What did the legendary Russian experimental theater director Yevgeny Vakhtangov (1883-1922) have in common with Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, and Carousel? The immigrant director of these landmark Broadway productions, Rouben Mamoulian, was to some degree a Vakhtangov disciple. Mamoulian took Broadway by storm in 1927 with his staging of Dubose Heyward’s novel Porgy. At the age … [Read more...] about Uncle Vanya Meets Porgy and Bess
The Lou Harrison Centenary
If you asked me who composed the best American violin concerto, and who composed the best American piano concerto, I would answer with the same name: Lou Harrison. And yet, except on the West Coast of the United States, Harrison is not a brand name. The present Harrison Centenary year can help to change that. We finally have a copious full-scale biography: Lou … [Read more...] about The Lou Harrison Centenary
Arts Leadership in the Age of Trump
In 1966 the New York Philharmonic undertook an 18-day Stravinsky festival as a kind of try-out for Lukas Foss, whom Leonard Bernstein favored to take over as music director. The conductors included Foss, Bernstein, Ernest Ansermet (who had conducted for Diaghilev), Kiril Kondrashin (a major Soviet artist), and Stravinsky himself. George Balanchine choreographed Ragtime for … [Read more...] about Arts Leadership in the Age of Trump
AT THE BARRICADES: The Arts in the Age of Trump
You’re looking at a photo of me – the old guy with the beard – being thanked by students at East Lake High School, a semi-rural public high school on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas. Five hundred East Lake students had just spent 90 minutes watching and listening to a presentation sampling Redes (1935) – the iconic film of the Mexican Revolution, a tale of exploited fishermen … [Read more...] about AT THE BARRICADES: The Arts in the Age of Trump
Are Orchestras Better than Ever? Why Riccardo Muti is Wrong
Are orchestras better than ever? Riccardo Muti thinks so. Recently, dedicating a bust of Fritz Reiner at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, he said: “The level of the orchestras in the world – especially in the seventies and eighties -- has gone up everywhere.” What is Muti talking about? I suppose he’s applying the criterion of perfection. Perfect intonation, perfect ensemble. What … [Read more...] about Are Orchestras Better than Ever? Why Riccardo Muti is Wrong