By Rachel Straus February 4 and 5 @ 8:00 p.m. Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet at City Center Magloire’s choreographic inspiration is music. Lately, the German-born, composer-choreographer has been inviting emerging dance makers to his evenings at City Center’s studio. The program will include three world premieres: Constantine Baecher’s Sketches Of A Woman Remembering (a [...]
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By James Jorden Instead of beating my brains out trying to make sense of the comings and goings in the final act of Simon Boccanegra at the Met (or am I just deluded to find it unlikely that convicted rebels should be marched to their execution through the Doge’s unguarded council chamber?), I thought this [...]
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by Edna Landau Welcome to the inaugural installment of “Ask Edna.” It has been heartening to see the immediate response to this new MusicalAmerica.com blog and I thank all those who have already written in with their questions and kind words of praise and enthusiasm. Please note that we welcome your questions not only about [...]
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They say you should try any new life experience with the exception of incest and English country dancing, and that’s about the best excuse I can come up with for taking up the offer of a blogspot on this esteemed site. Does the world need another blog? Of course not. Feel free to log off [...]
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By Alan Gilbert I have followed Anthony Tommasini’s recent series in The New York Times on the Top 10 composers with great interest, both because I was curious about what the final list would be, and also because it is reminiscent of one of my favorite parlor games that I have played for years with [...]
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By Rachel Straus If you’re a ballet lover, you know her name. Sara Mearns. New York Times senior dance critic Alastair MacAulay recently called her “the greatest American ballerina of our time.” On January 21, she performed in Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering (1969) and Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH (2008) with the New York [...]
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by Cathy Barbash China’s president Hu Jintao called for increased cultural exchanges during his remarks at yesterday’s luncheon of leaders of American business and foreign-relations organizations in Washington. Though often a step-child at State Visits, culture fared well this time. Hu’s remarks are consistent with recent U.S.-China diplomacy: our countries launched the High Level Consultation [...]
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by Rachel Straus Finding clues to a lost dance resembles detective work. If you’re the Sherlock Holmes type, dance reconstructions can become obsessively fascinating. On January 9 and 10, the Guggenheim Museum’s popular Works + Process series hosted Pacific Northwest Ballet—Giselle Revisited. Under the artistic directorship of former New York City Ballet principal Peter Boal, [...]
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By James Jorden Garson Kanin wrote this novel a clef called Smash, a tale of a ruggedly handsome director’s trials in getting ready for Broadway a musical based on the life of a legendary vaudeville star, featuring a difficult young diva in the leading role—well, as you can see, the clef is pretty much a [...]
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by Sedgwick Clark Nothing beats vacationing in St. Martin with wife and friends who desire nothing more than just an ordinary nap. Or a vigorous game of bridge! One of our friends is a Bronze Life Master. He’s incredibly patient with the rest of us and would make an ideal teacher. He brought two classy decks of [...]
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