Médée
Stage Magic
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera Médée (called a tragédie lyrique) has had a lot of waiting to do. The dramatist Pierre Corneille wrote his version of the Medea myth as early as 1634, at the beginning of his career. Thomas Corneille, 19 … Read More
Madame de Sévigné
Dearest Daughter . . .
The fact that the life of Marie, Marquise de Sévigné (1626-96) has, as far as I am aware, never been made into a feature film before is perhaps unsurprising. How does one remain true to the reason her name is … Read More
Klaus Mäkelä, Véronique Gens, Philippe Jordan
Music Made in France
Still not yet 30, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä is the man of the moment in the classical music world. Not only has he been the music director of the Orchestre de Paris since 2021, but he is also chief conductor … Read More
Doble Moral, Ongoing
Beyond Buns in the Oven
Beaded curtains are a familiar feature of bakeries in warm climates, drawn across doorways to fend off winged creatures tempted by sweet delicacies. As if nodding to the tradition, a photo of one is suspended in the window of La … Read More
Théodore Rousseau: The Voice of the Forest
Planting the Radical Idea of Forest Preservation
It’s hard to imagine a painter of trees and other manifestations of nature being considered a wild-eyed radical, but back in 1830 the idea of painting a landscape just for the sake of painting a landscape was academic-art-world heresy. Being … Read More
For more posts, choose a category.