Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

There’s logic to Cheney’s shamelessness– If you look at the way that he is today urging us over another cliff and into another global conflagration on the exact anniversary of his infamous kick-off thirteen years ago–you see that he is … Continue reading →

It seems incredible that war criminal, war profiteer, and draft dodger Dick Cheney should be making his latest plea-for-war exhortation on the anniversary to-the-day of his nefarious let’s-get-our-war pitch thirteen years ago. And we know how that turned out. The … Continue reading →

“Don’t touch that score–you might give a calculated performance of  ‘Pace’!” So shrieked La Scala intendant Antonio Ghiringhelli as he tore down the hallway to Tebaldi’s dressing room in 1955. OK, that’s bogus. And probably gratuitous. But I couldn’t resist. … Continue reading →

The first time I was on tour with Tchernichova was in Miami Beach in 1983–right before it went Continental. I was there again five years later to do research and it was totally different. Anyway, she and I were at … Continue reading →

I forced myself to watch CNN for an hour this morning. Hadn’t really gotten down with the channel for a year-and-a-half or so. I saw breathless minute after minute about Trump’s and Bush’s campaigns, while the only news of the … Continue reading →

Abbey Zimet at Common Dreams reports on the Icelanders offering Syrian refugees solace after their government says it really can’t be bothered.

I have some stories from actors I interviewed along the way that I”ll contribute. Believe it or not, among her handful of movies, I’ve only seen half. But she is devastatingly droll in Ninotchka, and Three Broadway Girls, and ironic/heartbreaking … Continue reading →

Listening to Falstaff yesterday I thought about an interview Tebaldi gave in old age–it’s on the VAI re issue of the 1958 Forza del Destino telecast from Naples–where she says that during her long offstage respite in that opera she’d … Continue reading →

On disc and in person, but never so triumphant a final fugue as von Dohnanyi conducted at the Met in 1972–and I was there! I’m going to listen again to the broadcast right now.  As Tebaldi, Resnik, Peters, Grillo, Gobbi, … Continue reading →

The Museum of the City of New York’s fabulous theater collection now is posting visual resources from the collection on line. Naturally I looked at Tallulah first. Then I had to cut short my on line visit or I wouldn’t … Continue reading →