Verdi: Falstaff – Finale Apologies to Mozartians, who might claim that The Marriage of Figaro has the most uplifting finale in the operatic repertory, but the final fugue in Verdi’s last opera wins the prize. It’s not just the idea of ending a score already larded with parodies and allusions with the most academic of … Read more
It was a really strange relationship in that way, because she was very judgmental in general, but she really liked my music. I think she understood it in a way that other people didn’t because she knew me so well. She knew all the references, she knew all the jokes, she knew why I was … Read more
In his posthumously published memoir, Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, describes how he was directly inspired by American grassroots politics as depicted in The Wire, David Simon’s seminal HBO series about crime and power in Baltimore, when he launched his political career in the campaign for mayor of Moscow in 2013. “I was banned … Read more
I think looking back on it, misty mornings, the flooding river, and the unseen gnomes all tie into this feeling of being in between, not quite here nor there. They were symbols of the emotional journey I was going through at the time, navigating heartbreak, burnout, and depression. They were elements that helped me make … Read more