The Critic

by G.K. Williams

 

In the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street, where all the

        bums come in stinking from the cold,

there was one who had a battered loose-leaf book he used to

        scribble in for hours on end.

He wrote with no apparent hesitation, quickly, and with

        concentration; his inspiration was inspiring:

you had to look again to realize that he was writing over words that

        were already there –

blocks of cursive etched into the softened paper, interspersed with

        poems in print he'd pasted in.

I hated to think of the volumes he'd violated to construct his opus,

        but I liked him anyway,

especially the way he'd often reach the end, close his work with

        weary satisfaction, then open again

and start again: page one, chapter one, his blood-rimmed eyes as

        rapt as David's doing psalms.

 

 

Reprinted from Good Poems, American Places

edited by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2011.

LA

by Terry Stevenson

 

We forget

where priests buried the Indians

and where the Valley got its water.

We debate how close

to a fault line we can build the subway.

The stress shows, LA falls apart.

I'm beginning to crack too.

Out spills my love child,

my marriages and divorces,

three ex-wives and my lover,

the mother of my daughter,

now a teenager,

all legs and attitude,

out comes the Zoot Suit Riots, flat-brimmed hats

on that June night in '43

when the GIs went crazy,

beating up every pachuco they could find,

Belushi at the Chateau Marmont,

dancing in the penthouse

with the ghosts of Flynn and Harlow,

the Black Dahlia, Benedict Canyon, and Brentwood,

a history of sharp knives,

Chavez Ravine, families evicted

for O'Malley's Dodgers,

my father, murdered in Hollywood,

the Chinese Massacre of 1871,

the tongs pissed off the locals,

19 Chinese killed, 15 of them

hanged over Calle de los Negros,

Japanese-Americans living

in Santa Anita horse stalls

waiting for the trip to Manzanar,

the police retreat from Florence and Normandie,

letting the neighborhood burn.

 

 

Reprinted from Good Poems, American Places

edited by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2011.

-->

New York Notes

By Harvey Shapiro

 

1.

Caught on a side street

in heavy traffic, I said

to the cabbie, I should

have walked. He replied,

I should have been a doctor.

 

2.

When can I get on the 11:33

I ask the guy in the information booth

at the Atlantic Avenue Station.

When they open the doors, he says.

I am home among my people.

 

 

Reprinted from Good Poems, American Places

  edited by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2011.

3 Ways to Save Money on Your Next Flight

1. Buy tickets six weeks before your trip.  According to a study by the Airlines Reporting Corporation, flights offered around this time are almost 6% cheaper than average.
2. Book your flight on Tuesday at around 3PM (EST).  Airline sales start late on Mondays, prompting the competition to match prices by the next day.
3. Don’t buy your tickets earlier than three and a half months before you leave. Airlines don’t start cutting prices till then.

San Diego 5th Avenue Auto Showcase – Oct 14th

Detroit muscle, Italian exotics, American legends, special interest cars, iconic woodies of California’s beach culture heyday, and motorcycles.  Fifth Avenue between E and L Streets, Gaslamp Quarter, 11–4PM.

www.gaslamp.org

Shop at Ralphs and Donate to a PBS Western Region foundation

Do you shop at Ralphs?

If you register your Ralphs rewards card with either 501(c)3 PBS Western Region foundations, Ralphs will contribute between 1 to 4 percent of your grocery purchases to either PBS foundation.  The maximum contribution could earn the PBS foundations $625,000 through the Ralphs REWARDS Community Contribution Program.

Register your Ralphs rewards card online at www.ralphs.com selecting either foundation and Ralphs NPO number:

Lambda Iota Sigma Foundation, NPO # 93840

Kappa Delta Sigma & Associates Foundation, NPO # 93858

Every time you shop for groceries and swipe your card, a PBS foundation will receive a rebate.

Additional information can be found at http://www.ralphs.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/My%20Ralphs/general_faqs.pdf

Notes on the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing

In January 2012, the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated the completion of the third and final phase of the renovation of the new American Wing, a project that began in May 2009.  The Museum can present the extraordinary American collection in the clearest, most beautiful manner possible, showcasing many more treasures from the cast holdings of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts objects.

