Monthly Archives: October 2018

THE MET’S LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST- AMERICA’S OPERA WORLD PREMIERE

Heidi Waleson’s new history of the New York City Opera Mad Scenes and Exit Arias makes clear that the Metropolitan Opera was no friend to its Lincoln Center neighbor. The occasion of the Met’s production of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West should remind us that the Met has never welcomed any rival to its place […]

October 28, 2018 – 1:32 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on THE MET’S LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST- AMERICA’S OPERA WORLD PREMIERE

THE MET”S SAMSON AND DALILA: THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMISTICE

One hundred years ago, on November 2, 1918, the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a Jubilee Victory Celebration of the end of World War One during a performance of Saint-Saens’ Samson and Dalila. Enrico Caruso, a fervent champion of the allied cause, had been  barnstorming the country with Al Jolson, George M Cohan,  and […]

October 21, 2018 – 4:08 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on THE MET”S SAMSON AND DALILA: THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMISTICE

THE VIRGINIA STAGE COMPANY: OUR TOWN AT THE WELLS

Thornton Wilder loved New Hampshire. Thornton Wilder spent parts of the summers of 1924, 1926, 1929, 1932, and 1937 as a resident of the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, the southwestern New Hampshire town known as the “real” Grover’s Corners. As a poet he loved the sounds of the words, the cadences, the tones and hesitations […]

October 19, 2018 – 11:32 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Poetry, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on THE VIRGINIA STAGE COMPANY: OUR TOWN AT THE WELLS

THE FERRYMAN – A MODERN IRISH TRAGEDY

Near the end of Jez Butterworth’s gripping new drama, The Ferryman, Uncle Pat, the aged family repository of education and lore, begins to read, “Here all the crowd streams, hurrying to the shores, women and men, pleading to make the crossing, stretching out their hands in longing for the far shore. But the boatman rows […]

October 17, 2018 – 11:57 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on THE FERRYMAN – A MODERN IRISH TRAGEDY

IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE: ON BECKETT – THE CLOWN KNOWS

Under the unassuming surface, the four great initial plays of Samuel Beckett embrace the fundamental themes of existence and, like no others in English since Shakespeare’s, wrestle them to the ground. For each of mankind’s defeats – by faith, love, society, and mortality – Beckett conjures up a tremendous theatrical master image that, supported by […]

October 15, 2018 – 1:43 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE: ON BECKETT – THE CLOWN KNOWS