THE HANGOVER REPORT – A long day’s journey into night and back: Taylor Mac’s 24-hour A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC was miraculous, triumphant

After 48 hours, I’m still reeling from the experience I had last weekend at St. Ann’s Warehouse. From noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday – that’s right, a whopping … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Distilling classic texts: BATTLEFIELD and SONGS OF LEAR at BAM

BAM’s Next Wave Festival continues with two shows that showcase theater’s ability to distill narratives, particularly classic texts depicting troubled kings, to a few elegant strokes. With running times of … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Verdensteatret’s BRIDGE OVER MUD at BAM is hypnotic, seductive

BAM’s Next Wave Festival continued last weekend with the brief run of Norwegian art collective Verdensteatret’s Bridge Over Mud at the flexible and intimate BAM Fisher space. Bridge Over Mud … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – David Lang’s adventurously staged THE LOSER opens BAM’s essential Next Wave Festival

You don’t get a lot of art that explores what it means to be mediocre. The notion is counterintuitive. Dave Malloy’s little-seen Black Wizard/Blue Wizard comes to mind, but little … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The summer remount of the rarely-performed Yiddish operetta THE GOLDEN BRIDE charms in its own old-fashioned way

Oftentimes, shows come and go before many us even know about them. This past theater season, a good example of this unfortunate reality was the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s revival … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Daniel Catán’s formulaic FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS fails to engage the imagination

The resuscitated New York City Opera’s first season came to a timid close with last week’s brief run of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. Despite the excitement that accompanied … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Martin Creed’s WORDS & MUSIC performance celebrates human limitations

To accompany his current large-scale exhibition at the increasingly essential Park Avenue Armory, British artist Marin Creed (who won the Turner Prize in 2001) and his band are appearing in … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Washington National Opera’s sensational RING CYCLE is an instant classic

This past weekend, Washington National Opera wrapped up the third and final cycle of its superlative production of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung. Francesca Zambello’s landmark staging at … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Nina Stemme stuns as ELEKTRA in Patrice Chéreau’s insightful new production at the Met

My self-curated season at the Metropolitan Opera was recently brought to a smashing close by the late, great Patrice Chéreau’s deeply insightful new production of Elektra, Richard Strauss’s seething and … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – MasterVoices’ DIDO & AENEAS, starring Kelli O’Hara and Vicki Clark, is mesmerizing

Last night, I attended an inspired gala performance of Henry Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas at New York City Center, courtesy of Ted Sperling’s MasterVoices series. This brief run reunites, yet … Continue Reading →