Arts of Africa

The area of sub-saharan West Africa that encompasses Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana has a long and complex history with gold.  Between about 1400 and 1900, the Akan peoples controlled lucrative gold mining and trading in the region.  In the 15^th century, European navigators found this area so rich in gold that they named it the Gold Coast.  The Baule of Côte d’Ivoire, an Akan subgroup, continue to make gold jewelry today, and are noted for casting flat disc-shaped and rectangular beads, which are often quite elegant and abstract.

Greek and Roman Galleries

The renovated Greek and Roman galleries, with their expansive spaces and abundant natural light, allow curators to display the extraordinary collection to reflect the lived of the citizens of the Classical era.  More than 5,300 objects from a holdings of over 17,000, ranging from monumental sculptures to tiny engraved gemstones, organized by such themes as religion, funerary customs, civic life, and athletics. A walk through these galleries reveals Classical art in all its complexity and resonance, with McKim, Mead & White’s magnificent Beaux Arts designs providing a glorious backdrop against which the ancient world is richly illuminated.

Ancient Egyptian Art Galleries

The Museum’s collection of Ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period (ca. 300,000 B.C. – 4^th century A.D.). Virtually the entire collection is on display in the Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries of Egyptian Art, with objects arranged chronologically over 39 rooms.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street)

Hours (Main Building)

Tuesday–Thursday: 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.*

Friday and Saturday: 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m.*

Sunday: 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.*

Closed Monday (except Holiday Mondays), Thanksgiving Day, December 25, and January 1

Saturday evenings are made possible by the William H. Kearns Foundation.

*Galleries are cleared fifteen minutes before closing.

$625,000 to PBS Western Region foundations

Do you shop at Ralphs or Kroger ?

If you register your Ralphs or Kroger rewards card with either 501(c)3 PBS Western Region foundations, Ralphs will contribute between 1 to 4 percent of your grocery purchases to either PBS foundation.  The maximum contribution could earn either PBS foundation $625,000 through the Ralphs REWARDS Community Contribution Program.

Register your Ralphs or Kroger rewards card online at www.ralphs.com selecting either foundation and Ralphs NPO number:

Lambda Iota Sigma Foundation, NPO # 93840

Kappa Delta Sigma & Associates Foundation, NPO # 93858

Every time you shop for groceries and swipe your card, a PBS foundation will receive a rebate.

Attached are the Ralphs NPO ‘scanbar’ letters for both PBS foundations.  Feel free to print and distribute this alternative form of registration and participate in the Ralphs REWARDS Community Contribution Program.

Additional information can be found at http://www.ralphs.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/My%20Ralphs/general_faqs.pdf

Lambda Iota Sigma Foundation, NPO # 93840

Kappa Delta Sigma & Associates Foundation, NPO # 93858

Kids FREE admission to SD Museums - OCT 2012

Kids are invited to explore San Diego’s diverse museums — for FREE! From October 1 – 31, children ages 12 and under receive FREE admission with a paid adult (limit 2) at any of our three-dozen participating museums.
COUPON 
Just download the coupon above and present it upon arrival. Explore the hidden treasures of the ocean or the far reaches of outer space. Delve into local history, visual arts, botanical gardens, architectural treasures — and more! Note: This offer does not include special events/exhibits or field trips. TIP: Some museums may need to collect your coupon, so print out several to have on hand.

 Participating museums:

• Barona Cultural Center & Museum
• Birch Aquarium at Scripps
• California Surf Museum
• Coronado Museum of History & Art
• Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum
• Gaslamp Museum at Wm H. Davis House
• Heritage of the Americas Museum
• Japanese Friendship Garden
• La Jolla Historical Society
• Living Coast Discovery Center
• Lux Art Institute
• Marston House Museum & Gardens
• Mingei International Museum
• Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
• Museum of Making Music
• Museum of Photographic Arts
• Oceanside Museum of Art
• Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (galleries only)

• San Diego Air & Space Museum
• San Diego Archaeological Center
• San Diego Automotive Museum
• San Diego Botanic Garden
• San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum
• San Diego History Center
• San Diego Model Railroad Museum
• San Diego Museum of Art
• San Diego Museum of Man
• The NAT (SD Natural History Museum)
• The New Children’s Museum
• Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center
• Timken Museum of Art
• USS Midway Museum
• Veterans Museum & Memorial Center
• Visions Art Museum
• Water Conservation Garden
• Women’s Museum of California

