S.E. Barcus

Music and Theater Reviews and scribbling & bibbling

    • S.E. Barcus
  • Music
    • Opera
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  • Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” is a French-styled “Total Work of Art”

    Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” is a French-styled “Total Work of Art”

    The “hero’s welcome” for composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at the opening night performance of the L.A. Philharmonic’s production of Debussy’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” hit with a refreshing coolness of modesty; with an apropos absence of fanfare perfectly suited to the production at hand. Salonen so casually enters while other philharmonic members are still trickling in that…

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Symphony, Theater
    debussy, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Opera, Pelléas and Mélisande
  • Laurie Anderson’s Moby Dick, Spoleto Festival Review 1999

    Laurie Anderson’s Moby Dick, Spoleto Festival Review 1999

    “Up front, like Ahab guiltily admits in the beginning of Laurie Anderson’s Songs and Stories from Moby Dick, “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never read the book! It’s too big!” … Unfortunately, the show’s not much more than that: a “reading’s cool” PSA for technophiles.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives, 1999.

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, Laurie Anderson, Moby Dick, review, Spoleto
  • Kurt Weill’s Die Burgschaft, Spoleto Festival Review

    Kurt Weill’s Die Burgschaft, Spoleto Festival Review

    “Die Burgschaft is the story of Mattes and Orth, two men in the mythical land of Urb who witness the gradual and tragic degradation of their trust in one another because of the dividing and corrupting influence of money and power.” From the S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives, 1999.

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Symphony, Theater
    Burgschaft, Charleston, Kurt Weill, review, Spoleto
  • Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Spoleto Review 2001

    Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Spoleto Review 2001

    Many in the audience seemed truly touched by this “jewel of Western opera repertoire,” as Director Chen Shi-Zheng has called it.

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Symphony, Theater
    Charleston, Dido, Opera, review, Spoleto
  • Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Spoleto Review 2001

    Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Spoleto Review 2001

    “For all the kitsch and Brecht, what I would’ve loved to see was a critique of this dopey and insulting take on women….”

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Symphony, Theater
    2001, Manon Lescaut, Puccini, Spoleto
  • The Have Nots! Have Lots, Piccolo Spoleto Review

    The Have Nots! Have Lots, Piccolo Spoleto Review

    …Another scene had Rucker and Finch playing a premise completely devised by the audience — acting out “that famous Australian custom of flossing after sex.” This is when the night becomes great. Audience members have the goofiest things to say, and as Tavares says, “we try not to turn anything down.” So what you get…

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, comedy, Have Nots, Piccolo Spoleto, review
  • Music in Time, Spoleto Review 2001

    Music in Time, Spoleto Review 2001

    Conductor John Kennedy and Pianist Sarah Cahill, and others, team up for an amazing Spoleto performance of contemporary classical music. (Photo credit — hinnk — of Ms. Cahill performing at Berkeley Art Museum.)

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Piano
    Asian piano, Music in Time, review, Ruth Crawford Seegar, Sarah Cahill, Spoleto
  • Spoleto Festival 2001 Preview

    Spoleto Festival 2001 Preview

    2001 Spoleto Festival Preview. From S.E. Barcus Charleston City Paper archives.

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Piano, Symphony, Theater
    2001, Charleston, Dido, Joffrey Ballet, Philip Glass, Ping Chong, Royal Shakespeare Company, Spoleto
  • Stephen Sondheim’s Company, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Preview

    Stephen Sondheim’s Company, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Preview

    The musical “Company,” by Stephen Sondheim, is being revived by the Footlight Players for Piccolo Spoleto due to its outstanding success in January. “Company” is considered a “concept” musical due to its non-linear form of storytelling. It washes over you with a collage of relationships, giving you a better understanding of what it’s like to…

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, Company, Footlight Players, Piccolo Spoleto, review, Sondheim
  • Eric Bogosian’s Suburbia, review

    1998 Archives My Charleston City Paper review of Eric Bogosian’s Suburbia, produced by the College of Charleston, October, 1998. S.E. Barcus is also on Facebook.

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, College of Charleston, Eric Bogosian, Suburbia
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