In terms of box office, the season has not been satisfying at the Metropolitan Opera. Sold-out new productions of The Magic Flute and Rodelinda notwithstanding, overall attendance still hasn’t bounced back from 9/11, which made stay-at-homes of Met lovers in Japan, Europe and the rest of the United States. As the 2004-5 season enters the Read More
I went to see Frida more out of duty to the sisterhood than genuine curiosity, and found myself both smitten and inspired. Having never responded to the feminist cult of St. Frida, and being put off by the folkloric art and self-dramatizing imagery of the doom-laden Mexican spitfire with that accusing monobrow look, I expected Read More
Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven , from his own screenplay, is well worth seeing for its visual approximation of the Douglas Sirk–Ross Hunter “women’s pictures” of the 50′s, several with closet-gay icon Rock Hudson as the male lead. Having reached adulthood and even gone into the Army during the Korean War in the 50′s, I Read More
The tormented, turbulent and passionate life of legendary painter Frida Kahlo, an artist of unique and bountiful talent-and an icon of suffering who has become known in Mexico as the saint of the afflicted-was too big to fill a single canvas. She suffered for her art and made art out of suffering, merging art and Read More
Julie Taymor’s Titus , based on the play Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, would strike the more learned admirers of the Bard as a curious, almost incomprehensible choice from his oeuvre for a movie in any other times but our own. Consider the most grotesquely gruesome entrance in all dramatic literature, “Enter the Emperor’s sons, Read More
As you may have heard, the stage version of The Lion King has opened at Disney’s New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, and to that I say two little words: “hakuna matata.”
“Hakuna matata” is, of course, Swahili for “no worries.” It’s the Elton John-Tim Rice version of “Don’t worry, be happy.” Simba, you will Read More
