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Orchestra? No va
Mr. Pak deserves a portion of the blame for what happened to Orchestra Nova, and should be held accountable. His silly ideas about requiring players to display "emotional involvement" with the music -- displaying 'appropriate' facial expressions, getting out of their seats and roaming about the stage while playing, etc. - put the musicians in an untenable position. Not to mention the old "if you don't do what I want, I'll take my toys and go home" trick. His weirdness does not, however, remove or even diminish the blame that can be placed on the management which has been, for a long time, what Mr. Pfiffner terms 'incompetent,' not least in enabling Pak as he slowly but very publicly went 'round the bend.— December 15, 2012 12:03 p.m.
Eternal Tone
A marvelous way to help us all think about music in a way that freshens it, as we speak of a spring as "fresh water.". It reminds me of a long-ago conversation with a German doctor and scholar. We were talking about languages and idioms, and happened to turn to the idea of friendship. He helped me think about it a new way when he said, "In English, you often talk about /making/friends. But in German, wew most often talk about /finding/friends. Your friends are already there, all around you in the world. All you have to do is find them."— April 17, 2012 7:27 p.m.
Ibsen and Acting
Bravo. This is the kind of "preview" piece that is always welcome -- and needed.— February 1, 2012 5:03 p.m.
Over, Under, Through
And why did Mr. Smith never have the courage to speak his piece about the Globe's leadership before so much damage was done? Mr. Spisto's lack of qualifications for making artistic decisions (both short term, and - more disastrously - long term) was certainly no secret in the SD theatre community; it was openly discussed on many occasions. Nor was Mr. Noel's dismay at the theatre's artistic aimlessness unknown to a wide circle that included not only close friends but many professional colleagues who did not know him personally as well. Mr. Smith, you might have done your community an important service by raising these topics for serious discussion in your pages. Why did you fail to do so? What, or whom, were you scared of?— January 7, 2012 2:12 p.m.
A Dream Role
I think the writer means "baled"....unless the hay in question was in the pokey longing for release.....— November 19, 2011 10:29 a.m.
Sisyphus or Not
If Leonard Bernstein could come back from the dead to conduct the Ninth this weekend, then there would be good reason to go. But the leaden Liszt of last weekend did not engender hope that the Mahler would succeed. It's true that Ling can, on occasion (the Sixth almost lifted off) reach for the transcendence this music requires, but the grasp usually comes up short. The Ninth demands resources that this orchestra simply does not possess yet (although if every player could match Benjamin Jaber, there would be excitement in abundance.) At this point, the returns don't justify the cost of the investment.— November 9, 2011 10:25 a.m.
Hershey Felder in Maestro: The Art of Leonard Bernstein at the Old Globe
You might want to put the correct spelling of Copland in your dictionary (your insertion of the "e" is so common a mistake that one should surely say "no harm, no foul.") But your assertion about Felder's mastery at the piano is way off the mark. His performances, if they can be called that, in the Gershwin and Beethoven evenings were embarrassing, very nearly painful to anyone who was familiar with the pieces. And the Bernstein renditions are, if possible, even worse. In the end, the whole piece (like the ones that preceded it) is an exercise in self-indulgence. It's a good example of the corrosion of taste and judgment at the Globe, which no one seems able to slow down or stop. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, about MASS, but it's not widely shared among those who know the full scope of Bernstein's output.— August 5, 2011 3:01 p.m.
Oh Pshaw!
If your first sentence refers to productions of Shaw's plays, it would appear that you are overlooking the Avo Theatre productions of ARMS AND THE MAN and YOU NEVER CAN TELL which both took place in the last decade. Or does Vista not count?— August 5, 2011 2:52 p.m.
Mozart Lazy?
Taking careful notes would be a good start. And Joaquin, the pronunciation using the diphthong would not articulate four discrete syllables. Diphthongs are tricky little critters, and we use far more of them than we think. Take the word "yo" as in Yo, homie....even though there is a single IPA symbol that could be used to write the beginning sound of that short word, it turns out that your tongue is actually doing more than a single thing...give it a try and see what happens.— June 29, 2011 11:28 a.m.
Mozart Lazy?
And thanks to you both for providing such a quick demonstration of typical SD philistinism.— June 28, 2011 11:08 a.m.