Raphael Mostel
By Raphael Mostel
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The Schmooze Best Classical Performances of 2011
“Kommilitonen!” By Peter Maxwell Davies Juilliard Vocal Arts Photo by Nan Melville Topping my list of the best classical performances of 2011 was that rarest of things: a brilliant operatic rendering of real historic events that engaged the audience emotionally, morally and intellectually. Juilliard presented the American premiere of “Kommilitonen!” (“Fellow Students!”) composed by Peter…
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Culture West Side Story, With a Shofar Blast
Why does it begin with a shofar call? Once you compare the famous, startling first three notes of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” score with a real shofar sounding “Tekiah g’dolah,” as I did in 1996 to demonstrate this point on WNYC, the resemblance is undeniable. Once you notice it, this shofar theme is woven…
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Culture When the Ram’s Horn Sounds
Originally published in the Forward September 6, 2002. To adapt the famous categorization of Claude Levi-Strauss, if such wind instruments as clarinets and cornets are “cooked,” the shofar is definitely “raw.” The question arises: Why has this wild horn, the only biblical instrument still in use, come to represent so much to Jews, especially in…
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The Schmooze Nebuchadnezzar Becomes a Jew at the Met
Just in time for the High Holy Days, the Metropolitan Opera is bringing back its production of one of the few works of music that helped change history. “Nabucco” (Nebuchadnezzar), a wildly eccentric story inspired by the biblical Lamentations of Jeremiah, was Giuseppe Verdi’s first professional breakthrough, and it helped inspire the Risorgiomento, which ended…
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The Schmooze Johannes Heesters, Hitler’s Favorite Singer, at 107
It seems evil people can live a really long time. Now 107(!) years old and still singing, Hitler’s favorite singer Johannes Heesters recently discovered his native Netherlands still regards him as a traitor. German chancellor Angela Merkel was recently hosting a formal state dinner for the visiting Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and invited Heesters,…
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The Schmooze Repeating Nazi Propaganda, From Kurt Vonnegut to NPR
Mark Twain’s astute observation that “a lie well-told is immortal” keeps coming to mind on the subject of the Dresden firebombing. As I was preparing in May for my first trip to Dresden, I was startled to hear a report by Tom Vitale on National Public Radio in which he repeated the propaganda of Josef…
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Culture Dresden Opera Moves Forward, Confronts Nazi Past
The only thing that exceeds Dresden’s beauty is the city’s self-regard — which would be insufferable if it weren’t so well deserved. Musically, this Rococo jewel box capital of Saxony — justifiably called “Florence on the Elbe” — is famous as the home of the Saxon State Opera, which is popularly known as the Semper…
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Culture 1964 Is Still Resounding
Can an oratorio about politics rise above the artistic level of occasional piece or mere propaganda? The question came to mind at New York City’s Carnegie Hall before I heard Jaap van Zweden masterfully conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, its 70-voice chorus and four soloists in the May 11 New York premiere of a new…
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