Susan Hall
Bio:
Recent Articles:
-
Artist Carol K. Brown is Something Else Front Page
At Nohra Haime Gallery in New York
By: - Nov 03rd, 2023Carol K. Brown’s latest work "Someplace Else" consists of watercolor paintings and a series of drawings titled "Modified Husband." This exhibition is a culmination of Brown’s desire for detail, layered with humorous subject matter.
-
New Federal Theater Telling Tales Front Page
Woodie King Jr. Directs Wesley Brown's PLay
By: - Nov 02nd, 2023The New Federal Theater is producing a brilliant production of Wesley Brown’s play, Telling Tales Out of School. A quartet of famous and not-so-famous writers from the Harlem Renaissance, all women, three Black and one white, attend the funeral of Alain Locke.
-
Joyce Di Donato Teaches at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Master Classes for Artists and Listeners Too
By: - Oct 26th, 2023Joyce Di Donato offered three master classes at Carnegie Hall. Di Donato discussed something she learned during that long-ago City Opera performance of "Dead Man Walking." You have to leave space for the listeners to enter the music. This space is created by not answering all the questions the listening ear may have. That is something for all of us to think about – particularly people committed to the long-range success of classical music.
-
Handel at the Hudson Opera House Front Page
Rondelina Directed by R. B. Schlather Goes Local
By: - Oct 25th, 2023The future of classical musical performance in America may well be local. One marker of the trend is the Hudson Opera House in Hudson, New York. They are currently producing Handel's Rondelinda.
-
Krymov Continues at La Mama Front Page
Russian Director Stirs up Theater
By: - Oct 23rd, 2023There is new a theater in town, have you noticed? Krymov Lab NYC was started in 2022 by the prominent Russian director in exile Dmitry Krymov, with a residency in LaMama Experimental Theatre Club in East Village.
-
The Crossing Named Ensemble of the Year Front Page
Special Choir Honored by Musical America
By: - Oct 22nd, 2023The Crossing has been named Musical America's 2024 Ensemble of the Year. Musical America's article states: "The Crossing is one of the most innovative choirs on the planet. Not only are they committed to issues of social justice, but the music they sing is brand spanking new. Under conductor Donald Nally, their performances have increasingly embraced theatrical elements, while their recordings have notched up a staggering three Grammy wins in under 20 years."
-
Sumo at the La Jolla Playhouse Front Page
Lisa Sanaya Dring's Play on Wrestling
By: - Oct 18th, 2023Lisa Sanaya Dring’s "Sumo," playing at La Jolla Playhouse, tells the story of six sumo wrestlers living and training at an elite facility in Tokyo.
-
San Diego Symphony at Carnegie Hall Front Page
Rafael Payare and Alisa Weilerstein Entrance New York
By: - Oct 15th, 2023Many adjectives have been thrown at or glued to the conductor Rafael Payare, who came to Carnegie Hall with the San Diego Symphony he conducts. We haven't heard him live. He has a life-and-death urgency to his music-making. Carlos Simon and Shostakovich seemed so present, so thrilling and so important.
-
The Defiant Requiem Foundation Explores Survival Front Page
Verdi Requirm Was Performed at Terezin
By: - Oct 13th, 2023The Defiant Requiem Foundation, has a signature concert performance of the Verdi Requiem, as it was performed in the Terezin concentration camp over and over again. The original chorus changed constantly as members were transferred to Auschwitz.
-
Wim Wenders at Lincoln Center Front Page
Film Festival Premieres The Tokyo Toilet
By: - Oct 13th, 2023Wim Wenders new film, "The Tokyo Toilet," had its New York premiere at the New York Film Festival in Lincoln Center in New York. A Tokyo toilet cleaner, Hirayama, is played brilliantly and subtly by Yakusho Koji. Hirayama steps out of his small Tokyo home and looks up at the sky. Another perfect day begins. Now. Not Next. These phrases pepper the film often.
-
Noted Russian Director Arrives at LaMama Front Page
You've Never Seen This Eugene Onegin!
By: - Oct 11th, 2023"Eugene Onegin in his Own Words" was created by noted Russian director Dmitry Krymov and presented at LaMama in New York. Dmitry Anatolyevich Krymov (born 1954, Moscow, Russia) is a Russian artist, scenographer, teacher and theater director, five times Laureate of the Golden Mask award. He left Russia for USA the day after invasion into Ukraine started. Seven of his plays were quickly banned in his country. In 2022 he started Krymov Lab NYC, his new theatrical endeavor.
-
Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony at Carnegie Front Page
The Maestro Takes Us on an Italian Journey with Philip Glass
By: - Oct 06th, 2023Riccardo Muti’s long and winding road in this country has led him from Philadelphia to Chicago. He is always rooted in Carnegie Hall whose acoustics benefit the micro-miniaturizing attention to a music’s score. Even Philip Glass, whose repeated phrases sometimes merge one to the other, seemed as clear as the strings that dominate in Glass’s composition dedicated to the Maestro.
