Category Archives: Quotations

THE MET’S “LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN”: WHERE THE PARTS ARE GREATER THAN THE WHOLE

  Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822), better known by his pen name E. T. A. Hoffmann, was possibly the most original and influential fiction writer of the German Romantic era. Known today primarily for his literary works, Hoffman was also a lawyer and composer. He changed his middle name to Amadeus due to his great […]

October 7, 2024 – 9:17 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Dance, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments (0)

NOISES OFF: STEPPENWOLF TRIES FARCE

Throughout history audiences have enjoyed stories about putting on plays or making movies. The highlight of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is always the rude mechanicals’ presentation of “the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe.” (The more lamentable, the better. Audiences especially love badly done attempts to make theater and […]

September 29, 2024 – 4:07 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater | Comments (0)

MAZZOLA, BIRNBAUM, AND SINGING ACTORS OFFER A BRILLIANT RIGOLETTO TO OPEN OPERA SEASON

For the past several years one couldn’t find a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto outside of a “new and improved interpretation”, usually set in a time and place closer to our own. The reasoning was that such a reinterpretation made it easier for the  “boobus Americani” to see how the themes of the work relate […]

September 15, 2024 – 11:59 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Music, Newspapers, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on MAZZOLA, BIRNBAUM, AND SINGING ACTORS OFFER A BRILLIANT RIGOLETTO TO OPEN OPERA SEASON

ON THE 20TH CENTURY: ANOTHER HOMEGROWN CHICAGO MUSICAL SMASH

Unlike the fear of Y2K which heralded the new 21st century, the arrival the twentieth century was the occasion for enthusiasm, hope, and braggadocio. President William McKinley: “The century now drawing to a close has been most memorable in the world’s progress and history. The march of mankind in moral and intellectual advancement has been […]

June 3, 2024 – 10:40 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Movies, Music, Newspapers, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on ON THE 20TH CENTURY: ANOTHER HOMEGROWN CHICAGO MUSICAL SMASH

MADAMA BUTTERFLY AT THE MET: ASMIK GREGORIAN IS BUTTERFLY

The most recent study names Puccini’s Madama Butterfly as the sixth most popular opera in the world. In fact, seeing the opera at the age of sixteen prompted Yoko Watanabe (1953-2004) to a singing career, eventually to the position of the most famous of Japanese opera singers, certainly to be one of the most acclaimed […]

May 12, 2024 – 7:43 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on MADAMA BUTTERFLY AT THE MET: ASMIK GREGORIAN IS BUTTERFLY