More Tax Revenue

          We can't cut the debt substantially, much less balance the budget in a reasonable time frame, without raising more revenue. The Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended lowering the corporate tax rate and eliminating most of the deductions and credits that allow many very profitable companies to avoid a large percentage of the taxes they would otherwise pay, while others pay the legal maximum of 35 percent. The 35 percent rate is now second-highest among wealthy nations, but the actual amount paid on corporate income is 23 percent, ranking us in the middle. We can raise the same amount of money or more with lower rates applied more fairly to all corporations. For example, with oil prices so high and the oil companies making record profits, we could reduce the deficit $4 billion this year alone and an estimated $77 billion over the coming decade by eliminating their tax advantages. ExxonMobil, with a second-quarter profit of $10.7 billion, has an effective tax rate of 17.6 percent, well below both the average American's rate of 20.4 percent* and the average corporate tax "take" of 23 to 25 percent.

          The simplest way to generate more revenue from personal income taxes is to let the Bush tax cuts on upper-income and wealthy Americans expire in 20I3. They will do so automatically if not renewed. This would raise $700 billion over a decade, more than half of it from the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, who reaped 90 percent of the income gains in the last decade and got the large tax cuts on top of that. This is not class warfare but a reflection of our values of fairness and shared responsibilities, asking those of us who benefited from an economy that left most Americans standing still or falling behind to help put our country back on the right track to the future.

          If we wanted the economic independence and strength an 'earlier balanced budget would bring, and the economic benefits smart, targeted investments would generate, we could restore the tax rates of the 1990s to everyone. That would net about $3.5 trillion over a decade. Of course, the anti-taxers would howl that it would be the largest tax hike in history. But in the 1990S, with unemployment low, incomes rising, and poverty declining, most Americans seemed pretty happy with a budget surplus and increased investments to keep the economy growing.

          The Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended that we also lower personal rates but collect more money by restructuring and limiting the availability of credits and deductions claimed by wealthier Americans. Under its plan, instead of six rates, there would be three, at 12 percent, 22 percent, and 28 percent, with tax breaks targeted more tightly to people who need them. For example, the mortgage-interest deduction would be capped at $500,000, not $1 million. The child tax credit, employer-provided health insurance deduction, provisions governing charitable gifts, retirement savings, and pensions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit for lower-income working families would be maintained. The commission plan would require that any new deductions, or additional breaks, like a lower capital-gains rate or the tax credit for research and development (which I favor), be paid for by higher rates.

          There are many other variations on these proposals ripe for debate, but the arithmetic is inescapable: we can't get the debt and interest payments on it down to a manageable level, much less balance the budget, without more revenues. The trick is to do it in a way that is fair, without rates that are high enough to encourage the flight of taxable income to other countries.

          Of the thirty-three nations in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), we rank thirty-first in the percentage of GDP directed to taxes, with only Mexico and Chile taking a smaller percentage, and we're twenty-fifth in the percentage of GDP devoted to government spending. There are only three ways to view this. First, the obvious conclusion: low levels of taxation and weak government investments don't necessarily bring prosperity, equal opportunity, and growth and, if too low, can prevent a nation from reaching its full potential in employment, rising incomes, and social mobility. Second, the "I don't care, I still don't like it" conclusion: even if it would be good for the country and our children's future, we just don't want the government to make these investments, especially with our money. Third, the ideological conclusion: all taxes are bad, all programs are a waste of money, and all regulations distort the perfect working of the free market. Therefore all charts in this chapter are wrong! Or, as my daughter and her friends used to say when they were younger, "Denial is not just a river in Egypt."

*See http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/05/tax_man.html

Excerpt from Back To Work, Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy, by Bill Clinton, Knopf, 2011, p.77;111.

What are the Correct Questions?

          Here are the right questions: How can we move back to a full-employment economy with good jobs and rising middle-class incomes? How can we restore American leadership for peace and prosperity and leave our children and grandchildren a brighter future? What do Americans need government to do to achieve these goals? How are we doing now, compared with our own history and expectations? How are we doing compared with the competition from other nations? As you'll see, there remains a lot of space for a real, productive debate, areas in which both Democrats and Republicans could contribute to bipartisan solutions that actually get our country back in the future business.

