The newsletter has links to a biography of John Berger, an exhibition on the biblical story of Esther, and a commentary on how hedge-fund logic is remaking the arts. My editorial argues that escapism is not dissent, though some would like us to think so. artsfuse.substack.com/p/not-all-ar...

Not All Art is Resistance

The arts can survive democracy’s end -- and a sampling of the latest cultural coverage

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Ralph P. Locke on 1887's "Morgiane" A spirited recording by the OperaCréole Ensemble and Opera Lafayette, led by two outstanding sopranos, makes a persuasive case for the earliest surviving opera by a Black American composer—and for its long-neglected creator. artsfuse.org/335425/opera...

Opera Album Review: Edmond Dédé’s “Morgiane” — A Long-Overdue Discovery - The Arts Fuse

A spirited recording, led by two outstanding sopranos, makes a persuasive case for the earliest surviving opera by a Black American composer—and for its long-neglected creator.

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Cyrisse Jaffee on a trio of new children’s books that explore different aspects of fall—starting school, understanding yourself, and Indigenous storytelling. artsfuse.org/335456/child...

Stillz’s memorable film #BarrioTriste, writes @callinamagician.bsky.social, transforms the dangers of life in Medellín into a haunting journey through cosmic horror, media distrust, and adolescent fear. artsfuse.org/335150/film-...

Film Review: When Poverty Turns Surreal - The Arts Fuse

Stillz’s "Barrio Triste" transforms the dangers of life in Medellín into a haunting journey through cosmic horror, media distrust, and adolescent fear.

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For Bill Littlefield, Tom McCarthy's "The Rhyl Poster" (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social) is a high-style legal conspiracy novel whose linguistic virtuosity can be both seductive and wearying. artsfuse.org/334236/book-...

The @iffboston.bsky.social's Fall Focus: Across two October weekends at the Brattle Theatre (October 8 through November 4), this expanded 27-film series offers Boston audiences early looks at new work by #martinmcdonagh, #PedroAlmodóvar, and more artsfuse.org/335378/film-...

Film Festival Preview: Before the Awards - IFFBoston’s Fall Focus Expands Its Big-Screen Buffet - The Arts Fuse

Across two October weekends at the Brattle, the expanded 27-film series offers Boston audiences early looks at new work by Lee Chang-dong, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Martin McDonagh, Pedro ...

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Jonathan Blumhofer writes that ECM Records NewSeries’ reissue of composer #stevereich's seminal early recordings restores their bite, rigor, and uncommon spiritual warmth. artsfuse.org/335386/class...

Classical Album Review: Steve Reich at 90 - The Pulse Still Holds - The Arts Fuse

ECM New Series’ reissue of the composer’s seminal early recordings restores their bite, rigor, and uncommon spiritual warmth.

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@michaellondra.bsky.social on a monumental new gathering of the poetry of #SeamusHeaney: the Nobel laureate’s verse—of rural labor, private grief, history, and divided Northern Ireland—remains a moral force in a newly fraught moment. @fsgbooks.bsky.social artsfuse.org/335344/book-...

Book Review: The King of the Cats Returns - Seamus Heaney’s Complete Poems and the Poetry of Justice - The Arts Fuse

In a monumental new gathering of his work, the Nobel laureate’s poems—of rural labor, private grief, history, and divided Northern Ireland—remain a moral force in a newly fraught moment.

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For poet Mark Pawlak, a working-class kid from Buffalo who once saw museums as places for other people, a lifetime among Cambridge and Boston collections became an education in class, access, exclusion, and the complicated act of looking. artsfuse.org/335324/arts-...

Arts Commentary: The Distance Between Us and the Museum - The Arts Fuse

By Mark Pawlak

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In his novel "The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age," the cultural historian and novelist Joseph Horowitz resurrects Wagner’s American apostle Anton Seidl—and a progressive, populist musical culture that New York has largely forgotten. artsfuse.org/335278/autho...

Author Interview: Joseph Horowitz on Anton Seidl and the Lost Promise of American Classical Music - The Arts Fuse

In "The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age," the cultural historian and novelist resurrects Wagner’s American apostle—and a progressive, populist musical culture that New York has largely fo...

