S.E. Barcus

Music and Theater Reviews and scribbling & bibbling

    • S.E. Barcus
  • Music
    • Opera
    • Piano
    • Symphony
  • Other
  • Performing Arts
    • Dance
    • Mediated (e.g., film)
    • Musical
    • Theater
  • Alexander Malofeev, the Golden Boy Pianist

    Alexander Malofeev, the Golden Boy Pianist

    Overall, watch out for this fellow Malofeev.  He’s quite good, and it is slightly scary that he is not satisfied with “just” the piano.  In that recent interview, mentioned above, he revealed that he thinks symphonies are better (!) than piano because they are “bigger.”  Do I see a future where Malofeev is the next…

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Piano
    2026, Alexander Malofeev, Grieg, Lourie, Malofeev, piano, Prokofiev, Rautavaara, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Vienna
  • A Very, Very, Very Fine House

    A Very, Very, Very Fine House

    People cannot sing songs or write poetry on the subject of home without it reverting to an ode to the every-day, to those simple, “meaningless,” and “ordinary” things … that are actually just so goddamn important to us.  That are, it turns out, everything.

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Battleground Productions, John Longenbaugh, Olympia, Our House, Our Town, review, Theater review
  • Tan Dun’s Soundscape Monument for Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters

    Tan Dun’s Soundscape Monument for Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters

    Tan Dun has called his Nu Shu a “soundscape monument for mothers, daughters, and sisters.”  “Monument” is a good word choice.  Despite all of the amazingly ambitious and wonderful music this composer has already made throughout his life, I can’t imagine anything will top this piece, and all of the real, human mythology surrounding it. 

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Symphony
    2025, classical music, Nu Shu, review, Seattle, Seattle Symphony, Secret songs, Tan Dun, Water Concerto, Xavier de Maistre, Yuri Yamashita
  • Seattle 2025 Fall Dramatic Arts Preview

    Seattle 2025 Fall Dramatic Arts Preview

    While we cannot right the Earth’s tilt, there are some consolation prizes for contending with the dark.  With most everyone hunkering down, the dramatic arts kick into high gear again, and really thrive, starting in the fall.  … In the land of the Big Dumper, let’s get our Big Bottoms off the couch and into…

    S.E. Barcus

    Mediated (e.g., film), Performing Arts, Theater
    2025, Can Can, Fall, Fall Arts, Film, Jet City, On the Boards, Opera, Paramount, Preview, Rep, Seattle, Theater, Village Theatre, ZinZanni
  • My Interview with Philip Glass, and His, “New-World-Fusion-Chamber-Music-Quartet-Extravaganza!”

    My Interview with Philip Glass, and His, “New-World-Fusion-Chamber-Music-Quartet-Extravaganza!”

    “CP: How insulting is it to you when you hear “New Age” or “trance music”? PG: “Oh, I don’t care, really. I’ve been called all sorts of things. Those things come and go.”

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Piano, Symphony
    Charleston, Philip Glass, Spoleto, Suso, The Screens
  • Weirdo. Dynasty Handbag — Divine Meets Karen Finley.

    Weirdo. Dynasty Handbag — Divine Meets Karen Finley.

    Dynasty Handbag (the Doppelgoofy of performance artist Jibz Cameron), is one exaggeratedly foppish gal.  She is as schmutzy-glamorous (and lackadaisical with her gowns and lipstick) as Divine, yet suddenly as combative and comedically intense as Karen Finley.  Talk about a wonderful blend!

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    2025, Dynasty Handbag, Jibz Cameron, On the Boards, performance art, Seattle, Titanic Depression
  • John Adams and the Noir of January 6

    John Adams and the Noir of January 6

    Composer John Adams conducts the Seattle Symphony on the anniversary of the insurrection, January 6, 2022.

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Piano, Symphony
    City Noir, January 6, John Adams, Must the Devil, review, Seattle Symphony, Short Ride in a Fast Machine
  • Mother Russia, No America

    Mother Russia, No America

    Sooo….  The “great transformation” going on in the play — about Russia, and a society being slowly turned into a murderous oligarchic libertarian capitalist one –- should obviously remind us all, right NOW, of … Covid?! 

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    communism, Lauren Yee, Mother Russia, politics, review, Russia, Seattle Rep, Theater, ukraine
  • Seattle Symphony’s Pastiche of Germans … And a Scot

    Seattle Symphony’s Pastiche of Germans … And a Scot

    The imaginative and variegated quality of tonight’s program is truly appreciated.  Three completely different styles, a little something for everyone, tied together with a theme.  Tonight, the theme was Germans, and heroes.  While the contemporary German composer, Widmann, wrote his “Con brio” in honor of his hero, Beethoven, Ludwig himself wrote the 5th piano concerto…

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Piano, Symphony
    Beethoven, Edusei, Jörg Widmann, Seattle Symphony, Steven Osborne
  • Vive Lapage! Vive Le FLIP! Vive Le Cirque!

    Vive Lapage! Vive Le FLIP! Vive Le Cirque!

    OK, “contemporary circus” – you had my curiosity, but now … you have my attention. … Combine the cirque nouveau of FLIP with the theater of Ex Machina, and you now have a dovetailing of creative energy that blends into one of the most humorous and entertaining contemporary circus experiences I’ve ever had, with SLAM!,…

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    cirque nouveau, Contemporary Circus, Ex Machina, FLIP, Meany, SLAM, wrestling
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