Copyright 2010 Matthew Gurewitsch Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:40:02 -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/7000/herbert-von-karajan-maestro-for-the-screen Sun, 1 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST As the story is told in Georg Wübbolt's sweeping yet strangely lightweight documentary Herbert von Karajan: Maestro for the Screen, it was on tour in Japan that Karajan saw the light. Before, the eminent conductor had looked down his nose at television:... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6999/honored-in-the-breach Sun, 1 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST In his dressing room after bringing down the house as Hamlet in the opera by Ambroise Thomas, a renowned baritone brushed off a shaken visitor's praise with this rejoinder: "There's not one minute in this piece that moves me." On a different occasion,... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6998/as-plain-as-the-nose-on-his-stage Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST Managing pandemonium is not easy, especially when you must create it first. The South African artist William Kentridge has set himself this task with the very young Dmitri Shostakovich's first opera, "The Nose." Based on the story by Nikolai Gogol, the... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6909/operatic-style-designed-to-suit-your-living-room Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST AT the end of "La Bohème," as Puccini envisioned the opera, the frail seamstress Mimi dies in bed in a garret overlooking the rooftops of Paris, attended by only her five bohemian cronies. As seen live on Swiss television in September, she boarded an... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/02/lost-and-found-call-me-siegfried Mon, 1 Feb 2010 21:50:00 EST News is not everything. Recently, a correspondent contacted me about an article of mine on the phenomenon of the heldentenor. Her particular interest was in a specimen of the breed named Siegfried Jerusalem, whom—unbeknownst to her—I had profiled years... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6895/comes-a-horseman Sun, 1 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST Though Metropolitan Opera subscribers may still be tripping over his name, the Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov has long since ceased to be a stranger here. Since his house debut on March 1, 2004, as the first-cast Masetto of Marthe Keller's Don Giovanni,... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/01/nimble-fingers-nimble-spirit-david-fray-pianist Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:25:00 EST On December 3, 2009, the 28-year-old French pianist David Fray made his New York Philharmonic debut with a crystalline, poetic account of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G under the elegant baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen. Given his track record, the young... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6842/a-space-opera-in-a-proper-galaxy Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST In 2001 Gotham Chamber Opera opened its doors at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with what was billed as the American stage premiere of the teenage Mozart's moral allegory "Il Sogno di Scipione," set in the Temple of Heaven.... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/01/christian-camargo-juliet-rylance Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:36:00 EST The Bridge Project, a three-way theatrical venture of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Old Vic, in London, and Neal Street Productions, based in the UK, is now in its second season. Once again, actors from the United States and the United Kingdom will... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6776/a-threesome-husband-wife-shakespeare Tue, 5 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST Two actors might work all their lives and never receive higher praise. In back-to-back productions of Shakespearean tragedy with Theater for a New Audience last season, Juliet Rylance's brave, gracious portrayal of Desdemona was hailed in The New York... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6934/new-york-in-recital Thu, 1 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST To kick off the season, the New York Festival of Song—best known as NYFOS—tried to throw a gala but laid an egg. Yes, the luminous mezzo soprano Sasha Cooke floated the valedictory "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" of Mahler in phrases that were... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6734/richard-strauss-der-rosenkavalier Thu, 1 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST Herbert Wernicke's Rosenkavalier originated in 1995 at the Salzburg Festival and was seen subsequently at the Paris Opera. Recorded on January 31, 2009, the revival at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden certainly has its moments. The presentation of the... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2009/12/a-diva-remembered-sandra-warfield-1921-2009 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:50:00 EST Born Florence Jean Bornstein in Kansas City, Missouri, Sandra Warfield enjoyed a long and wide-ranging career in opera, concert, and cabaret. The story of how we met is woven into the following reminiscences, delivered at a memorial tribute at the Lotos... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/6660/schubert-and-beckett-footsteps-in-snow Fri, 4 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST MAPPING the no man's land between poetry and music may be impossible, but exploring it is not. "One Evening," at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College from Wednesday through Friday, tries to do just that, weaving poems and prose of Samuel... http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2009/12/follow-me-learning-to-love-twitter Wed, 2 Dec 2009 14:15:00 EST Over the past six months, to go back no further, several experiences got me thinking about matters I wanted to share with the world at large. Conflicting editorial obligations in the twilight zone of print left no time to follow through, so here I sit...