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Steve Provizer on "The Art of Vocalese": Janis Siegel’s first project since the Manhattan transfer’s 2023 dissolution honors the lyric-driven jazz practice shaped by Eddie Jefferson and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. artsfuse.org/335293/jazz-...

Jazz Album Review: The Art of Vocalese - Janis Siegel’s Jazz History Lesson - The Arts Fuse

Janis Siegel’s first project since the Manhattan Transfer’s 2023 dissolution honors the lyric-driven jazz practice shaped by Eddie Jefferson and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

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Debra Cash on an incisive exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that traces how Rembrandt, his Dutch contemporaries, and earlier artists remade Esther’s's biblical story of concealment, power, and survival. artsfuse.org/335310/visua...

Visual Arts Review: Esther’s Many Faces at the Gardner - The Arts Fuse

An incisive exhibition traces how Rembrandt, his Dutch contemporaries, and earlier artists remade a biblical story of concealment, power, and survival.

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David D'Arcy on standout docs at the TIFF: Barbara Kopple follows exploited delivery workers, William Greaves revives the Harlem Renaissance, and Iranian filmmakers find private lives shadowed by surveillance, war, and repression, yet also beautified in some cases. artsfuse.org/335221/film-...

Film Festival Reviews: Docs at TIFF - Labor, Harlem Memory, and Iranian Bodies Under Pressure - The Arts Fuse

At TIFF, Barbara Kopple follows exploited delivery workers, William Greaves revives the Harlem Renaissance, and Iranian filmmakers find private lives shadowed by surveillance, war, and repression, yet...

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Thomas F. Connolly on how hedge-fund logic, executive excess, celebrity casting, and algorithmic ticket prices are remaking nonprofit arts groups and Broadway alike. artsfuse.org/335261/arts-...

Steve Feeney on "Freedom Call": a six-LP, three-CD collection that gives us bassist, composer, and bandleader #DaveHolland leading exceptional small groups in music of rigor, energy, and expansive range. #EditionRecords artsfuse.org/335242/jazz-...

Jazz Album Review: Dave Holland’s "Freedom Call" - A Vital Archive of a Restless Master - The Arts Fuse

A six-LP, three-CD collection gives us the bassist leading exceptional small groups in music of rigor, energy, and expansive range.

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Thomas Larson on Tom Overton’s lively, intimate biography of #JohnBerger, which follows the critic, novelist, artist, activist, and lifelong insurgent through a career that remade the ways we see. @versobooks.bsky.social artsfuse.org/334908/book-...

Book Review: John Berger, Indivisible - The Arts Fuse

Tom Overton’s lively, intimate biography follows the critic, novelist, artist, activist, and lifelong insurgent through a career that remade the ways we see.

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This week’s poem asks a good question: Joanna Fuhrman’s “Why Aren’t You Angry?” artsfuse.org/335213/weekl...

Weekly Feature: Poetry at The Arts Fuse - The Arts Fuse

This week's poem: Joanna Fuhrman's "Why Aren't You Angry?"

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@sarahminaosman.bsky.social on "Brothers" (Apple TV): Real-life friends Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play fictionalized versions of themselves in a genial but thin comedy series built around a long-running family rumor. artsfuse.org/335141/telev...

Television Review: "Brothers" - Anything More Than a Long SNL Sketch? - The Arts Fuse

The real-life friends play fictionalized versions of themselves in a genial but thin comedy built around a long-running family rumor.

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@mikemarano.bsky.social's commentary explores, in depth, how William Nicholas Love’s punch heard round the internet belongs to a long comic-book history of fighting homegrown fascism—from Captain America to Superman decking Nazi goons in “The Clan of the Fiery Cross.” artsfuse.org/335084/arts-...

@mikemarano.bsky.social writes that Tom Cruise delivers a virtuoso turn in "Digger," but director Alejandro G. Iñárritu buries a potentially potent satire of climate-change denial beneath two-ton exposition, self-congratulation, and stunts. artsfuse.org/335174/film-...

Film Review: “Digger” Can’t Dig Its Way Out of Its Own Artifice - The Arts Fuse

Tom Cruise delivers a virtuoso turn, but Iñárritu buries a potentially potent climate-change comedy beneath exposition, self-congratulation, and stunts.

