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| "There are some good moments, the occasional flash of opulent pageantry - but far too much that is baroque opera by the yard. This is the first commercial recording, decently sung and coordinated with the usual care by Alan Curtis, but really for Handel addicts only," wrote Andrew Clements in a review dated 4 July 2003 at guardian.co.uk about a new recording of Handel's Deidamia. |
| Susan "Graham's commanding performance as [Hélène] is everything one would expect from one of the world's reigning mezzo-sopranos, and she is perfectly balanced by [William] Burden, a tenor who has operatic star written all over him."--from a review by Kyle MacMillan at denverpost.com of a performance of Offenbach's La Belle Hélène at Santa Fe, New Mexico. |
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| "This is a thoroughly delightful show: The music is enjoyable, if not Offenbach's most memorable, and the acting is superb, if somewhat broad at times. Well worth seeing -- once."--from a review by Stephen G. Landesman at theithacajournal.com of a Glimmerglass performance of Offenbach's Bluebeard. |
| The DVD of the movie The Quiet American is scheduled for release on July 29, 2003, and can be ordered from amazon.com. |
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| A new recording of Richard Strauss's opera Die Ägyptische Helena (The Egyptian Helen) "made live in New York last October" with Deborah Voigt is "the finest version yet," writes Edward Greenfield at guardian.co.uk. |
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| Jason Flemyng as Dr. Jekyll in 20th Century Fox's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - 2003 Rated: PG-13 Photo © Copyright 20th Century Fox |
| "The acting may seem secondary in a film of this sort, but the actors make 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' a lot more than just spectacular dumb fun. They're fun to watch too. I'm not making any great claims for this film, but the fact that I wouldn't mind seeing it again speaks volumes in a summer of mega-movies I couldn't get away from fast enough."--James Verniere in a review in the Boston Herald of July 11, 2003. The movie "assembles a team of fictioinal Victorian and early-20th century heroes and anti-heroes to battle a force threatening the world . . .." |
| An Evening with Brett Somers at Danny's Skylight Cabaret (346 West 46th Street, New York) has been extended to two additional shows on August 1 and 8, reports playbill.com. |
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| "This jawdroppingly awful half-evening is a triumph of glitz over guts, an attempt to reduce opera to the status of a West End musical — albeit with production standards 20 years out of date; a travesty of everything that opera should be about, and a betrayal of every element of its make-up."--from a review by Robert Thicknesse at timesonline.co.uk of a performance of Pagliacci at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. |
| July 14, 2003 Today I'm playing some French operas as background music, Massenet's Sapho and Donizetti's La fille du régiment, both on Opera d'Oro. |
| Richard Strauss's Capriccio on DVD (with encoding for United States and Canada) with Kiri Te Kanawa, David Kuebler, and Simon Keenlyside can be ordered from amazon.com. |
| The DVD of the movie Nicholas Nickleby will be released at amazon.com on July 22, 2003. It is the most recent film that I've seen at a movie theatre. |
| "For sheer technical excellence - tonal opulence, clear projection, evenly integrated registers, steadiness of emission, the capacity to melt a phrase or float a note, the control of breath and dynamic - she rates a straight 10. Such things as the ability to pull at the heart-strings and make your spine tingle can't be so objectively scored, but I can only say that I found Fleming greatly moving in her expression of Rusalka's desolation, spinning a musical line so pure and intense that it seemed to hit some Keatsian heart of exquisite melancholy. I shall never forget it."--from review by Rupert Christiansen at telegraph.co.uk of Covent Garden Rusalka with Renee Fleming. "Still, all the self-conscious fiddling with her hair and her frocks emphasised her detachment," wrote Erica Jeal at guardian.co.uk. "Fleming may be better suited to his music than some of the composers she sings, but she can fall wide of the stylistic mark. In the famous Song to the Moon she drags and croons alarmingly, and the conductor Charles Mackerras is surprisingly tolerant," wrote John Allison at timesonline.co.uk. |
| Carol Channing "will offer a glimpse of her upcoming one-woman show — An Evening with Carol Channing — during her appearances Aug. 8 and 9 at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl evenings, entitled 'The Great American Concert,' will feature Channing as well as the symphonic debut of Michael Bublé, an interpreter of the American Songbook. Both will be accompanied by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra under the direction of John Mauceri," reports playbill.com. |
| Harry Connick Jr.'s new album, released July 15, does not feature any vocals. Connick leads a jazz quartet with his piano playing. Steve Greenlee in the Boston Globe says, "The disc, 'Other Hours,' is a great romp through a dozen original tunes that [Connick] composed for the Broadway musical 'Thou Shalt Not.'" |
| "In her new book 'What is Gnosticism?' (Belknap Press), Harvard Divinity School's Karen L. King says her colleagues are too enthralled by the Gnostics' early critics. The discovery in 1945 of Gnostic scriptures in Egypt, King argues, makes it clear that Gnostic beliefs were too diverse to fit into a traditional definition. Rather than long-dead heresy, she writes, some of these beliefs are valuable insights for modern believers."--from an article by Rich Barlow in the Boston Globe of July 19, 2003. |