Raphael Mostel
By Raphael Mostel
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Culture Zero Mostel’s Long Shadow on ‘Rhino’
As part of its 30th Next Wave Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will be showcasing Eugène Ionesco’s classic absurdist play “Rhinoceros.” The critically acclaimed production, performed in the original French by Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville under the direction of Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, represents an all too rare occasion to see a this ebullient and…
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The Schmooze Israeli Pianist Seeks Missed Connections
Out of curiosity, especially after reading the restless intelligence and enticing spin he recently gave his work on this blog, I went on August 14 to hear young Israeli pianist David Greilsammer make his debut at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival with a late-night, hour-long performance of wide-ranging repertoire. What I experienced was interesting and…
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The Schmooze Bloomberg Declares Aug. 28 Richard Tucker Day
The late Richard Tucker, who went from being a celebrated cantor to the even more celebrated lead tenor of the Metropolitan Opera, would have turned 99 years old this month. In his honor, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has proclaimed August 28 “Richard Tucker Day” in New York City. WQXR 105.9 FM, New York’s…
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Opinion 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Tanglewood
• A 20% Solution: Tanglewood’s educational center has trained one out of every five American orchestral musicians. • A Beef with Mr. Copland: While driving with colleagues to Tanglewood on a dark, foggy night, Aaron Copland was arrested for an accident that wrecked his Studebaker and killed a cow. Nevertheless, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association…
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The Schmooze Jews of Tanglewood
• Aaron Copland owed much of his career to Serge Koussevitzky. • Leonard Bernstein was in Tanglewood’s first class and became a Koussevitzky protégé and a worldwide symbol of Tanglewood. • Paul Fromm was insired by Koussevitsky to create the Fromm Music Foundation to support new music. • Erich Leinsdorf inaugurated Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary…
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Culture Tangled Up in Jews
It’s deeply ironic that Tanglewood, which is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and one of America’s largest music festivals — was essentially the creation of Jews in a place largely resentful of their presence. During the 1930s in America, hostility to Jews was common, especially in…
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The Schmooze Builder of Operatic Bridges in Germany
Ulrike Hessler, the first woman to be appointed intendant of the historic, four-century old Saxon State Opera in Dresden, popularly known as the Semper Opera, died July 30 in Munich, after a 19-month battle with cancer. She was 57. I first met Hessler eight years ago, when she was the director of the press office…
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The Schmooze Düsseldorf Will Replace Mendelssohn Statue
It may have taken 76 years, and they missed the composer’s bicentenary by three years, but Düsseldorf is finally about to replace the bronze statue of Felix Mendelssohn that the Nazis tore down in 1936 and later used for scrap metal. The recreated statue is to be re-installed September 27, at the entrance to the…
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