Blogcritics Author: Jon Sobel

Book Review: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Jon Sobel — Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:10:54 EST

An imagined history of a real book comes to life in this beautifully written historical novel.
In the hands of a great craftsperson, a humble volume of story and prayer may be re-conceived as a priceless illuminated masterpiece. Witness the Sarajevo Haggadah, a centuries-old volume now counted as one of the most valuable books in the world.Similarly, in the hands of a fine writer, a slim set of facts about an unusual object can become a...

Music Review: Indie Round-Up - D'Haene, June Moris, Back Door Slam

Jon Sobel — Fri, 2 Jan 2009 18:01:27 EST

In a world of hyper-talented young musicians, Back Door Slam plays truly impressive stuff, because it feels real.
D'Haene, VinylD'Haene's new disc is spring-loaded with hard-locked rhythms, chunky guitar riffing, and metalized melodies sung with a bluesy, soulful inflection. If, vocally, D'Haene tends to be a touch more convincing on more easy-going fare ("Took Me So Long"), that's because of the soulful quality that defines his...

Theater Review (NYC): The Klezmer Nutcracker

Jon Sobel — Mon, 8 Dec 2008 10:34:04 EST

Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" is cleverly klezmerized in this kid-pleasing show about a magical dreydl.
The Klezmer Nutcracker is an amusing play for children that mixes chanukah traditions and Jewish music with klezmerized themes from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. The story, by Ellen Kushner (host of Public Radio's "Sound and Spirit" program) and based on her children's book The Golden Dreydl, won't win any awards for...

Opera Review (NYC): Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas by The Dido Project at the Samsung Experience

Jon Sobel — Sat, 6 Dec 2008 22:30:21 EST

The Dido Project transposes Purcell's Baroque opera about the Queen of Carthage and the hero Aeneas to the modern boardroom, with video aplenty.
Henry Purcell's 1689 Dido and Aeneas was one of the earliest English operas and is considered one of the composer's masterworks. It runs only an hour but is a true opera. Though the story, taken from Virgil's Aeneid, is a tragedy, Thursday night's performance at the Samsung Experience in the Time Warner Center was a joy, and one...

DVD Review: Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon and McCartney 1966-1970

Jon Sobel — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:54:29 EST

A new film focuses on the climactic period of Lennon and McCartney's legendary songwriting partnership.
When it comes to Beatles fans, there's a whole spectrum. Some just like the music. At the other extreme are those who obsess over every detail of the band's life and work: reading all the biographies and analyses, studying all the lyrics, following all the legacy news.This new documentary is for those who fall somewhere in the middle. The...

Theater Review (NYC): Zero by Danny and Robert O'Connor

Jon Sobel — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:33:22 EST

Danny O'Connor plays a batch of wayward twenty-somethings in an impressive, if frustrating, one-man show.
Things are bigger in Texas, and people live life a little slower. Maybe they just need more time to take it all in, since there's so much of it.Zero, an import from Dallas (it has also played in Chicago), reflects something of that vast Lone Star spirit. For a one-man play, it's bigger than a lot of what we're used to here in frenetic...

Music Review: East Village Opera Company - Olde School

Jon Sobel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:20:58 EST

The operatic tradition has always had a place in rock and pop, but this band comes at it from the other direction.
The operatic tradition has always had a place in rock and pop. Elvis Presley and the Platters' Tony Williams, Pat Benatar and Heart's Ann Wilson, metal's Ozzy Osbourne and pop-rock's Dennis De Young, and of course Freddie Mercury, are all singers who have adopted, at certain times and to one degree or another, opera's highly...

Theater Review (NYC): Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Presented by the Queen's Company

Jon Sobel — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:02:26 EST

Get shipwrecked with Viola and Sebastian in the Queen's Company's hilarious, updated but fully Shakespearean take on the classic comedy.
The all-female Queen's Company updates the classics with a modern pop-culture sensibility, while remaining true to the language, the story, and the groove of the original text. With a comedy like Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, this gang is also funny as hell. In fact, I laughed so much I got a headache. Damn you, Queen's Company.One...

Book Review: Wandering Star by J. M. G. Le Clézio

Jon Sobel — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:28:49 EST

A novel about two refugees, one Jewish and one Palestinian, reminds us that there is no simple right or wrong.
What to do with the weight of expectations? The French novelist J. M. G. Le Clézio is not well known in the English-speaking world, and many of us might never have heard of him had he not been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. Now we have had the pleasure of that introduction, but because of the prize, we also feel the burden of...

Music Review: Indie Round-Up - Matt Morris, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Asylum Street Spankers

Jon Sobel — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:34:01 EST

Matt Morris's high, fluty tenor wafts his words into your consciousness like a message carried on the wind.
Matt Morris, Backstage at Bonnaroo and Other Acoustic PerformancesListening to Matt Morris, intimate is the word that comes most readily to mind. His high, fluty tenor, recorded closely into the mic, wafts his words into your consciousness like a message carried on the wind.The first three songs on this sparsely produced EP have little more than...