Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

At New York City Ballet last Wednesday, Valse Fantaisie was played with hold-on-to-your-hats speed, as was Duo Concertant, which preceded it.  In Duo, Robert Fairchild was able to keep up – barely, while the freneticism of Valse Fantaisie reduced Ashley Bouder to almost marionette-like … Continue reading →

Last March I was happy to participate in a WNYC roundtable concerning arts coverage.  However,the transcript that was published on their web site misquoted me.  I did NOT say “The Times and the Post had dance critics, not any more.”  … Continue reading →

My interview with baritone Simon Keenlyside in City Arts: http://cityarts.info/2010/03/10/hamlet-with-haunches/#more-968

I was interviewed by David Belcher of the Times about HER:

As a rule, Anna Netrebko likes to keep things earthy, more “real” than what generally remains the popular conception of opera. In the Met’s new production of Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffman,” the Russian soprano is first seen with her flapper-chemise-encased … Continue reading →

It is good to see on display at the Parterre and Dress Circle levels of the Met the Tosca costumes of Renata Tebaldi, Eleanor Steber, Zinka Milanov, and Maria Jeritza’s dating back (in Jeritza’s case) to the the 1920s, and … Continue reading →

Interviewed for London’s monthly Dancing Times last March, Lynn Seymour, Royal Ballet star of the 1960s and ’70s, was asked by DT’s Gerald Dowler why there is currently “so much banality in performance.” “There is no dearth of talent around,” … Continue reading →

“She had an overwhelming personality, and there was a wild quality in her voice that electrified me,” so mezzo-soprano Gladys Swarthout (prominent during the 1930s and ‘40s, in the opera-house, radio-studio, and Hollywood-soundstage way), wrote about Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. … Continue reading →

City Arts is now publishing bi-weekly. Here’s the link to my latest, from the new edition that came out October 6. http://cityarts.info/?p=240#more-240

It’s a strange dance, and dance-writing landscape without Francis Mason, who died last week. What an extraordinary amount of important writing on dance saw the light thanks to him! I’ll never forget sending over-the-transom my first submission to Ballet Review … Continue reading →