All My Sons may no longer fit Arthur Miller's demand for relevance in the theater

More than any other art, theater asks for relevance. A play that convinces us that “this is the way it is now” can be excused many shortcomings. At any one moment there is a particular quality of feeling which dominates in human intercourse, a tonality which marks the present from the past, and when this tone is struck on the stage, the theater seems necessary again, like self-knowledge. – Arthur Miller, “What Makes Plays Endure?”

By Bill Marx

Arthur Miller’s notion of relevance in the theater, in light of the recent New York Times (NYT) article on the reluctance of our non-profit theaters to stage new plays by non-brand name playwrights, has been on my mind lately. I have also fielded, offline, a couple of comments from people puzzled by the characterization of Miller’s All My Sons as an “arthritic war horse” in my February theater recommendations.

The questioners want to know what I am talking about. The reviews of the Huntington Theatre Company (HTC) production were generally ecstatic. And what could be timelier than an oft-produced American drama that focuses on the tragic costs of war profiteering?

More…

Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb

Quint (tenor Vale Rideout) and Miss Jessel (soprano Rebecca Nash) discuss their influence over the innocent children Flora and Miles (Photo Credit: Jeffrey Dunn)

The Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) initiated this week what it calls Opera Annex by moving out of its usual venue for its production of Benjamin Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw. The site chosen was the Park Plaza Castle, built in 1891 as a Boston armory.

More…

By Peter Walsh

Luis Meléndez's Still Life with a Piece of Salmon, a Lemon and Kitchen Utensils

Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA through May 9.

Locked into a low-status, unprofitable niche, talented Spanish still-life painter Luis Meléndez (1716–1780) made little money and achieved even less fame during his lifetime. He is said to have complained to the king, who never honored him with a commission, that he owned only his pencils. He is still little known outside his native country. Yet he is now recognized as one of the greatest Spanish still-life painters.

More…

If you’re heading out toward the Berkshires and haven’t yet made plans for Valentine’s Day, consider taking your significant other to brunch at Shakespeare & Company for a five-course meal before the matinee.

By Helen Epstein

Josh Aaron McCabe and Elizabeth Aspenlieder of Shakespeare and Company

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton. Adapted from the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Directed by Tina Packer.
Presented by Shakespeare & Company at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, MA, through March 21.

Tina Packer has directed the Hampton play based on the epistolary novel of France’s ancien régime by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, said to have been a favorite of Marie Antoinette. Sexual seductions, abuses of power by court and church, obfuscations of truth, paper trails, corsets, fans, and hankies are all part of this costume drama that has been adapted for film and opera as well as for the stage. Shakespeare & Company’s versatile and much-loved Elizabeth Aspenlieder stars as La Marquise de Merteuil opposite Josh Aaron McCabe as Le Vicomte de Valmont.

Helen Epstein is the author of the memoirs Children of the Holocaust and Where She Came From.

There is no doubt that Christian Tetzlaff stands among the very top rank of today’s violinists.

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff—His was fiddling on an amazing level that few others could match.

By Caldwell Titcomb

It’s not often that one enters Jordan Hall and sees a completely empty stage—no chair, no piano, no music stand. But all that was needed was a bare floor to accommodate the 43-year-old, German violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who offered a Celebrity Series concert of music for unaccompanied violin on January 31.
More…

By Justin Marble

A stampede of John Ford westerns screen this month at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Harvard Film Archive. A scene from Ford's relatively unsung gem "Wagon Master."

Feb. 5-9, Recent Raves at the Brattle: Left out of the film talk at your last dinner party? Here’s your chance to get caught up. The Brattle is hosting a week of some of the best films of 2009, sponsored by the Boston Society of Film Critics. Harder to find titles like “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Beaches of Agnes,” “The Hurt Locker,” and “Bad Lieutenant” are all being screened, each introduced by a different critic. Not a bad chance to get caught up before awards season.

More…

There may not be any Lester Young tributes scheduled for Presidents’ Day, but the entire month of February is nothing less than a valentine to jazz piano.

By J. R. Carroll

Indefatigable improviser Jason Moran

Pianist Jason Moran hasn’t yet encountered a piece of music (or even raw sound) that he couldn’t transform into a jaw-dropping improvisation. Johannes Brahms, James P. Johnson, Afrika Bambaataa, even a Turkish telephone conversation have all found a place in his repertoire. Moran brings his voracious curiosity to a week-long residency at the New England Conservatory (NEC), with two 1 p.m. master classes (trios on Feb. 1, small ensembles on Feb. 2) and a final concert of his music with NEC students at 8 p.m. on Feb. 4, all free and open to the public.

More…

A recent piece in the New York Times provides further proof of the increasingly pernicious stranglehold marketing exerts on the production of new voices in the theater.

By Bill Marx

Let’s face it—the fastest growing segment of non-profit hiring in the arts over the past decade or so, marketing, is now pretty much in the cultural driver’s seat in economic hard times. Thus theaters and hybrid critic/publicists are stuck trying to spin audiences into believing that arthritic dramatic warhorses (“All My Sons”) or trite new plays by brand-name playwrights are “bold” or “must see” fare.

Cast members in the Huntington Theatre Company's upcoming production of "Stick Fly"

More…

By Caldwell Titcomb

The celebrated soprano Renée Fleming performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra this month.

Feb. 3, 5, 6: The Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) stages Benjamin Britten’s “Turn of the Screw,” based on Henry James’ tense ghost story. Conducted by Andrew Bisantz. The singers and production staff are all making their BLO debuts. The Castle at Boston Park Plaza & Towers, 130 Columbus Avenue, Boston. 7:30 p.m. More…