By Michael Roddy It was the opera coup of the year, perhaps the decade. The Metropolitan Opera, which is flailing under a mountain of debt and even looking to the Saudis for a bailout, enlisted Norwegian superstar soprano Lise Davidsen and American “baritenor” Michael Spyres for the title roles in Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”…Read more When is too much too much? Met tests the limits with “Tristan und Isolde”
music
Irish Bill Evans film plays the right tune in Berlin
By Michael Roddy One of the hardest tricks to pull off in moviemaking is a fictionalised film based on the career of someone whose music and discs everybody knows and loves, and whose performance by actors who are not musicians is at best hit or miss. “Everybody Digs Bill Evans” neatly avoids that bear trap…Read more Irish Bill Evans film plays the right tune in Berlin
Dark rock-star celebrity worship film “Lurker” channels “Ripley”
Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin in Alex Russell's "LurkerThe celebrity-worship culture of the Los Angeles rock scene runs up against the desperation of an insinuating outsider who will do anything to gain admission to a star's inner circle in “Lurker”, a dark but sometimes comic Sundance hit that had its international premiere at the Berlinale…Read more Dark rock-star celebrity worship film “Lurker” channels “Ripley”
Classical music in the spotlight at Berlinale
The orphanage orchestra that plays a pop tune for the Pope in "Gloria" Classical music is often thought to have little place in today's arts and culture scene, but filmmakers at the Berlinale can't seem to get enough of it. Three films at this year's festival have classical music as central plot elements, and two…Read more Classical music in the spotlight at Berlinale
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