Category Archives: Uncategorized

ELIJAH STILL SPEAKS THROUGH MENDELSSOHN’S GLORIOUS MUSIC AT CSO

  “Elijah is the peak of religious music between Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives (1802) and Wagner’s Parsifal (1882).” –Eduard Jacob Heinrich Elijah (1846), the second oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn, pays tribute  to Mendelssohn’s love and championship of the oratorios of Handel and Bach. Elijah is Mendelssohn’s reaffirmation of his Jewish heritage and […]

April 12, 2024 – 10:27 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Poetry, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments Off on ELIJAH STILL SPEAKS THROUGH MENDELSSOHN’S GLORIOUS MUSIC AT CSO

Michelle Bradley is Lyric Opera’s AIDA, Chicago’s Favorite Opera

Not long after Aida premiered in Cairo on Christmas Eve of 1871, Verdi’s opera was playing in Chicago, first in April 0f 1885 and then in December 0f 1886. The first Chicago Grand Opera Festival under the sponsorship of the Chicago Opera Festival Organization, J.H. Mapleson manager, was billed as “Music for the People! The […]

March 14, 2024 – 9:47 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Dance, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, radio, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Michelle Bradley is Lyric Opera’s AIDA, Chicago’s Favorite Opera

VERDI’S THE FORCE OF DESTINY AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

The Force of Destiny was a Verdi opera unknown to me. I began my usual pre-performance routine. I read about Verdi’s life as he began writing the Force of Destiny . I read the play upon which the libretto is based. I then read the libretto and listened to a few audio recordings. I would […]

March 11, 2024 – 9:40 am | By Jake P | Posted in Acting, Books, Current Events, from Paul, Guest Opinion, History, Magazines, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on VERDI’S THE FORCE OF DESTINY AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

FINE ARTS BUILDING IN AMERICAN THEATRE HISTORY

The City of Chicago proclaimed Friday, October 13, as “Fine Arts Building Day” in recognition of its 125th anniversary year. The Fine Arts Building also played a significant role in the history of the American theater by hosting the landmark Chicago Little Theatre. When the Fine Arts Building opened in 1885 as a Studebaker automobile […]

October 6, 2023 – 12:21 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Poetry, Politics, Quotations, Talks, Theater, Uncategorized, World Affairs | Comments Off on FINE ARTS BUILDING IN AMERICAN THEATRE HISTORY

DIRECTOR RE-WRITES FLYING DUTCHMAN

Director Terry McCabe has written brilliantly about the director’s historical obligation to a dramatic  text: “I believe the director’s job is to tell the playwright’s story as clearly and as interestingly as possible.”[i] The operas of Richard Wagner debuted in Chicago with Leonard B. Grover (1833-1926) whose company first performed a Wagnerian opera in the […]

October 5, 2023 – 11:15 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on DIRECTOR RE-WRITES FLYING DUTCHMAN