As usual, he gets it "come il Conte Palmieri"; he knows knows it's fake fake, but he wants to see her happy, to hear her happy. One last time. And as usual, I cry all along, at each and every one of the carefully paced arias, in this emotional rollercoaster of an Opera. It has everything: love and hate, lust and jealousy, honor and betrayal, lofty ( Read more... )

"From Up on Poppy Hill" proves that 2011 was a great year for Japanese (and world) cinema. Animation is used to show what just can't be shown with live action movies: the past. No need for choreographed violence, or for fantastic plots riddled with holes. A simple story well told without gimmicks. Lofty aspirations without grandiosity. Delicate ( Read more... )

A friend and colleague of mine inquires as to my reactions to David Brin's review of Atlas Shrugged, the movieUnhappily, Brin's criticism of Ayn Rand is totally off-mark ( Read more... )

The Harvard Lowell House Opera is not the MetOpera by far. It doesn't have access to the same means and talent pool. But it makes it all up with humor and passion. This year's production of Puccini's Tosca was simply brilliant.

The scene is transposed to Wartime Fascist Italy ( Read more... )

In this recently unearthed posthumous book by J.R.R. Tolkien, the fantasy world filled with dragons and magicians has evolved from warring medieval times to peaceful modernity; furthermore, in the second volume, it is resolutely entering post-modernity.
( Read more... )

Comics review: Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

I liked their take on The Punisher. I was unimpressed by many other things they did. But I was wowed by PreacherPreacher is every I hate, put together in a way I can but love ( Read more... )

This summer, I saw Hamlet played on the Boston Common by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. It was a memorable moment indeed, with great actors, and a very creative direction, that managed to be very original without sacrificing the least either the letter or the spirit of the text.

But after seeing the play, I could not repress ( Read more... )

In those weeks without posting, I've accumulated a huge backlog. I'll start pouring the overspill with some movies seen this year...
The Monkey King
An early Stephen Chow movie ( Read more... )