Josmar16
MY BLOGS
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Reviews by Josmar Lopes
http://josmarlopes.wordpress.com/
Brazilian culture and history (as well as music, opera, the arts), films in general, sci-fi/fantasy/horror films in particular, TV, opera history, reviews and personalities, pop music, pop culture personalities, bossa nova, soccer. I was invited to submit my blog by Emma on Dec 6, 2012.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 426 )
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New Met Productions of ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ and ‘Pagliacci’ — Two Operas Joine...
‘Si può?’ — ‘If I may?’George Gagnidze as Tonio in the Prologue to Pagliacci (Photo: Met Opera)Returning to the topic at hand, verismo (or “realism,” in th... Read more
Posted on 15 August 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
New Productions of ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ and ‘Pagliacci’ — Two Operas Joined...
Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Act II (Photo: Cory Weaver/Met Opera)“Reality…What a Concept!”Starting off a review of the Metropolitan Opera’s last new production of... Read more
Posted on 08 August 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Is There a Doctor in the Opera House? — ‘Don Carlo,’ ‘Un Ballo in Maschera,’...
“Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind”Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Rodrigo Barbara Frittoli as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don CarloAll season long, the Metropolitan Opera has... Read more
Posted on 02 August 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Met Opera Odds and Ends: ‘Carmen,’ ‘Manon,’ and the World According to Opera
Yesterday and TodayDiana Damrau as Manon Vittorio Grigolo as Des Grieux (Ken Howard/Met Opera)What relevance does opera have for present-day audiences? Read more
Posted on 19 July 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Mefistofele’ — ‘Ecco Il Mondo’: The Devil’s in the Details of Boito’s Opera...
“The Play’s the Thing!”Mefistofele Act One, Scene i (Teatro Massimo di Palermo)In the previous background section devoted to the development of the operas Faust... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Mad, Mad, the World’s Gone Mad’ — Wagner’s ‘Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg’ as...
Act Three: “The Dr. Phil Show”Randy Jackson (a.k.a. Hans Sachs) in The Mastersingers of Los AngelesFirst Scene of Act Three: The setting is inside Randy... Read more
Posted on 19 June 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Met Opera Odds and Ends: The Works I Couldn’t Miss — and Those I Wish I Had
Anna Netrebko in the Met’s Anna BolenaWhat an odd title for a piece about radio and HD broadcasts of obscure or rarely performed works by the Metropolitan Opera... Read more
Posted on 16 June 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Twelve Angry Men (1957): Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
Twelve Angry Men (1957)A powerful look into the American criminal justice system and the mysterious ways of jury deliberation and manipulation, the much lauded... Read more
Posted on 06 June 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Met Opera Double Bill: ‘Iolanta’ and ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ — A Toast to the...
Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle at the Met (Marty Sohl / Met Opera)The live Met Opera season is over for now, but the work of reviewing has... Read more
Posted on 30 May 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘A Star is Born’ (1954): No Pot of Gold at the End of Judy Garland’s Rainbow
James Mason Judy Garland in A Star is Born (1954)In reading critic and author David Thomson’s The Big Screen, a book about the history of motion pictures, I... Read more
Posted on 25 May 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Everything Verdi: ‘La Traviata,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Ernani,’ ‘Don Carlo,’ and Other...
Scenes from Verdi’s Ernani (Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera)“Ernani, Ernani, Envolami”Moving on to the April 4 transmission of Verdi’s Ernani, that old flu bug hi... Read more
Posted on 16 May 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962) — He for Whom Nothing is Written
Auda (Anthony Quinn), Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) Ali (Omar Sharif) in Lawrence of ArabiaWhat makes a film a classic? A better question to ask is: what makes a... Read more
Posted on 15 May 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Don Giovanni’ — Mozart’s Opera Comes to Supper in North Carolina
North Carolina Opera production of Don Giovanni (All Photos: courtesy of North Carolina Opera)At the final performance of April 26, 2015 of Mozart’s Don... Read more
Posted on 04 May 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Bossa Nova’ — Carioca Love Story: The Rio of One’s Dreams
Doing the Bossa NovaPedro Paulo (Antonio Fagundes) Mary Ann (Amy Irving) in Bossa NovaWhile Walter Salles’ Central Station attempts to bind up old wounds... Read more
Posted on 25 April 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Everything Verdi: ‘La Traviata,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Ernani,’ ‘Don Carlo,’ and Other...
The Wayward World of OperaLady Macbeth (Anna Netrebko) Macbeth (Zeljko Lucic) at the MetThis has been a lukewarm season for live opera on the radio and in... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Gone With the Wind’ (1939) — A War Epic Without the War
The plantation Tara, with Scarlett and her father, in Gone With the Wind (1939)Today, it’s hard to fathom that Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling fictional... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Matinees with Mozart: ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘Don Giovanni’ at the Met
Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days The Marriage of Figaro with Danielle De Niese (Susanna) and Erwin Schrott (Figaro)What opera lover wouldn’t mind spending a lazy... Read more
Posted on 14 March 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Network’ — Madder Than Hell (And Loving Every Minute of It)
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in NetworkFor satire to be truly effective it must consist of the following elements: irony, wit, sarcasm, parody, exaggeration,... Read more
Posted on 27 February 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Chinatown’ — What Happens to Nosey Fellows
Jake (Jack Nicholson) chatting with Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) in ChinatownIn the same year that Paramount was touting The Godfather, Part II as a Best Picture... Read more
Posted on 24 February 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Les Contes d’Hoffmann’ — The Unfinished Tale of Jacques Offenbach’s Last Opera
The Poetic ConnectionVittorio Grigolo as Hoffmann (Marty Sohl / Met Opera)An immensely prolific nineteenth-century creator of opérettes and opéras-bouffes, Jaco... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA