Category Archives: Theology

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 Off on National Theatre Live: The Expressionist Hamlet

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 Off on VIRGINIA OPERA’S DREAM: THE MYSTICISM OF HAPPINESS

THE MET’S TOSCA: GRAND RETURNS TO THE OPERA

Sonya Yoncheva’s Violetta was the heart of the most beautiful and exciting event I have ever seen on the stage – Willy Decker’s essentialist La Traviata, with Michael Fabiano (Alfredo) and Thomas Hampson (Germont), so the prospect of seeing Yoncheva’s Floria Tosca was greatly anticipated, to say the least. Decker’s Traviata realized that Dumas’ story, […]

January 28, 2018 – 6:10 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Theater, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments Off on THE MET’S TOSCA: GRAND RETURNS TO THE OPERA

LES MIS: THE ENERGIZER MUSICAL

The musical Les Misérables premiered on  September 24,1980; Duracell’s Energizer Bunny debuted nine years later, but unlike the pink bunny, Schonberg’ and Boubil’s musical keeps getting stronger and stronger. Over 70 million people in 44 countries never grow tired of this magical stage work. (Aside from Hamlet, Kathleen and I have seen Les Mis more […]

January 26, 2018 – 9:34 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on LES MIS: THE ENERGIZER MUSICAL

VIRGINIA OPERA’S THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST: IMPORTANT OPERA, WONDERFUL REJUVENATION

The occasion of the Virginia Opera’s production of Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West offers the opportunity to discuss a man whose name was once almost synonymous with the American theater – David Belasco. Belasco (1854-1931) was born in San Francisco, educated by Jesuits, and on the stage from childhood. Author or adaptor of […]

November 18, 2017 – 9:42 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on VIRGINIA OPERA’S THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST: IMPORTANT OPERA, WONDERFUL REJUVENATION