Words and Music

EUGENE YSAŸE was one of last of the virtuoso violinist-composers who dominated the late 19th century, but unlike Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps, ...

Art Isn’t Easy Dept. : Just when you thought that the late John Updike had once and for all dropped his pen, along comes yet another weighty...

From the Tech Archives Dept. : I found this pair of pieces in my archives and had a terrific laugh at the enthusiasm with which I celebrated...

HAVING TOILED IN THE TRENCHES of journalism for over forty years (albeit the more rarefied trenches of classical music, theater, and other c...

THE MAVERICK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CONCERT is an annual event that recently welcomed the Caroga Arts Ensemble as its resident ensemble, a fittin...

Mark Twain Dept. : Twain tinkered with storytelling techniques throughout his life as he transitioned from scrappy journalist to grand old m...

THE PORTRAIT OF BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ that emerged during a day of Martinů-related events at Bard College was uniquely unusual. He was a Czech-bo...

From the Food Vault Dept .: It’s the time of year when I should be schlepping to the Berkshires to frolic amongst the theaters and eateries ...

POOR TOM RAKEWELL! He’s a lazy fellow looking for easy money, trying to hang onto his fiancée Anne Trulove even as her father disparages his...

YOU’RE SAVVY ENOUGH to wish to dine responsibly. You visit farmers’ markets in season; perhaps you cultivate a vegetable plant or two. You’v...

PUBLISHED IN 1984, the novel The House on Mango Street became a best-seller for author Sandra Cisneros, selling over six million copies and ...

THE 1985 PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING MUSICAL “Sunday in the Park with George” makes its Glimmerglass Festival debut in a handsome, enthusiastic, ...

JEALOUSY AND DESIRE: Two emotions that provoke nearly all the pain we suffer and the pain we inflict. Each is a confluence of component emot...

MANY OF THE SONGS we choose to sing spring to our lips because they’ve been drilled into our brains by corporate profit-fueled repetition, c...

Happy Independence Day. As we continue to move through the most fraught, dangerous era in American history, let me offer some advice culled ...

From the Theater Vault Dept.: Looking over last week’s story, I noted that the adjacent piece in my files reveals some of the Albany area’s ...

From the Opera Vault Dept. : Paulette Haupt made her conducting debut at the Lake George Opera in 1973, with “The Barber of Seville, and lik...

Guest Blogger Dept .: Which I ought to rename Robert Benchley Dept., because I have featured Benchley essays more often than those by any ot...

From the Food Vault Dept .: I missed Mother’s Day again this year. My own mom is long-gone, but I’m married to a mom. She, however, put in s...

From the Vault Dept .: Again asking myself what I was doing forty years, I discovered that, beyond not truly wishing to know, I’d been to tw...