Kairos — New Titles/Journal

Steven Kazuo Takasugi Sideshow concert. Directed 2018 by Steven Kazuo Takasugi and performed by the Talea Ensemble in New York. The Talea Ensemble features Barry J. Crawford (flute/piccolo), Rane Moore (clarinet), Ryan Muncy (alto saxophone), Alex Lipowski (percussion/vocals), Stephen Gosling (piano), Yuki Numata Resnick (violin), Elizabeth Helgeson (viola), Chris Gross (cello), and David Adamcyk (electronics). Production supervisor was Brent Ness; audio production assistant was Sam Torres; audio production by David Adamcyk; video production by Four/Ten Media; cinematography by Evan Chapman and Kevin Eikenberg. Also features 46 minutes of interviews with the composer and the players. Released 2018, disc has stereo sound only. Grade: NA

What's New

Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.