Category: Music

Chronicles of the Malediction [two podcasts]

On left, Marc Eliot Stein, Ted Shulman and friends with Regina Opera. On right, portrait of Jamelah Vincent.

I spent the final days of 2023 desperately scrambling to complete two episodes for the two podcasts that represent the clashing sides of my brain.

I was possessed by a superstitious idea that I needed to launch both episodes before 2024 began – a superstition I probably manufactured as a … Read the rest

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Princess Ida: An Academy of Song

Antique illustration of court scene in first act of "Princess Ida" featuring the Princess, Gama and the Warriors Three.

A mysterious book-length poem called The Princess by Alfred Tennyson became a popular craze in England about a century and three-quarters ago. The title of this book barely hints at the complexity of the story inside — a story within a story, a poem inside a poem, featuring a crew … Read the rest

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Waters Run Deep (A River Change)

jigsaw puzzle of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

I really don’t know what happened to me about five years ago, when I suddenly found it difficult and annoying to write blog posts.

I suppose this wasn’t so strange, because it is difficult to write good blog posts, and difficult things can be annoying. What was strange is that I’d … Read the rest

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Comprehending Trovatore

A battleship in Il Trovatore in Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera

Nearly three years ago, I announced a new podcast called “Lost Music: Exploring Literary Opera”. I truly had no idea what I was doing, and proudly said so. I’ve always been a medium-is-the-message guy, and the podcast medium just has an energy and a freshness these days that attracts … Read the rest

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Beelzebub and Galileo

Daniel Nester

Season 3 of “Lost Music: Exploring Literary Opera” has kicked off with something different! We are joined by Daniel Nester, poet, author, professor and podcaster, and one of only a few people I’ve ever met who has actually co-written a libretto for a modern opera, “The Summer King” by Daniel … Read the rest

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The Vision

Many of us spend our lives pursuing a certain vision. An idea, a dream, a blueprint. There is something we are supposed to work on, in this life. No matter what we do, and no matter what else we think we are doing, this is what we work on, every … Read the rest

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A Journey Of Voice

I took a walk through Prospect Park today. These hilly acres in the middle of Brooklyn were designed to get you lost, with swerving paths that make you think you’re walking in a definite direction as they subtly turn you back again until you pass the spot where you started … Read the rest

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Orphic Mysteries and Dionysian Roots

Beneath the Parthenon, on the southern side of the most famous hill in Athens, Greece, there stands today the Theater of Dionysus. Two millennia ago a Dionysian festival gathered here each year at harvest time for a series of remarkable dramatic performances. The great tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides … Read the rest

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