Category Archives: Videos

Riccardo Muti is Saving Opera: Un Ballo in Maschera

The dean of opera critics has stated the problem best: “I have said that in today’s  operatic world too much territory is ceded to the realm of the eye; that even within this realm too much attention is  paid to physical production and not enough to performance and that auteuristic privileges  claimed by directors and […]

June 29, 2022 – 12:53 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Opera, Theater, Uncategorized, Videos | Comments Off on Riccardo Muti is Saving Opera: Un Ballo in Maschera

Chicago Opera and CITIZEN KANE

“Samuel Insull built the Civic Opera Building for his mistress, an opera singer.” “Samuel Insull built the Civic Opera Building for his mistress, Mary Garden, an opera singer.” These two similar tales are told daily by Chicago River tour guides. And these two tales are totally false. The only truth in the tales is that […]

August 27, 2016 – 2:30 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Art, from Paul, History, Media, Men and Women, Movies, Music, Newspapers, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized, Videos | Comments Off on Chicago Opera and CITIZEN KANE

Kenneth Branaugh and Rob Ashford’s THE WINTER’S TALE arrives

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, the first offering of Kenneth Branaugh’s Plays at the Garrick, arrived on American movie screens last evening. After an interminable unedited film of the Garrick audience doing nothing but sitting, the production began, the American audience not as well-disposed as it had been forty minutes earlier when the unedited […]

December 1, 2015 – 8:42 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Mini-Review, Movies, Theater, Videos | Comments Off on Kenneth Branaugh and Rob Ashford’s THE WINTER’S TALE arrives

ASSASSINATION THEATER: The Most Important and Exciting Theater You Will See

The first great work of theater, Oedipus Rex, is a whodunit. Ever since, solving mysteries seems part and parcel of what audiences expect of the theatrical experience. I was a high school student beginning a lifelong study of theater when the shots rang out in Dallas. Being sent home from school due to an assassination […]

August 18, 2015 – 12:09 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Media, Newspapers, Politics, radio, Television, Theater, Videos, World Affairs | Comments Off on ASSASSINATION THEATER: The Most Important and Exciting Theater You Will See

SFO’s SHOWBOAT: New Excellence in Live Performance Recording

The recently released two disc DVD of the San Francisco Opera’s 2014 production of Hammerstein and Kern’s pioneer opera Showboat is a treat for many reasons. First, rarely has the art of live performance recording been practiced to such great effect than by screen director Frank Zamacona and his EuroArts team. The shots are beautifully […]

July 21, 2015 – 1:55 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, Media, Movies, Opera, Television, Theater, Videos | Comments Off on SFO’s SHOWBOAT: New Excellence in Live Performance Recording