reviews
Two important films from Palestine at Toronto Festival
December 20, 2018One of the films takes a satirical approach while the other goes uncharacteristically beyond the traditional focus on the heroic acts of courage the world has come to know from people in this region.
Read more
‘CAM’: Sex worker empowerment through horror genre
November 21, 2018A common saying goes that sex work is considered the oldest profession, yet it also happens to be one where the workers are often the most exploited. Exploitation and safety on the job is a constant...
Read more
Fifth graders compose and perform poignant songs about math and science
November 21, 2018LOS ANGELES—Early last year a press release from the Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) came my way about high school kids in Van Nuys writing and performing a new oratorio on the theme of the Japanese...
Read more
The opera ‘Hansel and Gretel’ bewitches the coven of the oven
November 21, 2018Hansel and Gretel may be the most enchanting, optically opulent opera ever seen at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with its stellar stagecraft, stagemanship and eye-popping, jaw-dropping scenery.
Read more
‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ popular Christmas movie, great new American opera
November 20, 2018It’s a critical hit, written in a popular late Romantic and thoroughly American idiom, studded with little musical quotes from familiar holiday noels, high school graduation anthems, and the wild Mekee-Mekee that recalls the dance crazes...
Read more