          In a positive political environment, liberals and conservatives could learn from each other and advance the public interest. Liberals want to use the government to solve problems and are usually eager to experiment, believing, like Robert Browning's Andrea del Sarto, that "a man's reach should exceed his grasp." True conservatives are more cautious, reminding us that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Liberals believe that government can solve social problems, or at least mitigate them. Conservatives believe culture, including a strong work ethic and stable families, matters more. Progressives believe they can advance liberal goals in a way that reinforces positive cultural norms and avoids "too good to be true" options. Libertarians caution against the potential of even well-conceived government initiatives to restrict individual liberty. In the end, we will need to take into account all of these perspectives to reboot and rebalance our economy. Today, our process is too tilted in favor of powerful private interests over the public interest, in favor of short-term financial gains over long-term employment and income growth, in favor of consumption over investment, in favor of pushing more of our national income up to the top 1 percent over increasing the incomes of the middle class and giving poor people a chance to work their way into it.

          The only people who have taken themselves out of this needed debate are the anti-government ideologues. They already have the answers, and the fact that the evidence doesn't support them is irrelevant. The inevitable consequence of their policies is to push the pedal to the metal of the most destructive trends of the last thirty years, to increase inequality and instability, and to forfeit the future.

Excerpt from Back To Work, Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy, by Bill Clinton, Knopf, 2011, p.36.

the Oreo

           If children conform to the standards set by their peers, in the seventies and eighties the peer pressure for black children to keep with their own was intense. Before desegregation, "acting white" was a phrase no one had ever heard with regard to school involvement or academics. Yet in the wake of busing, it rose to become one of the most hurtful insults one black student could level at another. Talking white, dressing white, being enthusiastic about anything "white" was forsaking one’s own. For the thirty-eight black students at Vestavia, there was the black cafeteria table and there were the other cafeteria tables, and it was one or the other. There was no going back and forth.

          Unfortunately, to sit at the black cafeteria table was to cut yourself off from 99 percent of what the best public school in the state had to offer. For someone in Tycely's position, crossing the color line wasn't a choice. If she wanted to be a part of all those activities you're supposed to have on your college resume, she had to be the sellout, the wannabe, the Oreo – black on the outside, white on the inside - and suffer the consequences. "The black kids were horrible to me," she explains. "The only saving grace was that Vestavia [Alabama] was still so internally segregated that I never had to be in class with them. Otherwise it would have been a nightmare. They treated me like, 'You're trying to be something that you're not.' Or, 'She wants to be white,' they'd say. But I felt like I wanted to be in activities where I had the most in common with the people. Being on the debate team and student government, doing community service-that's how I saw myself, and so those are the things I wanted to do. But why does that have to mean I don't want to be black? I do want to be black I am black I can't not be black."

Excerpt from Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America, by Tanner Colby. Pearson, 2012.

  

Have Republicans always been anti-government?

          Previous Republican presidents did not hesitate to invest tax money and use the power of government when the evidence supported doing so. Abraham Lincoln, a self-made man who said society needs wealthy people to encourage industry and enterprise in others, got Congress to fund the transcontinental railroad and, in the heat of the Civil War, signed the Morrill Act, which set aside land in each state on which to establish public universities. Theodore Roosevelt used the power of the federal government to manage our transition from an agricultural to an industrial society, limiting monopolies' power to fix prices and to abuse women and children in the workplace and protecting vast tracts of western lands from private development. Dwight Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System with tax dollars and sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the Supreme Court's decision on school integration. Richard Nixon signed legislation establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the EPA, signed an executive order strengthening the federal affirmative action program, and for the first time since World War II imposed wage and price controls to fend off inflation.

          Even after the dawn of the antigovernment era, President Reagan signed budgets that restored a sizable portion of the revenues lost to his big tax cuts, including a bill that stabilized the Social Security system for twenty-five years by adjusting benefits and raising taxes. President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act; strong amendments to the Clean Air Act to limit smog, acid rain, and emissions of toxic chemicals; and the budget reforms of 1991, which restrained spending, established the PAYGO rule, and modestly raised taxes. And President George W. Bush supported the No Child Left Behind law; the senior citizens' drug benefit; President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which provided unprecedented American support for the global fight against AIDS and malaria; and large investments in nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, the first three decades of the anti-government movement have been more anti-tax and anti-regulation than anti-spending.

