Ludwig von Beethoven is inarguably one of the greatest composers Western civilization has ever produced. The staying power of his music is undeniable, with pieces like “Ode to Joy,” “Für Elise,” and “Moonlight Sonata” routinely used in everything from movies to commercials even now, nearly 200 years after his death. The dun dun dun DUUUUUN…
Beethoven: Immortal and Beloved
American Treasures: Meredith Willson, the Real ‘Music Man’
They say authors should write about what they know. If anyone knew what it means to be a Music Man, it was Meredith Willson (spelled with two L’s, 1902–1984), composer and playwright of the celebrated 1957 musical by that title. It turns out that Willson’s real life as a jack of all musical trades was…
Icons of Music: Andras Schiff, a Towering Man of Music
Sitting calmly at the keyboard he moves but slightly, yet his tone ranges from the most delicate to extreme tempestuousness when, for example, he plays intense passages from a Beethoven sonata. Sir Andras Schiff’s exudes an inner calm and spirit of relaxation, as if he were playing in his own living room, seemingly unaware of…
The Bibiena Family: The Doyens of European Theater Design
In 1716, poet Alexander Pope received a letter from writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who had just seen a performance of “Angelica vincitrice di Alcina” in Vienna. “Nothing of the kind was ever more magnificent; and I can easily believe what I am told, that the decorations [sets] and habits [costumes] cost the Emperor thirty…
Perseverance in Love Wins in the End: The Famous Schumann Versus Wieck Battle
Two extremes predominate in writing about the great composers: a tendency to romanticize and mythologize them into inspired demigods, and the current tendency to pull their statues down from their pedestals or perhaps their little composer busts from our pianos. This second view focuses on all of their human flaws, whether real or imagined on…
Comedy and the Natural Theater
“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” These lines, attributed to actor Edmund Gwenn (Santa in the original “Miracle on 34th Street”), sum up the state of comedy today with one important twist. Given the state of contemporary humor: Dying is easy. Comedy is nonexistent. As a culture, we have been instructed not to laugh anymore…
Opera Director Sir Graham Vick Dies Following ‘Complications Arising From COVID’
Opera director Sir Graham Vick has died following “complications arising from COVID-19,” the Birmingham Opera Company has announced. Graham, who was knighted in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, died on Saturday, the company said in a statement on Twitter. His productions have been staged in cities around the world including Milan, New York, St. Petersburg,…
Faith and Freedom: One Shen Yun Dancer’s Escape From China
Zhao Jiheng’s life turned upside down when he was just 8 years old. “One day, I came home, and my parents had disappeared,” Zhao said. His parents, like tens of millions of others in China, had been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because of their religious faith. Overnight, the estimated 70 million to…
The Enduring Songs of America’s First Songwriter, Stephen Foster
Composer George M. Cohan bragged in a song that he was “born on the Fourth of July,” though in truth he missed that date by 24 hours. His most illustrious predecessor, however, was indeed born on that date in 1826. Stephen Foster, the USA’s first popular songwriter, and by most standards the first professional popular…
Review of Virtual Theater: ‘New Faces Sing Broadway 1979’
While some of the larger theaters in Chicago stage musicals as spectacular extravaganzas in mammoth auditoriums, Porchlight Music Theatre has created a reputation for its revivals of Broadway shows offered in a more intimate setting. This practice allows for patrons to feel closer to the action on stage. Another hallmark of a Porchlight production is…
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