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Under the Skin
There have been three Scarlett Johansson movies in a row about the moral complexities of physical attraction and human relations in the virtual age, and beyond: Don Jon, in which she compares unfavorably, in the eyes of a boyfriend, with online porn; Her, in which she is the voice of a sultry operating system who…
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The Library
It is tempting to attribute the visual elegance of THE LIBRARY to the fact that it is directed by the filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. And in some ways the production at the Public Theater does have a cinematic feel. The frame defined by the proscenium is, to the eye, a perfect rectangle, its corners sharp and…
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St. Matthew Passion
Any corps of actors that can cause a hush to fall upon its audience, such that the angel of silence is not just flying by but is still hovering, must, as they say, be doing something right. For it to happen in the ambit of a sacred holiday, and be done in a fashion that…
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Her
The advance press for Under the Skin, by virtue of playing none-too-subtly upon the presence in the film of Scarlett Johansson in a state of undress, has prompted me to revisit my thoughts on Spike Jonze‘s HER, which I didn’t manage to set down when first I saw it. Johansson, of course, plays the voice…
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Bésame mucho
BÉSAME MUCHO, which bears the subtitle “Latinas Sing Latinas,” and the further tagline, “Una antología musical de las más grandes compositoras latinoamericanas,” is substantial, even educational, in content, yet light and emotionally buoyant. Structurally it resembles Voces del tango, which I saw late last year from the same writer and conceiver, Pablo Zinger: four singers…
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Emilio Teubal Ensemble
I have known Emilio Teubal, who is Argentinian, mainly for his appearances as a pianist in tango bands. But what he is, principally, is a jazz artist who both composes for and leads an ensemble. I finally saw him in that capacity at the relatively new, and very nice, venue called SubCulture on Monday night.…
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King Lear
The art of the stage is largely one of clearing space, of getting impediments out of the way and avoiding the incursion of new ones, demarcating fields on which patterns of experience emerge through time, be they psychic, spiritual, or ideological. A new lushness can take root, or a greater austerity. Or both, as they…
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Sílvia Pérez Cruz
I had planned, upon hearing Sílvia Pérez Cruz sing at Joe’s Pub, to make my way to another event involving music. But the idea of altering the state in which she, and the guitarist Raül Fernández Miró, had left me was practically unthinkable; the tenor of the experience deserved, as the profoundest of our aesthetic…
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Russian Red
I opted on St. Patrick’s Day for Russian Red in lieu of Irish green. It was her shimmering interpretation of the song “Loving Strangers” on the soundtrack of Julio Medem’s beautiful film Room in Rome that first set me on this young Spanish singer-songwriter. Her given name is Lourdes Hernández, but she took as her…
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Tosello Solla Reyes
TOSELLO SOLLA REYES, whom I heard recently at the enchanting new venue in Brooklyn called The Classon, consists of the singer Sofía Tosello, the pianist Emilio Solla (both from Argentina), and the violinist Sergio Reyes (from Guatamala). They return to the same location next month, on April 18, and I urge you not to miss…