Category Archives: Music

THE MET’S CARMEN: BRILLIANT MUSICIANSHIP, BUT TEX-MEX IS NOT SPAIN.

“Bullfighting is the only art form that both represents something and is that thing at the same time: the matador’s elegant immobility in the face of the bull not only represents man’s defiance of death, it is a man defying death, and there are women who do it too.”[i] In Bizet’s classic opera Carmen, the metaphor of the life defying […]

January 29, 2024 – 5:27 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on THE MET’S CARMEN: BRILLIANT MUSICIANSHIP, BUT TEX-MEX IS NOT SPAIN.

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

MET OPERA’S FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS ENCHANTS WITH BEAUTY AND IMAGINATION

Composer Daniel Catan has been quoted as saying that he needed ” to write music that was seductive, glittering, and mesmerizing.” His opera Florencia en el Amazonas ia a welcome and enchanting addition to the world’s operatic contemporary repertoire, which has been dominated by nihilistic interpretations of classic operas. The libretto is by Marcela Fuentes-Berain, […]

December 14, 2023 – 1:51 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Dance, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on MET OPERA’S FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS ENCHANTS WITH BEAUTY AND IMAGINATION

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