Author Archives: Wendy Lesser

Perfect Programming

One of the reasons to attend summer musical festivals is that the work of deciding what’s likely to be worth hearing has already been intelligently done for you. In the case of Music@Menlo this is especially true, since the deciders … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Purposeful

The Old Woman is many things, but a linear narrative in dramatic form it is not. Adapted from a Daniil Kharms story by Darryl Pinckney and staged by Robert Wilson, this astonishingly inventive production, now playing at BAM, is faithful … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Impromptu

I might be wrong, but I think it was Alan Ayckbourn who said that when he was very young and first going to the theater, he always hoped that something would go wrong, because that would lend any performance an … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Four Nights of Music

The Bay Area has been a hotbed of concerts recently, and I’ve been out four nights in a row to something good. This would be a record of sorts even for New York, and in my part of California it’s … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tetzlaff in San Francisco

There could be no finer way to spend a Sunday evening than listening to Christian Tetzlaff perform Bach’s solo pieces for the violin, and Sunday, May 11 was no exception to this. Davies Hall did not fill up completely, but … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Heavenly Handel

First, I just want to crow about the fact that I spotted the baritone Douglas Williams nearly a year ago, when he appeared briefly on the multi-faceted Ojai North! program dreamed up by that year’s artistic director, Mark Morris.  In … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sigmar Polke

The Sigmar Polke retrospective that just opened at the Museum of Modern Art is enormous, filling ten galleries plus the second-floor atrium, and covering the German artist’s entire career, from 1963 (twenty-two years after his birth) to 2010 (the year … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Three Carnegie Nights

And it would have been four, except that I couldn’t face going out to the same concert venue four nights in a row; even I have my limits.  So I skipped the very tempting Ensemble ACJW performance that was scheduled for … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oops

Three months between error and correction is an awfully long time, and occasionally more than one issue passes before I discover my mistakes, so I’ve decided to use this blog entry to rectify some of the errors I’ve made in … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thrilling Television

I’ve just finished watching the first season of The Americans (okay, so I’m late to the party), and I can barely wait for Season Two to become available.  This is the most exciting new show I’ve seen since Breaking Bad … Continue reading

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment