Granddaughter of two-time Oscar winner actor Melvyn Douglas, Illeana Douglas began her career as a stand-up comedian, but soon found herself on the big screen in Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear (1991), one of four Scorsese films she’s appeared in, and started a long-term relationship with Scorsese that lasted eight years. She is most widely known for her roles as Denise Waverly in … [Read more...]
Aggressive Vivaldi, joyful Bach at Firebird Chamber
Over the course of its 11 years, the Seraphic Fire organization has returned several times to the music of J.S. Bach: The Mass in B minor, the St. John Passion, the six Motets, the Brandenburg Concertos. Although the subject of its spinoff chamber group’s most recent concert is nominally Vivaldi, one of the Bach cantatas, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (BWV 51), plays just as … [Read more...]
‘Koch’ profiles the unpredictable, unforgettable mayor of New York
In a scene in the new documentary Koch, the titular former mayor sits with some companions in a half-circle restaurant booth, sharing a story that took place in a limousine with Ronald Reagan. The caravan passed countless adoring fans -- along with one loner who decided to assess the president’s performance with a middle-finger salute. Koch says Reagan saw past all the … [Read more...]
Exuberant approach enlivens Euclid Quartet concert at Duncan
For all the praise that has been lavished on Franz Schubert’s shade for the past two centuries, his skill at string quartet writing is sometimes underappreciated. The earliest of his quartets are often dismissed as half-successful attempts at imitating Beethoven and Haydn, but I’ve yet to hear any quartet of his that didn’t contain some substantial moments of freshness and … [Read more...]
The Rilke Project: Repeated encounters with Dali
In the fall of 1907, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke returned to Paris to continue his work with the sculptor Auguste Rodin. While there, he repeatedly visited a memorial exhibit of works by the painter Paul Cézanne, who had died the year before. Those letters informed his only novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, as well as his subsequent poetic work, and have … [Read more...]
A roomful of beauty at the Four Arts
They say happiness is a state of mind you can command at any time and place. The same thing can be said about beauty. We decide, in a matter of seconds, whether or not something is beautiful. In a room full of porcelain-skin ladies and velvety, satin dresses, this is not a hard decision to make. The Society of the Four Arts has put together such a room for its ongoing … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 8-10
Theater: Although it won the 2002 Best Musical Tony Award, the stage version of Thoroughly Modern Millie is not a very sturdy show. Fortunately, no one told the cast at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, headed by a young dynamo named Laurie Veldheer, who has a belter’s lungs and a snappy way with a tap dance. She plays the ambitious girl from the Midwest who arrives in New York in … [Read more...]
At the Liman Gallery, Emily Zuch emerges
Ellen Liman has been following the career of the young Emily Zuch since she saw her work during the New York Studio School Masters exhibit. “She’s our featured emerging artist of the season,” said Liman, whose Palm Beach gallery is presenting Emily Zuch: The Land of Fake Nature through March 16. “She’s outstanding.” The exhibit contains more than 40 of Zuch’s paintings, … [Read more...]
Elegant setting enhances richness of Beethoven
In olden days, the Elector of Cologne nurtured the young Beethoven and gave him the opportunity to play in his Bonn Court Orchestra. The nobility, back then, knew that cultivation of the arts made for a happy populace: Music-making reflected well on them. Jump to the 21st century and we find another kind of nobleman, billionaire Donald Trump, baron of all he surveys, placing … [Read more...]
The View From Home 46: New releases on Blu-ray and DVD
“This is kind of like an old movie, don’t you think?” Liza (Olivia Wilde), a runaway bandit in Stefan Ruzowitsky’s Deadfall ($24.99 Blu-ray, $13.28 DVD) asks Jay, a former pugilist newly released from prison who makes the mistake of picking her up as she shivers in a crepuscular blizzard. Thank the heavens for at least this brief semblance of ironic self-awareness in an … [Read more...]