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The weekly newsletter is up. There are links to Coming Attractions and Lloyd Schwartz's thoughts on the Boston Symphony Orchestra's opening night. My editorial offers a few words about a neglected America writer on his 150th birthday. artsfuse.substack.com/p/an-america...

David D'Arcy writes that three TIFF premieres — John Trengove’s "The Smell of Apples," Avi Nesher’s "Our Loves," and Pedro Almodóvar’s "Bitter Christmas" — locate private lives within political violence, historical memory, and the seductive artifices of storytelling. artsfuse.org/335067/film-...

Film Festival Reviews: TIFF’s Uneasy Mirror - Apartheid, October 7, and Almodóvar’s Reflections - The Arts Fuse

Three Toronto premieres — John Trengove’s "The Smell of Apples," Avi Nesher’s "Our Loves," and Pedro Almodóvar’s "Bitter Christmas" — locate private lives within political violence, historical memory,...

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Kate Lightstone writes that Kelly Anderson’s novel "The Wild Beneath" finds beauty in the eerie aftermath of disaster, where grief settles everywhere and the sea reshapes what its survivors believe is real. artsfuse.org/334400/book-...

Book Review: Beneath the Waves - A Story of Love, Loss, and Uncertainty - The Arts Fuse

Kelly Anderson’s "The Wild Beneath" finds beauty in the eerie aftermath of disaster, where grief settles everywhere and the sea reshapes what its survivors believe is real.

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For Debra Cash, "Jazzed: Jack Cole and Twentieth-Century American Dance" (University Press of Kentucky) makes a persuasive case for the dancer and choreographer's artistic importance, even as its overly admiring portrait evades some of his darkest behavior. artsfuse.org/335041/book-...

Rob Duguay talks to Eli "Paperboy" Reed ahead of his October 2 show at The Regattabar. The Brooklyn-based soul singer reflects on Boston’s supportive early-2000s music scene, working with Swamp Dogg, and the pleasures and challenges of drawing from a deep catalog. artsfuse.org/335116/music...

Musician Interview: Eli “Paperboy” Reed Comes Home to Cambridge With "Getting There" - The Arts Fuse

Ahead of his October 2 Regattabar show, the Brooklyn-based soul singer reflects on Boston’s supportive early-2000s music scene, working with Swamp Dogg, and the pleasures and challenges of drawing fro...

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@callinamagician.bsky.social on "The Serpent's Path" -- now streaming on The Criterion Channel and elsewhere. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa transforms a revenge thriller into a chilling examination of guilt, conspiracy, and the violence that permeates modern life. artsfuse.org/334133/film-...

Film Review: "Serpent's Path" - The Violence We Inherit - The Arts Fuse

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa transforms a revenge thriller into a chilling examination of guilt, conspiracy, and the violence that permeates modern life.

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On its Cantaloupe Music debut, writes John Tamilio III, Phaedra Ensemble enters Meredith Monk’s strange, haunting sound world—where strings, reeds, voices, and silence dissolve familiar ideas of classical music. artsfuse.org/334940/class...

Thomas Filbin on Colin Kidd’s "Twilight of the Dons" (@princetonupress.bsky.social): this lively history follows universities in Oxford and Cambridge from postwar confidence through rebellion, Thatcherite assault, and a troubling loss of institutional nerve. artsfuse.org/335004/book-...

Coming Attractions for the next two weeks! Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in. artsfuse.org/334812/comin...

Coming Attractions: September 27 through October 12 - What Will Light Your Fire - The Arts Fuse

Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.

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@lloydschwartz.bsky.social on the @bostonsymphony.bsky.social's opening night: The ensemble avoided a strike and greeted its music director, Andris Nelsons, warmly, but an oddly programmed opening night culminated in a deeply disappointing Brahms Fourth. artsfuse.org/334957/class...

Classical Music Concert Review: Yo-Yo Ma Elevates a Dispiriting Boston Symphony Orchestra Opening Night - The Arts Fuse

The BSO avoided a strike and greeted its music director warmly, but an oddly programmed opening night culminated in a deeply disappointing Brahms Fourth.

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