-
Hungarian National Ballet Performs Don Quixote Front Page
Gorgeous Production. Gorgeous Opera House
By: - Oct 05th, 2023The Hungarian National Ballet’s production of Don Quixote at The Budapest Opera House was a joyful presentation. The energy and mirth emanating from the stage was infectious and intoxicating: I was practically jumping out of my seat with excitement by the end of the Act III pas de deux as Kitri, danced by Tatyjana Melnyik, balanced on pointe for what seemed an eternity.
-
The City Without Jews Screened in New York Front Page
An Important Silent Film With Wonderful New Music
By: - Oct 04th, 2023What a silent film can teach us – about history and the relationship between the visual and the auditory. The City Without Jews is a famous 1924 silent film directed by H. K. Breslauer who would go on to become a Nazi, probably out of convenience. In this film, he actually seems to like Jews, to find them charming, bright and funny. Presented at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York.
-
Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at Opera Philadelphia Front Page
Stellar Cast, Moving Production
By: - Oct 02nd, 2023Opera Philadelphia knows how to produce opera. They recognize its multiple forms and multiple historic periods. No company in this country has spearheaded the development of new opera with such an effective program. Yet Philadelphia also continues to produce the tried and true with great style.
-
La Jolla Playhouse Goes Gonzo Music
By: - Sep 28th, 2023The world premiere of The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, is presented by the La Jolla Playhouse. Fifteen years in the making, the musical envisions Hunter’s life from childhood to his tragic death. The book is by Joe Iconis and Gregory S. Moss, music and lyrics by Iconis, and choreography by Jon Rua.
-
Dopplegangers at the Park Avenue Armory Front Page
Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch Double Our Pleasure
By: - Sep 28th, 2023I like to attend an event without reading the build-up. This gives me a chance to respond viscerally. Every event at the Park Avenue Armory is tasteful. Pierre Audi, the artistic director, provides this. He is unique in New York.
-
La Jolla Playhouse Goes Gonzo Front Page
Hunter Thompson Musical Premieres
By: - Sep 27th, 2023The world premiere of The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, is presented by the La Jolla Playhouse. Fifteen years in the making, the musical envisions Hunter’s life from childhood to his tragic death. The book is by Joe Iconis and Gregory S. Moss, music and lyrics by Iconis, and choreography by Jon Rua.
-
Opera Philadelphia Presents 10 Days in a Madhouse Front Page
World Premiere by Rene Orth
By: - Sep 24th, 2023Rene Orth’s opera 10 Days in a Madhouse enjoyed a World Premiere at the Opera Philadelphia Festival. A tip off to where the weight lies in the opera was the stage set, immediately apparent when we enter the Wilma Theatre. The set is dominated by a Richard Serra-like sculpture. Our eyes and then our ears are fixed up where the orchestra tops the sculpture.
-
John Zorn Celebrates 70 Front Page
Who Knew Classical Music Could be So Much Fun
By: - Sep 22nd, 2023One of the reasons John Zorn’s music attracts is that it’s so damn much fun. Leaping on and off the stage to introduce the numbers in his first of many 70th birthday celebrations at the Miller Theatre at Columbia, Zorn looked like he was going to last forever. And let’s hope he does.
-
American Tenor Stephen Gould Dies at 61 Front Page
His Performances Were Always A Treat
By: - Sep 20th, 2023Berkshire Fine Arts was fortunate to hear Stephen Gould sing Parsifal in Bayreuth two years ago. He retired from Bayreuth this summer when he was diagnosed with incurable cancer.
-
New Federal Theatre Opens Fall Season Front Page
Gala and Micki Grant Premiere Directed by Woodie King Jr.
By: - Sep 09th, 2023For over five decades, the New Federal Theatre has presented undiscovered talent like Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, S. Epatha Merkerson, Issa Rae, La Tanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, and Morgan Freeman in their first stage appearances. They premiered For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide. Led. by Woodie King Jr. and now Elizabeth Van Dyke, the New Federal Theatre is a national treasure.
-
Adam Tendler and Cage at the Crypt Front Page
Andrew Ousley's Death Defying Death of Classical
By: - Sep 08th, 2023Leave it to the brilliant impresario Andrew Ousley and his music series, Death of Classical, to bring us an incredible and surprising evening of John Cage music. Before Cage moved on to the concepts of indeterminacy and chance, he composed more conventionally arced works for the prepared piano, in which screws were systematically and specifically applied to some strings in a grand piano, Cage clearly began in one place and ended up in another. Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano is a deliberate whole.
-
Oppenheimer, the Film Front Page
No Answers for Creative Impulses of Great Scientists
By: - Sep 04th, 2023Oppenheimer, the film. Prepare your rotten tomatoes. The movie is loud, gray and one-dimensional.
-
A Visit to Tippet Rise. Part II Front Page
A Special Staff for a Special Place
By: - Aug 27th, 2023Pete Hinmon and Lindsey Hinmon are Co-Directors of Tippet Rise Art Center. They are warm and deeply thoughtful, qualities you find in everyone at this working ranch. Qualities clearly treasured by the Halsteads, the couple creating this special art venue. The Halsteads have a knack for picking people.
<< Previous Next >>