2,374 stories by "TERRY TEACHOUT"
Sarah Connolly, Christopher Hogwood, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform "When I am laid in earth," from Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. This production was staged by Wayn…
"Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inne…
From 2006: Art doesn't have to be true to life to be good, but when a work of art is true to your life, it strikes a special chord. On occasion music has this effect on me: I can think of an…
SALLY FIELD: "Don't you know you can't fight city hall?" JAMES GARNER: "You can wrestle 'em." Harriet Frank, Jr., and Irving Ravetch, screenplay for Murphy's Romance
A very rare kinescope of the NBC Opera telecast of scenes from Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd, originally telecast on October 19, 1952. The title role is sung by Theodor Uppman, who appeared …
"Much good has been shown me and much evil, and the good has never been perfect. There is always some flaw in it, some defect, some imperfection in the divine image, some fault in the angeli…
Jule Styne plays his songs and talks about his career with Hugh Downs, then performs "Everything's Coming Up Roses" (from Gypsy, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim). This interview was original…
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education." Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I report and reflect on an exhibition of the "serious" paintings of N.C. Wyeth. Here's an excerpt. * * * I can't remember the last time I h…
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (January 6, 1816)
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review a Massachusetts production of The Pirates of Penzance. Here's an excerpt. * * * Rejoice greatly! John Rando and Joshua Bergasse, whose 20…
The Miles Davis Quintet plays "No Blues" on The Steve Allen Show. The other musicians are Herbie Hancock on piano, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on …
"Though he had both esteem and admiration for the sensibility of the human race, he had little respect for their intelligence: man has always found it easier to sacrifice his life than to le…
From 2006: Grammatical pet peeve. Misplaced apostrophes. My father, God rest his soul, once commissioned a huge sign that read Season’s Greetings From The Teachout's. I secretly attemp…
"I don't know of any thing in my book to be criticised on by honourable men. Is it on my spelling?"that's not my trade. Is it on my grammar?"I hadn't time to learn it, and make no pretension…
My mother's parents were born right around the turn of the twentieth century. Albert Crosno, Sr., my maternal grandfather, came from Decaturville, a rural Tennessee town whose current popula…
Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys perform "A Voice From On High" in 1954 or 1955. This is thought to be the earliest surviving sound film of Monroe in performance: (This is the latest in a…
"When someone's argument boils down to 'it cannot be,' it means that it probably is." Sean Trende, "Yes, Trump Can Win," (RealClearPolitics, May 31, 2016)
In today's Wall Street Journal I review Goodspeed Musicals' revival of Bye Bye Birdie. Here's an excerpt. * * * Musicals don't have to be first-rate to be fun. "Bye Bye Birdie," a peaweight …
The second episode of Orson Welles' Sketchbook, a BBC series in which Welles talked about his life and work. This episode, in which Welles talked about critics, was originally telecast on Ma…
"One never gets accustomed to a miracle; one may only wonder at it. A poet is always filled with wonder." Nadezhda Mandelstam, Mozart and Salieri (trans. Robert A. McLean, courtesy of Patric…
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the …
Janet Baker sings Hector Berlioz' "Le spectre de la rose," from Nuits d’été, accompanied by Herbert Blomstedt and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, at a 1972 concert: (This is the…
"This is one of the greatest menaces there is; people with intelligence deciding that the point is to become grimly gray and intense and unhappy and tiresome because the world and many of it…
From 2006: Perhaps as a result of my early musical training, I tend not to worry overmuch about what any work of art “means,” except when it insists on its “meaning” …