Back To Work, Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy, by Bill Clinton, Knopf, 2011, p.30.

Why We Need Government

1. National security, including the military, intelligence agencies, diplomatic efforts and development assistance, homeland defense, federal law enforcement, border control, natural-disaster response, and the area most recently added to the list by the Pentagon and the CIA, combating climate change.

2. Assistance to those otherwise unable to fully support themselves and to provide a decent retirement for seniors, including Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, aid for the disabled, food stamps, unemployment benefits, nutrition aid for newborns and mothers, and public housing.

3. Equal access to opportunity, including federal aid to education for low-income and disabled students, the HOPE Scholarship tax credits for college tuition costs, the student-loan program, Pell Grants, work-study payments, and job-training assistance.

4. Economic development, including trade agreements; financing for businesses to enter new markets; incentives to create new businesses and jobs in advanced manufacturing, clean energy, energy efficiency, and other high-growth areas; investments in basic research and development and incentives for private research and development to be done in the United States; an adequate minimum wage and support for work and childrearing, including the Family and Medical Leave law and the child tax credit; Small Business Administration guaranteed, microcredit, and community development loans to promising businesses that would otherwise be shut out of credit markets; financing and other support to help companies sell products made in America in other countries; and incentives to invest in areas of high unemployment and low incomes.

5. Oversight of financial markets and institutions to ensure transparency and honest dealing, competition, and consumer choice and to limit leverage to avoid future collapses and bailouts.

6. Protection and advancement of public interests the market can't fix, including clean air, clean water, safe food, safe transportation, safe workplaces, civil rights, access to affordable health care, and preservation of natural resources for the common good, including national parks, national monuments, and national forests.

7. Providing investments, through tax or fee revenue, for projects we all need when the costs are too great or the cost recovery period too long for the private sector to finance, including highways, airports, rails, accelerated broadband connections, a national electric grid, and critical research and development in areas from space to advanced materials to nanotechnology and biotechnology to clean energy.

8. A revenue collection system, to collect taxes and issue credits and deductions deemed by Congress to be in the national interest, including tax deductions for home mortgage payments, charitable giving, health-care payments, children, and many business expenses and deductions.

Back To Work, Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy, by Bill Clinton, Knopf, 2011, p.49.

Linguine with Sausage, Greens and Egg Pan Sauce

Start to Finish: 23 min.

12  oz. fresh or 8 oz. dried linguine pasta

4   uncooked organic sweet or spicy Italian sausage links, skin removed (1 lb.)

1   clove garlic, finely chopped

4   egg yolks

½  cup whole milk, half-and-half, or light cream

½  cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (about 3 oz.)

2   tsp. finely shredded lemon peel (from 1 lemon)

¼  tsp. sea salt

¼  tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2   cups coarsely chopped mustard greens or turnip tops

     Handful fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley leaves

¼  cup shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

1.  Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Cook linguine according to package directions. Drain, reserving ½ cup cooking liquid. Return to pot; cover to keep warm.

2.  Meanwhile, for pan sauce, cut sausage into little blunt-edged meatballs. In a large skillet cook sausage over medium-high heat until golden brown all over, about 5 minutes, adding garlic for the last minute of cooking. Set aside.

3.  In a medium bowl whisk together the egg yolks, milk, ½ cup grated cheese, the lemon peel, salt, and pepper. Add to the pot with the pasta. Add the hot sausage and chopped greens. Toss it all together, and let the heat from the pot and the linguine cook and thicken the egg to a silky sauce. Add ¼ to ½ cup reserved pasta water to loosen. Toss with the parsley and shaved cheese. Serve immediately in shallow bowls or plates.

Makes 4 servings

EACH SERVING: 828 cal, 51 g fat, 343 mg chol,

1,433 mg sodium, 51 g carb, 3 g fiber, 41 g pro.

BHG.com

September 2012

Caramelized Onion Breakfast Casserole

Slowly cooking onions breaks down their natural sugars, which intensifies and concentrates flavor. Make a big batch of caramelized onions and keep them on hand to add depth and a punch of richness to your favorite dishes, sauces, and dips. They'll keep in the refrigerator up to 4 days or in the freezer up to 3 months.

