Monthly Archives: October 2019

LYRIC OPERA CHICAGO : THE OLD BARBER HAS STILL GOT IT

The history of what is popularly called Italian opera began in the United States with a performance of Rossini’s lyrical comedy “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, The Barber of Seville. The place was the Park Theatre, then situated in Chambers Street, east of Broadway, and the date November 29, 1825.[i] It was Manuel Garcia’s troupe that […]

October 28, 2019 – 1:45 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on LYRIC OPERA CHICAGO : THE OLD BARBER HAS STILL GOT IT

THE MET’S MANON: THE “ETERNAL WOMAN” RETURNS

Jules Massenet (1842-1912) premiered  his new opera,  Manon,  on 19 January 1884 at Paris’ Opera Comique, the home to the city’s middle-class audience, an audience accustomed to the spoken dialogue featured in Massenet’s work. It was a hit. “Those who do not object on principle to being entertained in the opera house, rather than hectored, […]

October 28, 2019 – 11:20 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on THE MET’S MANON: THE “ETERNAL WOMAN” RETURNS

RAVEN’S SUNDOWN YELLOW MOON: ALL SMOKE, LITTLE FIRE

A Yellow Moon is sometimes called a Harvest Moon, appearing, as it does, at the time one reaps what has been sewn. As such, Rachel Bonds, the author of Sundown Yellow Moon now playing at the Raven Theater, has named her drama-with-occasional music  with a prophetic nod to the play’s possible action. Members of a […]

October 14, 2019 – 4:37 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul | Comments Off on RAVEN’S SUNDOWN YELLOW MOON: ALL SMOKE, LITTLE FIRE

THE METS TURANDOT: THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE

The first time Turandot played at the Metropolitan Opera was on November 16, 1926.  J.W. Henderson of the New York Sun observed that “this is an opera in which the eye and the ear must be equally absorbed.” The great Viennese architect and designer Joseph Urban had provided the scenery. He was a pioneer of […]

October 12, 2019 – 7:35 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Music, Opera | Comments Off on THE METS TURANDOT: THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE

VANYA ON THE PLAINS: A HYMN TO THE HUMAN HEART

On October 26, 1899, the day Anton Chekhov’s new play Uncle Vanya, debuted at the Moscow Art Theater, the audience heard the following exchange between two characters:         Dr. Astrov: I wonder if the people who live one or two hundred  years from now would remember us with a kind word.         […]

October 7, 2019 – 11:40 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)