Latest Articles

So, what exactly will it be when the wind blows?
Revisiting Catch of the Day, rounds #38 and #39

September 5, 2018

Here's a recap of our playlist for August 26. Notes on our tracks for September 2 appear below the space break.

The history of our musical theater has few scandals to set beside that of the catch-as-catch-can unveiling of the Lefty agitprop vaudeville The Cradle Will Rock, book, lyrics, music, and orchestrations by Marc Blitzstein. Conceived in the spirit of the Threepenny Opera and produced by the federally funded Federal Theatre Project (those were the days!), the show nearly tanked at the eleventh hour, when Washington pulled the plug.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

review of Celestial bodies: How to look at ballet

August 28, 2018  •  Amazon Reader Reviews

Full disclosure: Laura Jacobs and I have been talking dance (and theater and music...) for decades now. So, don't expect me to be impartial—not when I'm quoted, listed in her index, and most handsomely singled out in the acknowledgments. That's not to say I don't have an honest opinion, so if you're interested, read on.

Continue to the full review  |  More reviews and articles

Jeremiah at the opera: a talk with Conrad Osborne
Curtains for the most all-enveloping of art forms?

August 25, 2018  •  Oper! Das Magazin (Berlin)

Among Americans for whom opera is a matter of spiritual life and death, Conrad L. Osborne will need no introduction. Back in the Dark Ages, when vinyl collectors had two stereo Rings to choose from (Solti's and Karajan's) and rival Lucias you could count on the fingers of one hand, Osborne produced, for the exacting readership of High Fidelity magazine, comprehensive discographies raisonnées of Mozart and Verdi that reward close attention to this day—for while the sparse listings are long out of date, the questions Osborne raises are timeless, as are the insights he teases from the souls of the characters, as expressed in words, music, and the inflections of living performers.[1]Though never an easy man to please, his recognition and nuanced appreciation of work that hits the mark set standards on which it would be hard to improve. To clinch the bargain, he belongs to the cadre of elite critics one turns to simply for his rapier prose, which continues to glitter in the blog he launched in July 2107.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

review of Opera as Opera: The State of the Art

August 25, 2018  •  Oper! Das Magazin (Berlin)

Is opera on the brink of extinction? The short answer from this long book is yes—unless, that is, the end has come already. With Opera as Opera: The State of the Art, Conrad L. Osborne, elder statesman among American critics, sounds a blast as shattering as Gabriel's trumpet.

Continue to the full review  |  More reviews and articles

Make way for La Nilsson, make way for Steve J.
A post-mortem of Catch of the Day, episodes #36 and #37

August 24, 2018

Here's the rundown on our playlist of July 29. Beneath the section break, look for commentary on our selections for August 5.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Books by Matthew Gurewitsch