PREP: 30 min. CHILL: 2 to 24 hrs. BAKE: 40 min.

STAND: 10 min. OVEN: 325F

4   strips bacon

1   sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced

2   cups broccoli florets

5   eggs

1¼ cups milk

½  tsp. dried basil, crushed

¼  tsp. salt

⅛  tsp. pepper

4   cups crusty sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

4   oz. Muenster or Swiss cheese, cut into ½  -inch cubes

1. In a large skillet cook bacon until crisp; remove bacon, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in the skillet. Crumble bacon; set aside. Add onion to skillet. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook over medium heat until caramelized, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan cook broccoli for 3 minutes in enough lightly salted water to cover; drain.

2. In a large bowl combine eggs, milk, basil, salt, and pepper. Stir in bread, broccoli, cooked onion, cheese, and bacon. Transfer to a 2-quart square baking dish.

Cover and chill 2 to 24 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake casserole, covered, for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 20 to 30 minutes more or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

EACH SERVING: 302 cal, 18g fat, 188mg chol,

 542 mg sodium, 19g carb, 1 g fiber, 17g pro

Recipe.com/BHG.com

September 2012

Radish and Cucumber Salad

12      radishes with tops (radishes sliced thinly; tops washed, sliced thinly, and reserved)

1        seedless English cucumber, washed and thinly sliced in rounds

½ tsp  kosher salt

½       cup rice vinegar

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp lime juice

In large bowl toss radish and cucumber slices with salt. Toss with vinegar, oil, and lime juice. Let stand.

Prep: 25 minutes

Stand: 1 hour

Noah Stewart - A Review

 

          A resounding commercial success in the U.K. when it was released in March 2012, the debut album of Harlem-born tenor Noah Stewart now finds its way to the U.S. in a somewhat altered state. Four tracks ("Campos de Oro," "Nearer My God to Thee," Massenet's "Pourquoi me reveiller" and "StilleNacht") have been dropped, and three new tracks ("I Have a Dream," "This Land Is Mine" and "The Star Spangled Banner") inserted in their place. As the CD runs only forty-two minutes, it is disappointing that the decision was made not to include all of the recorded selections on this issue.

          Released on Universal Music's "Verve" label, Noah is not a true classical album but a crossover release that straddles both popular and classical genres and demonstrates Stewart's ease with a variety of musical styles. He is particularly successful in the light classical-inspired ballads, such as the lilting David Whitfield-Mantovani favorite "Cara Mia," Vincent Youmans's "Without a Song" and Nicholas Brodzsky's ''I'll Walk with God" (originally sung by Mario Lanza on the soundtrack of MGM's The Student Prince). Throughout these selections, Stewart's warm, attractive tone is sensitively employed to croon and caress the lyrical phrases as required, while the high notes are for the most part securely produced. (The high G at the end of "Cara Mia" is an exception.) Even more impressive, however, are stirring renditions of "Deep River" (with choral support from Apollo Voices) and "Shenandoah." These familiar songs find new life in Stewart's heartfelt delivery and the initially restrained orchestral arrangements that swell to more epic, sweeping proportions. "Shenandoah" is particularly breathtaking; in fact, it is one of the finest recorded renditions of this American folk-song staple. A slightly less inspired performance of ''Amazing Grace" is also present, and several popular covers round out the disc - an Italian version of the Moody Blues's "Nights in White Satin" ("Notte di luce"), Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," ABBA's "I Have a Dream" and "This Land Is Mine" (otherwise known as the "Theme from Exodus").

          Stewart is accompanied by three different instrumental ensembles over the course of the program, though the singer's vocal tracks were recorded independently from the orchestral contributions and then combined (sometimes inconsistently) with the accompaniments after the fact. As a result, the final sound mix has a decidedly over-produced "pop" quality to it that is particularly unkind to the two classical selections, Puccini's "Recondita armonia" (from Tosca) and the Bach-Gounod ''Ave Maria." Both works are maligned by the recording orchestra do not remotely inhabit the same acoustic space.  Furthermore, Stewart's voice occasionally takes on a pinched, gritty texture in major climaxes that may be due to technical issues with the recording and mixing though there are times when the singing itself is notably less than optimal. One such moment occurs when the tenor blazes toward the finale of an otherwise strong performance of "The Star Spangled Banner," only to have his interpolated high A tighten unpleasantly.

