Monthly Archives: January 2017

Raven Theatre’s ASSEMBLED PARTIES: A Doubter’s Christmas Carol

Christmas has been the occasion for two classic plays, Hamlet and Ibsen’s Doll’s House. Ironically, as the Christian Feast of the Nativity has become secularized, the occasion has been used by more and more contemporary playwrights to give dramatic resonance to their work. The late Harry Kondoleon’s Christmas on Mars, Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale, and […]

January 31, 2017 – 6:42 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, Men and Women, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Raven Theatre’s ASSEMBLED PARTIES: A Doubter’s Christmas Carol

Lyric Opera: Chicago’s Third Great NORMA

As late as 1920, American musicologists considered Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma “an improbably old-fashioned, almost hurdy-gurdy work.” But thanks to Chicago sopranos, that opera has become a standard of the American operatic canon. Written when Bellini (1801-1835) was just thirty years old, Norma had played in Chicago since the mid-nineteenth century by various visiting opera companies. […]

January 29, 2017 – 10:06 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments (1)

My 10 Favorites of 2016, In No Particular Order

KING CHARLES III – Chicago Shakespeare THE AMISH PROJECT – Interrobang WONDERFUL TOWN – Goodman THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – Shakespeare’s Globe at Chicago Shakespeare THE SEAGULL – The Artistic Home COMPANY – Writers’ Theatre A LOSS OF ROSES – Raven Theatre PYGMALION – Remy Bumppo THE TROJANS – Lyric Opera THE MAGIC FLUTE – […]

January 11, 2017 – 9:15 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Theater | Comments Off on My 10 Favorites of 2016, In No Particular Order

The Irish Theatre of Chicago’s THE WEIR: “A strange [but wonderful] little evening”

When I lived on a five-acre farm in Maine, I found myself strangely fascinated with the behavior of male birds. It seemed that whenever a female swallow appeared the male swallows engaged in all sorts of madcap aerial displays, loop-d-loops, dives, deal falls, etc. On the other hand, when a female cowbird appeared, the male […]

January 9, 2017 – 11:30 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Maine, Men and Women, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Irish Theatre of Chicago’s THE WEIR: “A strange [but wonderful] little evening”