Raavan (2009, dir. Mani Ratnam). Aishwarya Rai’s Ragini remains too little marred by abduction, rock-scaling, near-drowning, food refusal, traumatic witnessing, being dragged from cave to pit to cave and so on. The camera still fondles her face as it might any cover-girl—confirming this face to be as fascinating as that of some infant cyborg. Abhishek […]
Mughal-e-Azam again and forever, but this time on the big screen at Walter Reade, in the original version, not 2004 full colorization. As heady a myriad of beauty and sensation as ever. The full ten scintillating seconds of pearls sent scattering, pattering onto a polished patterned floor. The billet-doux secreted into the lotus flower, the […]
Alan Bennett’s THE HABIT OF ART, April 22, 2010 National Theatre, London—via simulcast at NYU Is squalid solitude prerequisite to habitual art? A case can be made, no doubt. Yet it was strange to see Auden portrayed so slobbering, forgetful, corpulent—a man in a barely buttonable cardigan, wobbling with fat and pissing into his kitchen […]
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Belatedly catching up on the Winter Olympics, especially the figure-skating pair upon which China has been pinning its dreams. After near-misses at three prior Olympics, Shen Xue (31) and Zhao Hongbo (36) finally took the gold Monday—with a new world record. In the flawless clinching of each most critical moment one sensed the poignant history […]
Also filed in Asiana, Dance, Music, New York
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Tagged carnegie, dyad, figure skating, Love, mahler, mariss janssons, rco, royal concertgebouw
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Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 8 PM Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. Pierre Boulez Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage BOULEZ | Livre pour cordes BARTÓK | Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra (Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich, pianos) STRAVINSKY | The Firebird (complete) A privilege to hear Boulez conduct, last night for the third time in […]
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 8 PM Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. Pierre Boulez Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage RAVEL | Le Tombeau de Couperin DALBAVIE | Flute Concerto (Mathieu Dufour, flute) BARTÓK | Bluebeard’s Castle (Michelle DeYoung, mezzo; Falk Struckmann, bass-baritone) To carry Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle to its bloodcurdling pitch without recourse to hysterics is […]
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 7:30 PM Conductor: Edo de Waart Production: Nathaniel Merrill Stage Director: Robin Guarino Main Cast: Renée Fleming (Marschallin), Susan Graham (Octavian), Kristinn Sigmundsson (Baron Ochs), Christine Schäfer (Sophie), Eric Cutler (Italian tenor). The first twenty people or so who make it into line for the Met’s $20 […]
Also filed in Music, New York, Opera, Philosophy
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Tagged death, der rosenkavalier, dyad, dyads, hoffmannsthal, hugo von hoffmannsthal, libretto, Love, marschallin, met, met opera, metropolitan opera, mortality, ochs, octavian, Opera, philosophy of love, renee fleming, richard strauss, romantic, rosenkavalier, strauss, susan graham, tempus fugit
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Friday, December 11, 2009
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at NY City Center Sunday, December 6, 2009, 7:30 PM Festa Barocca (2008), choreographed by Mario Bigonzetti; music by G. F. Handel; costumes by Marc Happel. This is a big, ebullient, full-ensemble piece that captures the spirit of the baroque—as its title and Handel soundtrack properly assert (and as its […]
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
[Anita Rachvelishvili before her admirers] If I were to reduce to a single word Anita Rachvelishvili’s La Scala debut yesterday as Carmen (the HD simulcast of which I saw at Symphony Space), it might be “sovereignty.” She reigned supreme. This Carmen was the center around which all else could only hope to hold and the […]
Also filed in Film, Music, Opera
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Tagged 2009, anita rachvelishvili, barenboim, bizet, carmen, december 7, erwin schrott, georges bizet, georgia, georgian, hd, jonas kaufmann, la scala, live broadcast, netrebko, rachvelishvili, simulcast, symphony space
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
[the trash collectors] Leoš Janáček, From the House of the Dead [Z mrtvého domu] Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 8PM Production: Patrice Chéreau Associate Director: Thierry Thieu Niang Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen Main Cast: Willard White (Alexandr Gorjančikov), Eric Stoklossa (Aljeja) Stefan Margita (Filka Morozov) How to make a narrative of so relentless yet monotonous, time-ravaging and […]
Also filed in Labor, Literature, Music, New York, Opera, Politics
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Tagged aljeja, dostoevsky, eric stoklossa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, from the house of the dead, Gorjančikov, janacek, Leoš Janáček, met opera, metropolitan opera, notes from the house of the dead, opera review, Patrice Chéreau, prison operas, prisons in opera, review, reviews, willard white, Z mrtvého domu
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