Tag Archives: Opera

The good cheer of beauty

Posted on December 26, 2016 by David Brussat

Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, was published as a serial novel of 20 monthly parts in issues of Punch magazine from January 1847 to July 1848. So next month will be the 170th anniversary of its appearance in print. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bowdlerizing Mozart

Posted on January 31, 2016 by David Brussat

In a passage from Wolfgang Hildesheimer’s biography, Mozart, the author discusses posterity’s attempt to sanitize the composer, including his operatic music, some of which sang out in the sort of joy that stuffed-shirt guardians of society’s morality can’t abide. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Architecture and Mozart II

Posted on January 26, 2016 by David Brussat

Here is a passage from a letter by Mozart in Wolfgang Hildesheimer’s 1982 biography, Mozart, in which the great composer, who was apparently not given to theorizing about music, theorizes about music. The passage might be read with profit by … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lincoln Center blowback

Posted on July 17, 2015 by David Brussat

New York’s mammoth Lincoln Center has in recent years seen the demise of the New York City Opera – after its director cancelled a season of popular operas and replaced it with “modern” operas – and the near demise of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Justin Lee Miller: Architecture and the operatic angst

Posted on January 19, 2015 by David Brussat

Justin Lee Miller, the opera singer, actor and playwright, has sent me a fascinating essay that elucidates the parallels between opera and architecture, especially in regard to the handling of traditional works by their modernist interpreters. Here is the passage … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment