Category Archives: Art

IT’S MAHLER TIME !!

In 2016, the  British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) invited 150 of the world’s leading conductors to vote for what they considered the greatest symphonies ever written. Beethoven and Brahms — not surprisingly— had two each in the top ten. But three of those places were occupied by Gustav Mahler. Chicago seems to be experiencing  the  year […]

June 11, 2023 – 11:01 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Art, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Quotations, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments Off on IT’S MAHLER TIME !!

RED-BLOODED ERNANI OPENS LYRIC SEASON

None of Verdi’s four previous operas did as much as Ernani for his reputation. Ernani (1844) owed its popularity to the coattails of Victor Hugo’s monumental Hernani (1830). Critics who complain of Ernani’s plot devices totally misunderstand what Victor Hugo was trying to do. The play Hernani was a full-scale assault on the reigning New-Classicism […]

September 22, 2022 – 11:10 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on RED-BLOODED ERNANI OPENS LYRIC SEASON

SINGING SAVES STONE’S CAMPY LUCIA AT THE MET

  In 1964 the literary critic Susan Sontag published the definitive work “On Camp”’ in which she defined the genre as loving “the unnatural, the artificial, the exaggerated.” In art, Camp’s exaggeration proceeds from both passion and naiveté, both of which opera director Simon Stone employed in his production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the […]

May 22, 2022 – 3:46 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on SINGING SAVES STONE’S CAMPY LUCIA AT THE MET

STEPPENWOLF’S SEAGULL SOARS IN NEW TRANSLATION, NEW THEATRE

The almost half century old Steppenwolf Theatre opened its new 600 seat Ensemble Theater with a beautiful new translation of Anton Chekhov’s historic play, directed by the translator  Yasen Peyankov. The Seagull, directed by Konstantin Stanislavski for the new Moscow Art Theater, established the Russian theater as one of the finest in the world, and […]

May 7, 2022 – 9:26 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on STEPPENWOLF’S SEAGULL SOARS IN NEW TRANSLATION, NEW THEATRE

EUN SUN KIM IGNITES LYRIC’S FIERY TOSCA

Chicagoans love their Toscas. Puccini’s opera has attracted passionate performers and audiences alike since it first arrived in Chicago. The latest incarnation will certainly join the distinguished  ranks of the best Toscas seen in the city. Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca is based on Victorian Sardou’s wildly popular drama La Tosca, made famous by Sarah Bernhardt’s world […]

March 24, 2022 – 2:23 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Politics, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on EUN SUN KIM IGNITES LYRIC’S FIERY TOSCA