Clik here to view.
A man reaps what he sows…
Even if Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s bible-verse tweet was pre-scheduled, and wasn’t sent with any particular reference to the slaughter at a gay night club in Orlando, let’s not forget the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Time to rename the Kennedy Center Honors
Let’s just call it the annual Kennedy Center Pander for Pop-Cult Cred Award. I didn’t expect to change anyone’s mind over at the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts when I wrote this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Democracy will never be less contentious.
This essay is running in The Washington Post on Monday, July 11. I try to say what I believe. This is part of of it: Democracy has always been contentious; it will not get less so. There is no ideal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Washington Concert Opera at 30
Angela Meade, Vivica Genaux, Michele Angelini, Antony Walker, Javier Arrey and Jonas Hacker at the Washington Concert Opera 30th Anniversary Concert. Photo by Don Lassell. The 30th...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Donizetti, and a catharsis of democracy
I didn’t have high expectations for the cameo appearance of supreme court associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in last night’s production of Donizetti’s “La fille du regiment,” at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Massenet’s “Herodiade,” revived
The Washington Concert Opera performance of Massenet’s “Herodiade” on Sunday evening was electric from beginning to end. It is a well-made opera, by a master of well-made operas, and its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Radu Jude’s “Aferim!”: The claustrophobia of wide spaces
Unlike most of the contemporary Romanian films I’ve seen recently, Radu Jude’s “Aferim!” is shot almost entirely out of doors, in an untamed landscape of wide vistas that often dwarfs or obscures the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A semi-dormant blog
I’ve updated this blog only sporadically over the past few years. I’ll continue to do so, especially if the subject is opera or music, or my forthcoming memoir about Bach’s “Goldberg” variations (W.W....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Recent Reviews…
There’s good news at The Washington Post. The paper is stronger than it’s been in at least a decade, and everyone is breathing (tentatively, nervously) a sigh of relief that the new owner and business...
View ArticleVerdi’s Don Carlo at the Washington National Opera
Verdi’s “Don Carlo” was originally written for the Paris Opera, as a grand opera in five acts, with all the spectacle audiences expected from the form. One can’t fault companies today for economizing,...
View Article
