Category Archives: from Paul

Paul’s posts.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

LYRIC OPERA OFFERS BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL JENUFA

Confession, repentance, and forgiveness are in woefully short supply in today’s world. So it comes as no small pleasure to find them the bedrocks upon which Leos Janacek built his amazing opera, now wowing audiences at the Lyric Opera The Moravian composer Leos Janacek (1854-1928) would be called a “late-bloomer” in today’s slang. He was […]

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LEHMAN. THE LEHMAN TRILOGY AS GREEK TRAGEDY, AMERICAN STYLE

On February 10, 1949, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman premiered at New York’s Morosco Theatre. Seventeen days later the New York Times published an essay by Miller entitled, “Tragedy and The Common Man.” From that time on, high school and college students would discuss the possibility of an American tragedy: Can a classical tragedy […]