Category Archives: from Paul

Paul’s posts.

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY: A HYMN TO THE HUMAN SOUL

Conor McPherson, the world’s greatest English-language playwright asked Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan  if he would be interested in using his songs in a theater piece. The result is the magnificent folk-opera Girl from the North Country, which we saw in October 0f 2018 at New York’s Public Theatre. Since then, director McPherson has been […]

February 14, 2024 – 1:30 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Music, Poetry, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater | Comments Off on GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY: A HYMN TO THE HUMAN SOUL

LYRIC OPERA’S CINDERELLA: A RED-BLOODED BEL CANTO VALENTINE

Gioachino Rossini (1792-18868) was but 24 years old when he wrote his world-famous opera The Barber of Seville. The following year he wrote Cinderella (Cenerentola), which was more popular than his Barber for many years. After composing forty operas, he retired at age 46, never to write another opera. The Cinderella (Cerenterola) (1817) by Rossini […]

February 2, 2024 – 1:27 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater | Comments Off on LYRIC OPERA’S CINDERELLA: A RED-BLOODED BEL CANTO VALENTINE

PORCHLIGHT’S “ANYTHING GOES” IS A “DE-LOVELY” SURPRISE

When the musical comedy Anything Goes first played in Chicago in 1934 the nation and the city were caught in the country’s worst economic situation – The Great  Depression. The Great Depression was particularly severe in Chicago because of the city’s reliance on manufacturing, the hardest hit sector nationally. Only 50 percent of the Chicagoans […]

January 14, 2024 – 3:02 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Music, Theater | Comments Off on PORCHLIGHT’S “ANYTHING GOES” IS A “DE-LOVELY” SURPRISE

The Met’s NABUCCO: Verdi’s Beautiful Prayer for those in Exile

On February 23 of last year, Naomi Wolf,  author, feminist and former advisor to Bill Clinton and Al Gore published a remarkable essay, “Have the Ancient Gods returned?” In it she quotes Jonathan Cahn’s book The Return of The Gods[i]           “Having accurately traced the lineage of pagan worship and pagan forces, Cahn makes the […]

January 11, 2024 – 1:11 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Poetry, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on The Met’s NABUCCO: Verdi’s Beautiful Prayer for those in Exile

LYRIC’S DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT IS A DELIGHTFUL ROMP

Before discussing Gaetano Donizetti and the lovely new production of The Daughter of The Regiment now playing at the Lyric Opera, time must be taken to remember the most exciting production of the Donizetti opera ever to play in Chicago. Only sixty-four days following the surrender of General Lee to General Grant, thus ending the […]

November 17, 2023 – 2:48 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on LYRIC’S DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT IS A DELIGHTFUL ROMP