Category Archives: Theology

TOI’s HANSEL AND GRETEL: BEAUTIFUL AND FUN AND UNIVERSALLY TRUE

Why a fairy tale? A fairy tale explains the world to both youngsters and to adults, who may have forgotten important truths. As the fairy tale master Bruno Bettelheim explains, the fairy tale expresses in words and actions the things which go on in the child’s, or childlike adult, mind. Or as G.K. Chesterton rightly […]

August 4, 2018 – 9:26 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

LA SCALA’S GIOVANNA D’ARCO: When an Opera is a Lie

As of 2009, ten percent of Americans thought Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.[i] Since then most people probably won’t even guess as to her identity. And where could they learn of Joan of Arc? Schools, where any hint of Christianity is outlawed? In mainline churches, where scientific rationalism filters the majesty and mystery of […]

July 11, 2018 – 1:36 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Poetry, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

THE MET’S MADAMA BUTTERFLY: THE POWER OF UNIVERSALS

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 […]

June 21, 2018 – 12:40 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, Dance, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

Virginia Stage Company’s CROWNS: A Majestic Theater Event

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul asked, For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Saint John Chrysostom explained that, ”he who will not seek in the well being of his neighbor his own benefit will not attain […]

May 29, 2018 – 11:50 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, from Paul, History, Music, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH: Imagination’s Descent into Hell

 Viewed in the context of his other work, Macbeth is Shakespeare’s Descent into Hell. And since it is his Inferno, it is appropriate that the terrestrial and celestial parts of his universe should figure slightly.[i] Those words by University of Chicago Shakespearean scholar Harold Goddard summarize the production Aaron Posner and Teller have created at […]

May 23, 2018 – 2:46 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Poetry, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

STUDIO THEATRE’S TRANSLATIONS: ANOTHER KIND OF PRODIGAL SON

Set in rural Ireland in 1833, Brian Friel’s’ Translations explores the troubles brought to a handful of characters following the return of a prodigal son.  Whereas the prodigal in Christ’s parable returned ashamed and broken, Friel’s prodigal returns home proud and puffed up. Maire, a local maiden, has long been betrothed to Manus, the oldest […]

April 19, 2018 – 12:59 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Movies, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

THE MET’S COSI FAN TUTTE: MOZART IN A BOX

During the overture, and before a gaudy show curtain, the canary-colored zoot-suited con man Don Alfonso, presents his co-conspirator and inamorata Despina with a magician’s bouquet of flowers and a very large travelling box, tied up with a bow. She hits him with the flowers, but helps him remove the bow and open the gift […]

April 1, 2018 – 5:40 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

LITTLE THEATRE OF NORFOLK’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN: THE SOUL SURVIVOR

Jack Kline, president and chief operating officer of Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. says “people like to do business with people they like. That’s just a natural part of the way people operate.” People prefer the people they like. Jurors prefer the more likeable attorney. Voters prefer the more likable candidate. Buyers prefer to purchase […]

March 17, 2018 – 12:06 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments (0)

National Theatre Live: The Expressionist Hamlet

Lyndsay Turner’s Hamlet, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is strikingly different from other recent Hamlets. Rory Kinnear ‘s Hamlet directed by Nicholas Hytner, Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 self-directed Hamlet, and Greg Doran’s 2009 David Tennant Hamlet all evidenced the influence of John Barton’s magisterial elucidation of how Shakespeare’s language needed to be played. Barton insisted on a detailed […]

March 9, 2018 – 11:08 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Movies, Quotations, Theater, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

VIRGINIA OPERA’S DREAM: THE MYSTICISM OF HAPPINESS

The great British essayist G. K. Chesterton considered Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to be a masterful presentation of “the mysticism of happiness.” He went on to explain: “That is to say, it is the conception that when a man lives upon a borderland he may find himself in the spiritual or supernatural atmosphere, not […]

February 14, 2018 – 11:45 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Quotations, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments (0)