Category: AJBlogs

This Week In Audience, Universal Translator Edition How will our stories change when we have a universal translator? How will our relationships to things change when things respond to our voices? What is a live performance when the performer isn’t live? These stories and more in This Week In Audience … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts Audience Published 2016-06-05

Country House Opera: Music and the Love of Food Eugene Onegin at Garsington Opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2016-06-05

Inside out Crystal Pite’s Betroffenheit. I’m doing it again. Smacking myself on the side of the head because it’s too panicked and busy in there, a snarl of thoughts that go nowhere and that I’m desperate… …read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-06-04

Love Finds a Way American Ballet Theatre revives its production of Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée. James Whiteside and Stella Abrera of American Ballet Theatre as Colas and Lise in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée. Photo: Rosalie… …read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-06-03

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So simple to fix
In my recent posts, I’ve noted a lack of real physicality in most opera stagings, which — to cite just one problem it causes — can lead to violent moments not looking violent. Which then … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-06-02

Review: Meet Rob Clearfield
Rob Clearfield, Islands (ears & eyes records) Pianist and composer Rob Clearfield is a member of Chicago’s under-30 jazz community, admired for work as a sideman with bassist Matt Ulery and pianist-singer Patricia Barber, among … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-06-02

So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-02

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Formerly famous
In a popular culture, fame is cheap. That’s what Andy Warhol meant when he said that in the future, everybody would be famous for fifteen minutes. (Remember JenniCam?) It’s also what I had in mind … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-01

Snapshot: Junior Brown sings and plays “Highway Patrol”
Junior Brown sings and plays “Highway Patrol” in an undated TV clip. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-01

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Hard Times at NYC Museums: National Academy Homeless (with video); Staffing Cuts at the Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum, MoMA
Unlike the 2008 meltdown, there’s currently no major economic recession in the U.S. to blame for the recent epidemic of belt-tightening by three major New York City art museums – the Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-31

The Milt Jackson Quartet, Then And Then
A video of The Modern Jazz Quartet has been getting wide viewership on the internet. The YouTube presentation does not disclose that the group we see and hear is the MJQ’s predecessor, the rhythm section … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-31

Instead of Alexander Nevsky
For every screening with live orchestra of Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky (music by Prokofiev), there should be at least a dozen screenings with live orchestra of Paul Strand’s Redes (music by Silvestre Revueltas). … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2016-05-31

Making Friends
It has been over a year since I found an excuse to write about Nala (our dog). The time to do so again has come. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-05-31

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What Is Manus x Machina Doing At the Met?
It was a hot Sunday afternoon on a three-day holiday weekend, and I decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum* to see Manus x Machina, the costume exhibition that occupies the Lehman wing. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-05-30

Paul Desmond Remembered
Paul Desmond died 39 years ago today. Ten previous Rifftides observances of the anniversary have included passages from my biography of Paul and Desmond stories from an assortment of people who knew him. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-30

Chastened and inspired
“I saw a woman in Central Park today wearing a T-shirt that said ‘America Was Never Great,’” a friend of mine tweeted over the weekend. I wasn’t surprised to hear it. My country contains many people … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-05-30

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Stories Only Dance Can Tell
Juliette Mapp and Beth Gill present brave new works in New York. Juliette Mapp’sLuxury Rentals. (L to R): Levi Gonzales, Jimena Paz, Kayvon Pourazar, and Juliette Mapp. Photo: Ian Douglas, courtesy of Danspace Project… … read mor
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-05-29

Opening arguments
When Emma Rice was appointed artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe earlier this year, it seemed an inspired choice. Irreverent, populist, she was director of Kneehigh. a company with a ballsy, outward-facing performance style splashed… … read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2016-05-28

Shakespeare: The Miniseries
In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I report on the premiere of Chicago Shakespeare’s Tug of War: Foreign Fire. Here’s an excerpt. * * * It’s become common—even fashionable—to mount Shakespeare’s history plays in… … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2016-05-27

An Analytical Cornucopia, Wanted or Not

The Tosca effect
Implausible things in opera staging, things any TV show gets right, things that can mar even opera productions that, overall, are quite good — that was the subject of my previous post. This weakens us, … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-05-26

Speaking of Politics: ‘A Study in Depravity’
Pamphleteering in England goes back nearly 300 years, represented most famously by such 18th-century polemecists as Henry Fielding and Daniel Defoe, and in America by the British-born Thomas Paine. Even the poet John Milton was … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-05-26

An Analytical Cornucopia, Wanted or Not
Over the last eleven years, I’ve given at least seventeen keynote addresses and conference papers, and in recent weeks I’ve managed to post all but two of them … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-05-26

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Things Mingus Revisited (+)
Occasionally, Rifftides reposts something from the past that still has relevance. Charles Mingus is relevant. From August 24, 2007: “2007 is turning out to be a bonanza year for a Charles Mingus sextet that existed …” read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-25

Frick Flick: CultureGrrl Video Tour of Off-Limits Upstairs Living Quarters at Frick Collection
One of my favorite parts of the Frick Collection’s controversial expansion plans was the commitment to opening to the public the historic upstairs rooms where the Frick clan lived 100 years ago. Now that I’ve … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-25

In search of lost time
I just finished One-Man Band, the third volume of Simon Callow’s Orson Welles biography. It’s the first new book I’ve read from cover to cover since … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-05-25

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Cultural Equity
On May 23 Americans for the Arts released its new Statement on Cultural Equity. Before going any further, let me acknowledge that I’m a white guy of a certain age and have no expertise to … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-05-24

A big opera problem
Finally saw Twilight of the Gods, the conclusion of the DC Ring. ... And most of it was as powerful as the best of what had gone before. … [But] there were problems beyond that, problems I fear are endemic in opera. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-05-24

If you find one
Unless you live in a very small town, every middle-aged life is full of friend-sized holes. Some, of course, are dug by death, but more arise from the routine friction of everyday existence and the fact that America is a really big country. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-05-24

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A Small Museum Focuses On Men
Small museums in this country, and probably everywhere, tend to be ignored. Most lack the kind of art and exhibition program that brings notice beyond their communities. But the Freeport Museum of Art, in northern Illinois, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-05-23

Speaking of Love
Alexei Ratmansky introduces Plato to American Ballet Theatre in its Lincoln Center season. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-05-23

“Tidal Wave of Change”: The Sudden Turnover of U.S. Art Museum Directors (towards contemporary)
While the annual meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors (in Cleveland through tomorrow) focuses on ways “to increase diversity throughout the field,” Kaywin Feldman, director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art  … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-23

Monday Recommendation: JD Allen
JD Allen, Americana: Musings on Jazz and Blues (Savant) The wisdom of Allen’s choice of material is borne out in nine performances that illustrate an article of faith he expresses in his notes, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-23

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