Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 !!

STARS BRIDGES AND CASTRONOVO POWER LYRIC’S CARMEN

An insignificant novel gave birth to Bizet’s great opera, Carmen, second only to Puccini’s La Boheme among the world’s most popular operas. The novelist Prosper Merimee’ introduces the famous heroine with these words; I heard some bystanders say, ‘Here comes the gitanella!’ Then I lifted up my eyes, and I saw her! It was that very Carmen you […]

March 31, 2023 – 3:02 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on STARS BRIDGES AND CASTRONOVO POWER LYRIC’S CARMEN

The Storm Theatre Company Offers Charming Boucicault

On November 6, 1883 , The Chicago Tribune reported that the “laughter and applause” at last evening’s performance of The Shaughraun at McVicker’s Theater, poved that author and star Mr. Dion Boucicault “has lost none of his power to please.” The same may be said of  the current poduction of Boucicault’s rarely produced The Shaughraun. […]

March 26, 2023 – 12:00 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Storm Theatre Company Offers Charming Boucicault

A TALE OF TWO DIVAS: FLORIA AND FEDORA

On Friday January 12, the streaming service Stage Access broadcast the Vienna State Opera’s 2020 production of Tosca to commemorate the 123rd anniversary of the great opera. The next day ,the Metropolitan Opera transmitted an HD broadcast of Umberto Giordano’s rarely seen 125 year-old opera Fedora. Tosca starred the reigning queen of dramatic sopranos, the  […]

January 16, 2023 – 2:09 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A TALE OF TWO DIVAS: FLORIA AND FEDORA

Handel’s JEPHTHA: Being Right in One’s Own Eyes: The Music of the Baroque’s Electrifying Performance

The most commonly used word to describe Georg Friedrich Handel’s 1752 oratorio Jephtha is “dark”. And the word has nothing to do with the fact that the composer was going blind as he was composing. Jephtha, Handel’s last oratorio, is his most troubling masterpiece. The work contemplates the often inscrutable role of the divine in […]

September 20, 2022 – 9:38 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Poetry, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Handel’s JEPHTHA: Being Right in One’s Own Eyes: The Music of the Baroque’s Electrifying Performance