Criticultura em Portugal

La Favola d'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor English Baroque Soloists, The Monteverdi Choir Krystian Adam, Orfeo Gianluca Burato, Pluto Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center October 18, 2017 For the past seven months the famed Sir John Eliot Gardiner has embarked on an ambitious road show called “Monteverdi 450”, in honor of the 450th anniversary of the great composer’s birth. He has performed each of the three extant Monteverdi operas as a set, each one traveling with the same cast, in 8 different countries and nine settings, now ending in New York.  After my transcendent experience with a Monteverdi opera performed by Italians last year, this week’s L’ Orfeo was a disappointing mixed bag (you can see the entire performance here ). L’Orfeo (1607) is the very first opera that entered the repertory, following the beginnings of opera ( Dafne and Euridice by the Florentine Jacopo Peri) by about 10 years. Opera in its infancy drew its just...

The Alchemist (1988) Novel by Paulo Coelho Tiny Beautiful Things Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed Play adapted for the Stage by Nia Vardalos Starring Nia Vardalos, Teddy Cañez, Hubert Point-du Jour, Natalie Woolams-Torres The Public Theater October 11, 2017 Hitler, Ascent 1889-1939 Biography by Volker Ullrich Alfred A. Knopf, 2016 Triumph of the Will (1935) Directed by Leni Riefenstahl Thursday was about self-help literature: in the evening I saw Tiny Beautiful Things at the Public Theater, while earlier in the day my library book club had discussed the novel The Alchemist , now translated into 70 languages and under development as a Hollywood picture produced by none other than Harvey Weinstein, who certainly could use some self-help these days. As I grew weary of this day of needy self-actualization, on the subway home I thought back to my recent reading of the excellent new biography Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 by the German Volker Ullrich. All...

Crossing Composed, written, and conducted by Matthew Aucoin Directed by Diane Paulus Starring Rod Gilfrey (Walt Whitman), Alexander Lewis (John Wormley) Brooklyn Academy of Music Howard Gilman Opera House October 8, 2017 Matthew Aucoin (b. 1990) is a millennial poet, conductor, and composer now making a big splash for writing full length operas and orchestral pieces at a tender age. He has already conducted the Chicago Symphony, been an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan opera, and composed/written four operas at age 27, drawing comparisons to Mozart (Aucoin supposedly played the score of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro by memory at the piano at age 11). Crossing (2015), an impressively conceived, written, composed and paced one act opera, received its New York debut this past weekend in a large venue with major publicity, attesting to the rapidly advancing career of this young man. What I heard and saw was the work of a composer with an excellent talent for drama, ver...

A Doll’s House, Part 2 By Lucas Hnath Directed by Sam Gold Starring Julie White (Nora), Stephen McKinley (Torvald), Jayne Houdyshell (Anne Marie) Golden Theater, Manhattan September 21, 2017 In Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 shocker A Doll’s House , the previously-compliant wife Nora famously walks out on her husband Helmer Torvald, her children, and her familiar life, with only uncertainty and societal condemnation in her future. She does this because she has been awakened to a realization that her own needs are as important as those of others; she cannot reconcile this with her stultifying family life. The play ends as follows: Helmer . Nora--can I never be anything more than a stranger to you? Nora  [taking her bag] . Ah, Torvald, the most wonderful thing of all would have to happen. Helmer . Tell me what that would be! Nora . Both you and I would have to be so changed that--. Oh, Torvald, I don't believe any longer in wonderful things happening. Helmer . B...