Copyright 2012 Matthew Gurewitsch Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:40:04 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Matthew Gurewitsch :: Writings http://www.beyondcriticism.com matthew@beyondcriticism.com (Matthew Gurewitsch) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.beyondcriticism.com/11049/katarina-dalayman-goetterdaemmerung Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST VIENNA — In burlesque, in popular prejudice and all too often in the opera house, big-gun German opera comes off as a clash of the titans, with the roles of Brünnhilde, Isolde and Elektra constituting the soprano's triple crown. All three have scenes of... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/11037/therese-malten-wagner-devoted-kundry Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST For opera fans of a certain stripe, few keepsakes are as fragrant as a photograph of a beloved diva in one of her signature roles, personalized by a quote penned in the lady's own hand. You would expect—would you not?—something along the lofty lines of... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2012/01/a-communication-to-wagner-friends Sun, 1 Jan 2012 18:39:45 EST There have been innumerable cases of Ring fever far more severe than mine. According to his obituary, my old pal Sherwin Sloan took in Wagner's four-part Nibelung epic 90 times between 1975 and his death in 2010. Even so, I have been thinking about the... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/11007/birgit-nilsson-and-hans-knappertsbusch Sat, 1 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST An opera star or two never fails to add luster to a symphonic program, at least on paper. But how are such talents best employed? Should they be showcased as visiting royalty, bearing gifts of showy arias from their own world? Or should they be... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2011/12/eye-on-dance-temps-retrouve Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:00:00 EST A likely highlight of this year's Dance on Camera bash at Lincoln Center (January 27-31) will be the screening on January 28 at 6:15 p.m., a triple bill of shorts culminating in a new documentary on the ceaselessly mutating dance-athletics collective... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/10777/rimbaud-in-java Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST Jamie James knows a thing or two about obsession. "There are thousands of people (we know who we are)," he writes, "who would take a lively interest if a pair of socks turned up in an old chest in Harar that could be proved to have belonged to Arthur... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/10658/sins-of-the-father Mon, 1 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST Before Wotan's eyes — the one that sees and the one that does not — the cosmos hurtles toward destruction. Only a free man can lift the curse, or so Wotan believes. He pins his hopes first on his son Siegmund, then on Siegmund's posthumous son Siegfried,... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/10657/berlioz-les-troyens Mon, 1 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST La Fura dels Baus strikes again. The object of the Spanish collective's tender mercies this time is Les Troyens, the majestic Virgilian epic of Hector Berlioz. The visual metaphor of ice hockey (complete with body armor, helmets, sticks, but minus the... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/10243/the-price-is-right-or-is-it Wed, 1 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EST Any number of top-earning opera singers will tell you they love their work so much they would pay to do it. No reviewer I have come across has said the same. It's no secret that even some of the biggest names got into the game to support a prohibitive... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/10167/beethoven-missa-solemnis-and-symphonies-nos-7-8-9 Sun, 1 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST Christian Thielemann is one of the increasingly rare maestros who came up the old way. A répétiteur at Deutsche Oper Berlin at age nineteen, an assistant in his time to titans such as Karajan and Barenboim, he has risen steadily and apparently inexorably... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/9986/zambello-ring Sun, 1 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST Bungling Norns in green lab coats and welders' goggles, powerless to reconnect the cables of some vast computer grid. A Gutrune who lolls on a bed with Hagen, trying to coax a picture from the television with a broken remote. A Brünnhilde with two left... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2011/07/hit-and-run-the-master-class-as-reality-show Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST The Salzburg Festival's Young Singers Project goes into its fourth edition this summer. As usual, about ten hand-picked artists from around the world will be reporting for several weeks of boot camp in the many disciplines that make up the kit of the... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/9908/r-strauss-elektra Thu, 1 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EST Why is Elektra like Idomeneo? Because both are sequels to stories of the Trojan War. For his Salzburg Festival debut in 1990, Nikolaus Lehnhoff directed a modern-dress Idomeneo memorable even now for a trench coat, once worn by the slain King Priam, that... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/9763/in-the-beginning-was-the-word Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EST "Libretto": The very form and provenance of the word— the diminutive of "libro," or "book," from the Italian vernacular—bespeaks the slightness of the thing it names. Whereas "opera"—technically the plural of "opus," or "work," thus a learned term from... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/9735/operatic-figaro Fri, 3 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EST First "The Barber of Seville," then "The Marriage of Figaro." Then what? Whether we are speaking of the plays of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais or the operas they inspired, the Figaro triptych many have dreamed of — including Beaumarchais himself...