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 ( 425 )
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Salad Bowl Italian-Opera Style Continues with ‘La Traviata’
Domingo Takes the Lead from Damrau Placido Domingo as Germont (AP Photo/Ken Howard, Met Opera)Continuing with my review of the Verdi bicentennial celebration... Read more
Posted on 14 April 2013 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA -
Salad Bowl Italian-Opera Style, from Verdi to Zandonai: ‘Otello,’ ‘Forza,’...
This year marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, the reigning king of Italian opera and the acknowledged grand master of the genre... Read more
Posted on 13 April 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Two Thumbs Way Up for Movie Critic Roger Ebert (1942 – 2013)
Roger Ebert (Eileen Ryan)“I read the news today, oh boy” is the first line of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” one of many classic songs from their classic 196... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT -
Opera Personalities in Brazil (Part Two) – Politics, the Kiss of Death: A...
Maestro Luiz Fernando Malheiro (www.luizfernandomalheiro.com.br)With major international revivals by a once-neglected Brazilian master, and numerous contemporar... Read more
Posted on 02 April 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Buddy Deppenschmidt: The Man Who Drummed the Brazilian Beat into American Ears!
Drummer Buddy Deppenschmidt (center) and Bahian friends, 1961 (Jazz Times)Never print anything in haste – or in anger – I always say. Well, maybe the time... Read more
Posted on 30 March 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Parsifal’ and ‘Don Carlo’ – A Celebratory Feast of Wagner and Verdi for the...
Jonas Kaufmann as Parsifal Flower Maidens (Ken Howard / Met Opera)Politics and Religion Don’t Mix – Except at the OperaAs far as genuine religious conviction... Read more
Posted on 20 March 2013 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Parsifal’ and ‘Don Carlo’ – A Celebratory Feast of Wagner and Verdi for the...
Ferruccio Furlanetto as King Philip II (Ken Howard / Met Opera)This was a momentous week for the Catholic Church. With the election of a new pope, Holy Week,... Read more
Posted on 16 March 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘For All My Days Remaining’ – Sting’s Dark Night of ‘The Soul Cages’ (Conclusion)
Sting’s The Soul CagesMidway PointWe’re at the halfway mark, folks. Intermission time, as they say in the theater. And Sting dutifully obliges by providing an... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Sadness Has No End’ – Part Six: It’s All About the Music, Isn’t It?
The Best of Both WorldsToni Garrido as OrfeuWith his stirring defense of Cacá Diegues’ Orfeu resonating in the international press, Caetano Veloso... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘Carmen’ and ‘Turandot’– A Met Opera Doubleheader: It Takes Two to Tangle
What a long Saturday last February 23rd proved to be! The reason: back-to-back Metropolitan Opera productions of two of the company’s most popular presentations... Read more
Posted on 03 March 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Seth and Oscar — The New Academy-Award Winning Odd Couple
Some of my candid observations about last Sunday’s Oscar® telecast.First of all, someone obviously confused “class” with “crass.” To put it bluntly (which is... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘For All My Days Remaining’ — Sting’s Dark Night of ‘The Soul Cages’ (Continued)
Pipes and InsightsSting The Soul Cages (A M Records)The Soul Cages is replete with such observances, with the one about finding your own pathway chief among... Read more
Posted on 23 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘For All My Days Remaining’ – Sting’s Dark Night of ‘The Soul Cages’
The Soul Cages (blogspot.com)Songs about death and dying aren’t exactly the norm where pop music is concerned. Nor are they the kinds of uplifting subjects... Read more
Posted on 19 February 2013 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA -
Carlos Gomes Reborn! A Long-Forgotten Brazilian Composer’s Music Returns to the...
Composer Carlos GomesThe problem of documenting Brazil’s cultural heritage and, more significantly, the benefits to be reaped by rediscovering her glorious... Read more
Posted on 17 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
A Ring-a-Ding-Ding ‘Rigoletto’ – Viva Las Vegas at the Met
Rigoletto at the Met, circa 1960 Las Vegas (dartmouth.edu)Updating the settings of nineteenth century works to modern times is a fairly common practice in many... Read more
Posted on 17 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Two Brazilian Charmers – Part Five: Carmen Goes Bananas
Carmen Miranda in Hollywood (dvdtalk.com)A Night to RememberAs bad as the experience of being booed in Rio’s Teatro Municipal may have been for Bidu Sayão, it... Read more
Posted on 16 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
The ‘Italian’ Composer from Campinas – Part Five: Carlos Gomes, All Work and...
All these pressures only served to exacerbate Gomes’ growing despondency over his lot. The one hope he had for resurrecting his career was anchored in the... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
Lo, the Savior Approaches (Part Four) – Villa-Lobos and His Efforts to Preserve...
Heitor Villa-Lobos in the 1930s (schemainternational.wordpress.com)The sparse operatic content of the country’s foremost musical apologist, Heitor Villa-Lobos,... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘La Rondine’ – ‘The Swallow’ Comes Back Home to Roost, But Misses the Nest
Giacomo Puccini’s body of work, to include the likes of Manon Lescaut, La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, Il Trittico, and the lavishly... Read more
Posted on 11 February 2013 CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATRE & OPERA -
‘L’Elisir d’Amore’ (‘The Elixir of Love’) – Old Wine in a New Bottle
Ambrogio Maestri in L’Elisir d’Amore (Sara Krulwich/NY Times)Opera, by its very nature, is tragic. Blame the ancient Greeks, who were credited with “inventing”... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2013 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA