1953 promotional film for the Hollywood String Quartet, a group led by Felix Slatkin (Leonard Slatkin’s father) and comprised of the first-chair string players of Hollywood’s film-studio orchestras. The purpose of the film was to sell a regular program of chamber music to TV stations. The program was never produced: 

(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

Almanac: Beaumont and Fletcher on happiness

May 11, 2020 by Terry Teachout

“To have been happy, madame, leads to calamity.”

Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn

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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