Category Archives: World Affairs

CST: Shakespeare’s Globe’s The Merchant of Venice: The Quality of Malice

Despite what you may read, or hear, in the news, Jews remain the most hated people in America. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports: Hate Crime Statistics, there were 1,140 victims of anti-religious hate crimes in the U.S. last year. “Of the 1,140 victims of anti-religious hate crimes: 56.8 percent [56.8%] were victims of […]

August 11, 2016 – 1:08 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Poetry, Quotations, Theater, Theology, World Affairs | Comments Off on CST: Shakespeare’s Globe’s The Merchant of Venice: The Quality of Malice

Chicago Shakespeare’s TUG OF WAR: FOREIGN FIRE: Theatrical Magnificence

“Man is a predator whose natural instinct is to kill with a weapon.” So wrote Chicago playwright and anthropologist Robert Ardrey after years of observing human nature in action all over the world. His words aptly summarize the theme of Barbara Gaines’ thrilling Tug of War: Foreign Fire, a stage edition of three of Shakespeare’s […]

May 13, 2016 – 2:54 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Music, Poetry, Politics, Theater, World Affairs | Comments Off on Chicago Shakespeare’s TUG OF WAR: FOREIGN FIRE: Theatrical Magnificence

LYRIC OPERA’S NABUCCO ROCKS THE HOUSE

Prayer was certainly a large part of the young composer’s life in 1841. The twenty-eight-year old’s wife and two children had suddenly died, his own health was precarious, and his most recent opera had been a dismal failure. Out of this plagued life came his first triumph, Nabucco, the tale of the people of God,  […]

January 29, 2016 – 2:07 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Theater, World Affairs | Comments Off on LYRIC OPERA’S NABUCCO ROCKS THE HOUSE

Lyric Opera’s Bel Canto: The Music, The Music, The Music

“It has a tremendous variety of expression, of musical ideas. It has a virtuoso quality to it. It has very driven and barbaric moments about it, very lyrical moments, very sensual moments. It has chamber music in the midst of all this bombastic stuff. It’s incredibly exciting.” The words of Leonard Bernstein’s former pupil Yakov […]

January 13, 2016 – 11:04 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Movies, Music, Opera, Politics, Quotations, Theater, World Affairs | Comments Off on Lyric Opera’s Bel Canto: The Music, The Music, The Music

GENEVA: BEGONIA BROWN GOES TO PARLIAMENT

Despite being one of his most daring and prescient works, of all Bernard Shaw’s plays, Geneva is the most disparaged. The criticism moved Shaw to join those who hate the play. By 1938 he had remarked: “What a horrible play! Why had I to write it?” Two events seem to have conspired to bring about […]

September 7, 2015 – 5:09 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Men and Women, Politics, Theater, World Affairs | Comments Off on GENEVA: BEGONIA BROWN GOES TO PARLIAMENT