Drodzy są i widziani we śnie przyjaciele… [Dear are friends seen in a dream….] — Adam Mickiewicz, Forefathers’ Eve I Hanging in the brightly-lit Gallery of Polish Art of the Nineteenth Century, on the third floor of the National Museum…
The guys with the long-hair are very worried about the issue of old music. No wonder. With so many classical music concerts, they have received news that there is some guy running around town playing the flute, which is a…
Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry By Dana Gioia (Paul Dry Books, 198 pages, $20) “People’s reaction to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic. They either love it or they hate it. If they love…
For in joy will you go And in peace will you be brought along. The mountains and the hills will break into song before you And all the trees of the field clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12 Phil Lesh recounted…
The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City has issued its first “trigger warning” for Puccini’s 1926 opera, Turandot, which takes place in ancient Peking, China. Here’s the full warning, written by Christopher Bronwer, the Met’s associate editor: We must also consider the…
There’s a fatal temptation with Lent. Few people struggle to come up with a list of things to “give up” — and frequently those lists are quite long with items like sweets, carbs, TV shows, genres of music, and so…
In the last eight or nine years, it’s felt to many Americans as if the country has changed very dramatically, if not irreversibly. A century ago, our forebears had a similar feeling. In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president and…
Last weekend marked the second week of Advent, a time of hope when Christians await the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, on Christmas Day. Young people are more readily anticipating the material rewards of the holiday, even those well…
Their tiny fingers fly up and down the keyboard eight hours a day and their fearsome dedication shows no sign of abating. These young piano students from China, South Korea, and Japan are driven by cultural and economic forces now…
