By Raphael Mostel
Johannes Heesters died on Christmas Eve at 108. He owed his long career to Adolf Hitler and never shook free of the sulfurous stench of his deal with the devil.
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By Raphael Mostel
The famous first three notes of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ are startling. They are also inspired by shofar soundings, a theme woven throughout the show’s score.
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By Raphael Mostel
From Edward Elgar, who announced daybreak over the Temple in an oratorio, to Leonard Bernstein,who began ‘West Side Story’ with a familiar blast, composers have used the shofar to evoke the majestic and the mystical.Read More
By Raphael Mostel
Dresden’s Semper Opera has a history of anti-Semitism and links to the Nazis. Putting the past behind, it is now leading a cultural renaissance in a new Germany.
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By Raphael Mostel
A Pulitzer Prize-winning composer’s new political oratorio, “August 4, 1964” recalls the day that two very different events stirred national outrage: the false report of an attack on American ships and the discovery in Mississippi of the bodies of murdered civil rights workers.
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