Copyright 2010 Matthew Gurewitsch Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:40:02 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Matthew Gurewitsch :: Writings http://www.beyondcriticism.com matthew@beyondcriticism.com (Matthew Gurewitsch) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/08/salzburg-milestone-riccardo-muti Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST Riccardo Muti's concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic invariably stand out as red-letter dates on the calendar of the Salzburg Festival, so in a sense his epic performance of Sergei Prokofiev's film score for Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible on... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7869/arias-in-english Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST Opera in translation—though not always in the language of the audience—was once commonplace everywhere. In the age of titles, many think the practice archaic. But not Peter Moores, a 78-year-old Englishman knighted in 2003 for his charitable services to... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/08/david-afkham-salzburg-conductor-winner Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:00:00 EST His demeanor is unassuming, but his hands are Mephistophelean: long, gaunt, electric. His frame is lithe, like a dancer's, and the elasticity of his movements shows gracefully in the long Nehru coat he chose for his 11 a.m. debut concert at the Salzburg... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7833/the-french-new-wave Sat, 1 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST At thirty-five, conductor Philippe Jordan, son of the esteemed Swiss maestro Armin Jordan, is heading into his second season as music director of the Paris Opera, the first to hold that title since Myung-Whun Chung, whose tenure, from 1989 to 1994,... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7832/maw-sophies-choice Sat, 1 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST Art is long, but life is short, as the saying goes, and audiences need to catch the last train home. Bowing to that necessity, Giuseppe Verdi cut Don Carlos for its Paris premiere in 1867. At the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in 2002, the... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/07/salzburg-wolfgang-rihm-dionysos Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST Ideally, one would attend the world premiere of a demanding new opera in a state of clairvoyant attention, but acts of Gods take their toll—we are speaking of weather delays, and the domino effect of subsequent missed connections—and allowances must be... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7752/elaine-stritch-night-music Sun, 25 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST As conceived by Ingmar Bergman in "Smiles of a Summer Night," the long-retired courtesan Mrs. Armfeldt whom film audiences met in 1955 was not quite the creature we know as Madame Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's latter-day operetta "A... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7747/franz-schreker-der-ferne-klang-bard Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST Ah, the soul of the artist! Penniless Fritz loves penniless Grete but feels compelled to abscond until he has given birth to his elusive masterpiece, an opera. From suicidal depression, Grete bounces to the heights as the top courtesan of Venice, then... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7679/practicing-what-he-once-preached Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST Seldom is the road not taken as plain to see as in the case of the conductor Will Crutchfield. Around New York he has been most visible over the last 15 years as the director of Bel Canto at Caramoor, in Katonah, N.Y., a garden spot about an hour north... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7652/fiddling-while-the-midnight-sun-burns Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST THE Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, on an Arctic archipelago in Norway bathed in the mild waters of the North Atlantic Current, bills itself as the world's most beautiful music festival, on the strength of its setting, which is stunning... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7629/army-of-billy-elliots Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST A BOY in a tutu. This was the image Lee Hall saw in his mind's eye when he began the original screenplay for "Billy Elliot," the tale of a striking coal miner's son who crashes the gates of the Royal Ballet School in London. "We thought it would be... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7569/a-conductors-passion-for-porgy Tue, 1 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST George Gershwin called "Porgy and Bess" a "folk opera," emphasis on opera, and lived to see the premiere, on Broadway, in truncated but substantially operatic form. At that time the piece was sung virtually all the way through, but the version that... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/7587/video-review-the-valencia-ring Mon, 1 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST Not the least of the messages of Der Ring des Nibelungen is that nothing lasts forever. What opera house in the world today is more glamorous, technologically more state-of-the-art, or architecturally more daring than the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía,... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/05/amelia-takes-wing-in-seattle Mon, 24 May 2010 10:45:00 EST An American pilot is lost in action in Vietnam. Thirty years later his daughter, still unstrung with grief, is expecting her first child. Close to term, she dreams gloomy dreams of Icarus, the boy who perished because he flew too close to the sun.... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/05/thar-she-blows-the-dallas-opera-wins-with-jake Tue, 18 May 2010 11:00:00 EST You are watching a brand-new opera for the first time, in its first run, thoroughly taken by the piece, the performers, the production. And at the same time, you see, as through a mist, the outlines of possible future realizations by different artists,...