Category Archives: Current Events

OPERA IN WILLIAMSBURG’S DIE ZAUBERFLOTE: MUSICAL MAGIC

Bernard Shaw considered Mozart’s ZAUBERFLOTE, The Magic Flute, to be “the first oratorio of the religion of humanity.” On the other hand, opera historian Gustav Kobbe considers the libretto to the Magic Flute “such a jumble of nonsense that it is as well to endeavor to extract some sense from it.”[i] Nothing perplexes viewers as […]

May 10, 2019 – 3:17 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on OPERA IN WILLIAMSBURG’S DIE ZAUBERFLOTE: MUSICAL MAGIC

THE MET’S LA FILLE DU REGIMENT: ALMOST PERFECT

With seven operas by the young upstart  Italian  composer opening within a year, the French composers of Paris had had enough. Speaking for his aggrieved colleagues, Hector Berlioz wrote, Mr. Donizetti seems to treat us like a conquered country; it is a veritable invasion n. One can no longer speak of the opera houses of […]

March 4, 2019 – 10:30 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Theater | Comments Off on THE MET’S LA FILLE DU REGIMENT: ALMOST PERFECT

THE ABBEY THEATRE’S TWO PINTS: On-Site Brilliance

If you were to guess the location of the Abbey Theatre’s first ever on-site theater production, the answer should be a “no-brainer”: A Pub. Of course. Even the dead,  but still-great, American dramaturgical pub-bard Eugene O’Neill could have guessed that. For the past year or so the world-famous theatre company has been taking their new […]

February 25, 2019 – 4:16 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Talks, Theater | Comments Off on THE ABBEY THEATRE’S TWO PINTS: On-Site Brilliance

VIRGINIA OPERA OFFERS A RADIANT ELIXIR OF LOVE

I first heard about elixirs of love in 1959 when, through my transistor radio, I heard Jed Lieber’s words about that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth She’s got a pad on Thirty-Fourth and Vine Sellin’ little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine While a new idea to me at the time, the concept of a […]

February 9, 2019 – 11:25 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on VIRGINIA OPERA OFFERS A RADIANT ELIXIR OF LOVE

THE MET OPERA’S ADRIANA LECOUVREUR: NETREBKO IS MELPOMENE

At the end of Francesco Cilea’s 1902 opera Adriana Lecouvreuer librettist Arturo Colautti adds a passage not found in the original 1849 play Adrienne Lecouvreur  by Eugene Scribe and Ernest Legouve. As the great actress dies, Colautti presents her as hallucinating: Stand aside, Philistines! I am Melpomene! Behold the Light that leads me on, That […]

January 13, 2019 – 11:48 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on THE MET OPERA’S ADRIANA LECOUVREUR: NETREBKO IS MELPOMENE