Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

Staying in a house furnished with numerous full-length mirrors!

I don’t often cry at performances, particularly canned ones, but I do tear up when I watch Janis Joplin singing Little Girl Blue on the Tom Jones show in 1969.  The sadness of her voice melds with the sadness of … Continue reading →

When ABT put on an all-Tudor program during its City Center season in 2008, that night also seemed well attended.  The audience’s attention was certainly rapt all the way through, despite the fact that there were no intermissions.  Ballet audiences … Continue reading →

My mother told me that they showed the 1985 ABT in San Francisco program at her retirement home.  It went over big. I said to my mother, “You see how gripping Lilac Garden can be?” She agreed wholeheartedly. It’s a … Continue reading →

Everybody knows that I’m always willing to help with their gardening projects—as long as they pay for the gas. This month I’ve got a little sycamore “job” lined up—planting two baby trees for someone who’s out of town on vacation.  … Continue reading →

One of the big mistakes that’s made by operatic directing today is to treat opera as if it were a David Mamet play; whereas opera, in which people sing their thoughts, feelings, emotions, is a completely different animal than anything that … Continue reading →

It is time to call the austerity-pushers for what they are: immoral. Thom Hartman at alternet.org describes the enormous spike in suicide rates sparked by the relentless targeting by the pushers of those already victimized by the economic collapse—a collapse … Continue reading →

I wish more legit actors would watch performances like this and absorb some of the breadth and pace out-of-time of operatic acting at its best. I’m talking about their Tosca in Stuttgart in 1961.  It’s on you-tube in individual segments. … Continue reading →

What a relief to turn from Senator Feinstein to Benedetta Barzini. The opening paragraphs of my chapter on Barzini: “Benedetta Barzini walked through the front door of her Milan apartment.  ‘I feel like I know you!’ I said, and hugged … Continue reading →

Granted, you’ve got to be pretty shameless to get ahead in politics, but Feinstein’s audacity in self-righetously proclaiming who is and isn’t a real journalist is shamming on a level of audacity that almost deserves celebration. Let us not forget, … Continue reading →