Josmar16

LATEST ARTICLES ( 436 )

• ‘Mefistofele’ — ‘Ecco Il Mondo’: The Devil’s in the Details of Boito’s Opera...

  

  It’s intermission time at the online “opera house.”With that in mind, our feature for today is the much ballyhooed connection between Mefistofele’s creator,... Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Sprinkle a Little ‘Turandot,’ Seasoned with a Dash of ‘Cav’ and ‘Pag’ (Part One)...

  

  Welcome Back!Nina Stemme as the icy Princess Turandot (Photo: Marty Sohl/Met Opera)Juggling work, family, and leisure-time activities can be hard on one’s body... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘Mad, Mad, the World’s Gone Mad’ — Wagner’s ‘Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg’ as...

  

  The Kodak Theatre where American Idol took placeAct Three: “The Final Showdown”Second (and last) Scene of Act Three: The setting is inside St. Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘Star Wars,’ the Original Series (Part Five): ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (and How)

  

  Chewie, Leia, C-3PO Han Solo onboard the Millennium FalconOnce More unto the Breach!Having helped Luke Skywalker out in the Rebel Alliance’s plan to rid the... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Met Opera Odds and Ends: ‘Hansel and Gretel’ — A Baker’s Dozen and Children’s...

  

  Hansel and Gretel: Having their cake at the Met (classicalsource.com)Those Were the Days…Incorrectly termed a “children’s opera,” Engelbert Humperdinck’s... Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• What’s Eating Johnny Depp? The Actor at Age 50: A Mid-Career Retrospective...

  

  Johnny Depp Vanessa Paradis (thesun.co.uk)Adventures in ParadisHaving befriended the trippy gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in real life — and whose... Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Julio Mazzei, the Cosmos and the Untold Story of the Man Behind the Glasses (Par...

  

  Who’s That Guy?Professor Julio Mazzei (left) Franz Beckenbauer (Photo: Getty Images)Less than a minute into the 2006 documentary Once in a Lifetime: The... Read more

  Posted on 08 April 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘Les Pêcheurs De Perles’ and ‘Tannhäuser’ (Part Two) — Wagner, Bizet and...

  

  The Imperfect WagneritesMet Tannhäuser revival (metopera.org)There was a decided distinction between George Bizet’s exotic scoring and the so-called “music of... Read more

  Posted on 01 April 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Tchaikovsky in the Triangle: ‘Eugene Onegin’ in Concert at North Carolina Opera...

  

  Lensky Onegin’s duel (Painting by Ilya Repin)Moscow on the HudsonI love Russian opera! The plots, the drama, the characters, the music — anything and... Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘What is Bossa Nova?’ — Variations on a Theme by One of the Genre’s Cultural...

  

  Bossa Nova legend Carlos Lyra (Photo: New York Times)It’s not often that one gets to communicate with a living legend. Carlos Lyra — known also by the diminutiv... Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Tchaikovsky in the Triangle: ‘Eugene Onegin’ in Concert at North Carolina Opera...

  

  A “Fistful” of RublesPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), composer of Eugene OneginOn January 24, 2016, the forces of the North Carolina Opera presented a... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘Les Pêcheurs De Perles’ and ‘Tannhäuser’ (Part One) — Casting ‘Pearls’ Before...

  

  Better Late Than NeverMatthew Polenzani (Nadir), with the Met Opera Chorus in Les Pecheurs de PerlesWhy did it take so long for Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles t... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘Amadeus’ (1984) — Too Many Notes and Quite a Few More!

  

  Tom Hulce as Mozart in the movie Amadeus (1984)A Comedy of DisproportionsBritish playwright, author, and screenwriter Sir Peter Shaffer (The Royal Hunt of the... Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Yee Haw! A Met Opera Round-Up (Part Two): Losing One’s Head Over ‘Anna Bolena’...

  

  The Tawdry Ways of Operatic RoyaltySondra Radvanovsky as Anna Bolena (Photo: Ken Howard)Opera is such a fascinating subject! There’s no end to the plots and... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ (1948) — Let Rabid, Sleeping Dogs Lie

  

  Humphrey Bogart (left) John Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre)A vagrant in a battered hat, raggedy clothes and unshaven visage comes up to a tall lea... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• Yee Haw! —A Met Opera Year-End Round Up with ‘The Barber of Seville’, ‘Die...

  

  Some Productions are Best Left UnheardAlmaviva (David Portillo), Figaro (Elliot Madore) Isabel Leonard (Rosina) in The Barber of Seville (Photo: Karen... Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• In the Merry Month of December: A Boring ‘Bohème,’ a Rousing ‘Rigoletto,’ and a...

  

  A Long Time Ago, in an Opera House Far, Far Away….Finale to Café Momus scene, Act II of La Boheme at the MetWelcome, opera fans, to the 2015-2016 Metropolitan... Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• The Jazz Samba Project: What’s Old is New, and What’s New Gets Old Fast

  

  Of Concerts and SymposiumsThe Felix E. Grant “Wall of Fame” at the Strathmore, June 8, 2014What’s old is new. And what’s new gets old fast. Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2016 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• It’s ‘Jazz Samba’ Time! Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Landmark Bossa...

  

  Me Buddy Deppenschmidt at Strathmore, Education Room 309, June 8, 2014The following is a transcript of an interview I conducted with jazz drummer Buddy... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA

• ‘Madama Butterfly’ — North Carolina Opera Triumphs with Puccini’s Japanese...

  

  And Now, For Your Listening Pleasure…Cio-Cio-San (Talise Trevigne) Suzuki (Lindsey Ammann) in Act II of Madama Butterfly (Photo: Curtis Brown)Interestingly,... Read more

  Posted on 28 November 2015 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA