I’ve managed to squeeze in theater visits to see several of the recent big movie releases over the past three weeks, and have been saving up my comments. Of the four mentioned above, I think “12 Years a Slave” is the most consequential and should be first on anybody’s list, even though it is not as yet quite so easy to find.
The company marketing this movie is rolling it out slowly, hoping that good … <Read More>
Busy cultural weekend for me.
Saturday afternoon I attended a performance at the Vineyard Theatre of “The Landing,” a new musical by Greg Pierce (book and lyrics) and John Kander (music). This is Kander’s first full-length show with a new collaborator since the passing of his former writing partner, Fred Ebb. It is a modest three-part show with a four-member cast, on this occasion Julia Murney, David Hyde Pierce (uncle of Kander’s collaborator), Frankie Seratch … <Read More>
This week’s subscription concert from the New York Philharmonic, which I attended Thursday night for the first performance of the cycle, surrounds the Concerto Grosso by Krzysztof Penderecki (a work for three cello soloists and orchestra) with music by Maurice Ravel. Both Ravel pieces, originally conceived for the piano, were subsequently orchestrated to sumptuous effect, and provided an opportunity to revel in the sheer virtuosity of the New York Philharmonic, which is conducted this week … <Read More>
I attended a performance of “Jericho” a few days ago, then was surprised to see a review in The New York Times the following morning. Was I attending the official opening? If so, I wasn’t aware of it, and perhaps the critic from The Times had attended an earlier performance. In any event, I agreed with the review. This is a very interesting and thought-provoking play.
Jack Canfora is the author, Evan Bergman the director. … <Read More>
I had a mixed reaction to tonight’s concert by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, led by Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, at Carnegie Hall.
The centerpiece of the concert was Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Op. 31, with soloists Ian Bostridge (tenor) and Stewart Rose (horn). As prelude, the orchestra performed Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After intermission, they played Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9.
The Britten was splendid, as one could … <Read More>
On October 17, two different panels of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in cases where lesbian co-parents were battling over child custody. In one, a birth mother prevailed because the court refused to recognize the couple’s Canadian same-sex marriage. In the other, however, the court found that the state’s full-faith-and-credit obligation required recognition of an out-of-state second-parent adoption that could not have been done in-state, and affirmed a sole custody award to the second … <Read More>
Tomorrow I am leading a discussion at the NYLS Justice Action Center Colloquium on marriage equality and the law. I prepared the following selective chronology as a handout for the participants, and thought I would share it on-line.
MARRIAGE EQUALITY CHRONOLOGY
[Note: This chronology is selective]
Before 1993: All attempts to litigate for same-sex marriage ended in defeat, including summary affirmance by U.S. Supreme Court holding that the issue of same-sex marriage does … <Read More>
The Georgia Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a constitutional challenge to the state’s law making it a misdemeanor to solicit somebody to engage in anal or oral sex, but at the same time reversed a police officer’s conviction for soliciting a 17-year-old high school student, finding that the statute, narrowly construed to avoid constitutional problems, had not been violated. The case is Watson v. State, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 860 (Oct. 21, 2013).
Georgia’s sodomy statute … <Read More>
When the New Jersey Supreme Court announced on Friday, October 18, 2013, that it was denying the state government’s motion to stay the marriage equality ruling that Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson issued on September 27, it effectively made New Jersey the 14th state (and 15th U.S. jurisdiction, counting the District of Columbia) to embrace marriage equality for its residents and visitors. Governor Chris Christie, a lawyer and former U.S. Attorney, can read … <Read More>
Three-quarters Britten. That was my weekend. On Saturday I attended the afternoon performance of Britten’s opera, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” at the Metropolitan Opera. Then in the evening I attended the first concert of Columbia University’s Miller Theater Early Music Series, by Le Poeme Harmonique, a French early-music ensemble led by Vincent Dumestre, in music by Monteverdi and some contemporaries under the program title “Combattimenti!” On Sunday, I attended two recitals, at 1 and 4, … <Read More>