2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
The New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble plays the original chamber-orchestra version of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring in concert in 2014:
(This is the latest in a series of …
"'I used to think I couldn't let you go, but I'm learning to feel that I don't lose you, that you'll be more to me than ever, and death can't part us, though it seems to.'
"'I know it cannot…
"Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we wa…
Aretha Franklin sings "Skylark," by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, on The New Steve Allen Show. This episode was originally taped on May 19, 1964, for syndicated telecast:
(This …
"Of course I knew I could rely on your sympathy. I am reconciled by the certainty that a continuance of life would have meant only a continuance of pain and suffering of which my wife had ha…
Hilary Dyson Teachout, the "Mrs. T" of this blog, suffered throughout the decade and a half of our life together from pulmonary hypertension, a rare and devastating illness that gnawed inexo…
From 2017:
The same friend asked me the other day to sum up my life. "I had a mother who believed I could do anything I wanted," I replied. "Now I have a wife who believes the same thing. Th…
"If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled."
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
Cont…
If you haven't seen my Facebook posting about Mrs. T, here it is:
Dear Friends: I can't believe I'm posting this message, but…after looking at this morning's stats, Mrs. T's doctors now be…
Ton Koopman plays Bach's Chorale Prelude "Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele," BWV 654:Â
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Mon…
"Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life."
E.M. Forster, "The Poetry of C.P. Cavafy"
Continue reading Almanac: E.M. Forster on courage at About Last Night.
I just spoke on the phone to Mrs. T's nurse, who passed on a report from her doctors about her condition at midday Sunday. It now appears that she is holding her own"her blood pressure is do…
To everyone who's written to me here and in the social media with kind and encouraging words of all sorts, both for me and for Mrs. T, I want to thank you very much for being in touch. It me…
In today's Wall Street Journal I review a webcast of Syracuse Stage's revival of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. Here's an excerpt.
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Syracuse Stage's revival of Peter Shaffer's "…
I've written an essay for the weekend Wall Street Journal that minces no words: the coronavirus pandemic is already a disaster for the performing arts in America, and things will get wors…
Lotte Lenya sings "Pirate Jenny" (from The Three-Penny Opera) on "The World of Kurt Weill," an episode of NET Playhouse originally telecast in 1967. Bertolt Brecht's lyrics are sung in…
"Every smart person wants to be corrected, not admired."
Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind
Continue reading Almanac: Marvin Minsky on what it means to be smart at About Last Night.
A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening …
In order to divert those of you who, like me, are staying home these days, I've been posting images of some of the prints and paintings that hang on the walls of our Manhattan apartment"the …
"When no idea seems right, the right one must seem wrong."
Marvin Minsky, "Music, Mind, and Meaning"
Continue reading Almanac: Marvin Minsky on uncertainty at About Last Night.
I am overjoyed"hell, ecstatic"to report that I just got off the phone with Mrs. T. It was, of course, a one-way conversation, since she's intubated with a ventilator and a tracheostomy, but …
In today's Wall Street Journal I review a live-streamed version of American Conservatory Theater's production of Lydia R. Diamond's Toni Stone. Here's an excerpt.
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Slowly …
I wrote the Wall Street Journal's obituary of Terrence McNally on a two-hour deadline Tuesday afternoon. Even though it was written in great haste, I hope it does him justice. Here's an e…
In order to divert those of you who, like me, are staying home these days, I've been posting images of some of the prints and paintings that hang on the walls of our Manhattan apartment"the …
Gene Krupa performs and is interviewed on an episode of The Mike Douglas Show originally taped for telecast on March 8, 1965. Krupa's quartet includes Carmen Leggio on tenor saxophone, Di…
