One of Our Own JJ‘s first mentors discovered this YouTube clip of Donna Murphy, exclaiming, “Use this when you are trying to explain what ‘personality’ means in the theater. She makes it into a mash-up of Cours-la-Reine and ‘A Great Lady Has An Interview’.” Read more »
It seems at first glance to have come from sort of jukebox musical auto-generator — Sir Philip Sidney’s epic poem of good governance and inappropriate desire, the Arcadia, with the music of chart-topping New Wave girl group The Go-Go’s? What kind of half-baked post-Mamma Mia cash-in is that? Read more »
Celebrated conductor William Christie, widely considered among the foremost interpreters of early-music for modern audiences, and his acclaimed ensemble Les Arts Florissants have delighted audiences at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) for 30 years. On March 1st, they return with Rameau, maître à danser, featuring two rarely seen operas originally penned by 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau for the court of Louis XV.
A pastoral atmosphere prevails throughout La naissance d’Osiris, a one-act ballet set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac commissioned to celebrate the birth of the Duke of Berry, future Louis XVI; Daphnis et Églé tells the story of two lovers ignorant of their own love for each other, charming audiences with its use of classic European dance styles like sarabande, gavotte, gigue, minuet, tambourin, and contredanse.
Both operatic miniatures served as a symbol of the court’s opulence as well as a source of evening entertainment; together, as Rameau, maître à danser, they serve as a sublime showcase for Christie’s singular brilliance and the ravishing power of baroque music. At the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Mar 1—3. Read more »
Dapper countertenor Ray Chenez is temporarily putting aside the turbans of his operatic career for, well, the turbans of a Broadway diva as he appeals via Indiegogo for funding to record a CD of show tunes. Read more »
While America’s Diva is off singing gala concerts from Mobile to East Lansing, who will take over the role of Nettie Fowler?
Many lessons surface in Tony Kushner’s epic Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.
Carousel is receiving a Broadway revival in a simple, cautious production that still manages to pack an emotional wallop.
On this day in 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel opened at the Majestic Theatre, to run 890 performances.
While Farinelli and the King isn’t the only Broadway play to have explored castration (Sweet Bird of Youth, anyone?) it’s likely the first to concern a legendary 18th century opera star.
Cher Public