Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ib Andersen doesn’t like it.  Neither do I.

That would be the work of Noël Coward.  Read my lean and sinewy review for Capital New York of the Library for the Performing Arts’ exhibit, “Star Quality.”   He had it.

Well I think there is.   And I said some things for Capital New York.

What with Gerald Finley’s Don Giovanni at the Met, (not to mention the recital he gave Feb. 27 at Alice Tully) and Olga Borodina on the same stage taking up her career-defining role of Marfa in Khovanshchina, New York right now … Continue reading →

I wrote about her haunting story for Capital New York.

Read my City Arts piece on how New York City Ballet’s ballerinas got themselves into the right positions, and then we’ll discuss the way Kirov ballerina Inna Zubkovskaya (1923-2001) still knew how to do the same age seventy-plus.

At twenty-two, Royal Ballet principal dancer Sergei Polunin has quit the RB and sems to be having some kind of breakdown.  Recently he has complained to friends about unbearable career pressure.  Frankly, ever since I first read about Polunin he has struck me … Continue reading →

Singing Maurizio in Adriana, Kaufmann’s acting consisted of him doing things like holding his score up in front of him to show that his character was sneaking off stealthily from the scene.  And he did a lot of embracing of … Continue reading →

Jonas Kaufmann was both vocally miscast in Gounod’s Faust and not in his best voice at the performance I saw earlier this month at the Met.  The same could be said for Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite.  Only René Pape as Méphistophélès came through … Continue reading →

 I picked up the current, December issue of Dance Magazine, and was astonished to read Joseph Carman’s article “Passing on the Magic,” which features extensive remarks from Susan Jaffe concerning her new position as coach at American Ballet Theatre.  Discussing influences on her coaching, … Continue reading →