          But in the end, there is so much "production" happening here that it is difficult to judge Stewart's singing on its own merits. This is a shame, because he clearly possesses a lovely voice and strong musical instincts, in addition to a strikingly handsome face - an all-around "package." As his opera career has begun to take off, one hopes that a future project will afford him the opportunity to document his singing in a more classical-friendly recording environment.

Review by Derek Greten-Harrison

Opera News, September 2012

"NOAH" Philharmonia Orchestra,

Dodd; The Vienna Session Orchestra, Bertl;

The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra,

Hein. No texts or translations.

 Verve 001701202

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

           As conductor Christian Thielemann notes in the worthwhile bonus interview that accompanies this release, Die Frau ohne Schatten inspires addicts. Fans collect casts, productions and recordings, and the more Frau lore one knows, the better. Still, this longtime Frau addict finished watching this production unsure of what it meant to say about the Empress's emotional trajectory, which seems to me the point of the piece. Even Thielemann and the director, Christof Loy, say contradictory things about the resonances of their production's final scene.

          Loy's fascinating yet frustrating production may leave first-time viewers of the already abstruse plot very confused. The director and his design team play with images of the work's first studio recording, in 1955, which was made under Karl Bohm, reputedly for no pay and in unheated conditions. The cast included Leonie Rysanek, Christel Goltz, Elisabeth Hangen, Hans Hopf and Paul Schoffler - all inspired. The recording was made in the Musikvereinssaal, not the Sofiensale, as depicted here, but Loy is claiming to be inspired by, not locked into, mere facts.

          A good thing, since the Empress character is meant to be a newcomer from a rich family (Rysanek was neither), the Emperor working in Europe for the first time (assuredly not Hopf). The marriage of the singers portraying Barak and his wife is nearing its breaking point – a conceit that clearly riffs on the doomed marriage of real-life stars Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry, who were paired in a later Viennese production and universally acclaimed in their parts there and elsewhere. (The highly capable Wolfgang Koch sports eyeglasses similar to Berry's and follows Berry's dynamic interpretation rather closely, evoking his predecessor's well-molded top voice more accurately than the sheer tonal mass he generated.) Much is meant to be made of the generational difference between Hongen (who sang the Nurse) and the younger Rysanek - twenty years, but a key twenty years in Viennese and world history.

          Anne Schwanewilms's wary, delicate impersonation of the Empress offers flutelike, instrumental vocalism, mainly beautiful. With her "Berre Davis eyes," soprano Evelyn Herlitzius makes a compelling, vibrant Dyer's Wife; her voice - no more a thing of great beauty than was Goltz's - is pliant, expressive and relatively comfortable at the demanding climaxes. The Blu-ray format is grossly unflattering to both of these (extremely attractive) women. Stephen Gould copes manfully with the Kaiser's grueling tasks, though high notes tend to be "fixed" and vibrato-less and he's no match in tonal

appeal for James King or Hopf. Michaela Schuster, an exuberantly detailed Nurse, enters 200 percent into her character, singing with abandon if occasional raw patches at range extremes.

          Thielemann's work is, simply put, superb. He rules the Vienna Philharmonic - which, as he says, is an optimal ensemble to perform this score. The texture and playing are quite staggering, and the vital solo cello and violin passages prove extraordinary. As in the Met's 2001 production (what a shame it was not documented, with Deborah Voigt in zenith form), Thielemann opens all of the extensive cuts Bohm made in the score, intensifying the demands made on the singers (and, frankly, on their auditors). The supporting cast has no weaknesses; particular honor goes to the Spirit Messenger of Thomas Johannes Mayer and the lovely-sounding Guardian of Christina Landshammer.

Review by David Shengold

Opera News, September 2012

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Schwanewilms, Herlitzius, Schuster; S. Gould, W. Koch, Mayer; Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Philharmoniker, Thielemann.

Production: Loy. Opus Arte OA BD 7104 D

(Blu-ray) or OA 1072 D (2 DVDs)
220 mins. (opera), 26 mins. (bonus), subtitled