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California Literary Review

Performing Arts

Nicole Atkins: Femme Noir

by Elinor Teele

October 26th, 2009

She’s been called the female Roy Orbison, a psychedelic metalhead who grew up listening to Elvis and Patsy Cline. She adores Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin, does covers of Patti Smith and reminds listeners of Dusty Springfield. She has a voice like gray autumn skies and a fondness for nightmares. Classify Nicole Atkins at your peril.

Daniel Barenboim at La Scala

by Judith Harris

December 11th, 2007

Drama number three was the presence on the podium of Daniel Barenboim, the child prodigy born in 1942 in Argentina to Russian parents, who moved with him to Israel when he was ten. This opera performance, which furthermore inaugurates the newly restored theater, was the first by Barenboim as conductor of the orchestra that had performed under the batons of Arturo Toscanini and, more recently, the flamboyant Riccardo Muti. Although Barenboim has performed Wagner many times elsewhere, La Scala audiences have not seen a Wagnerian opera for three decades, and his making this selection can still raise a few eyebrows.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the British Blues Revival

by Gayle F. Wald

June 11th, 2007

Interest in Rosetta in Britain was part and parcel of a larger trend: the postwar blues revival, which saw the emergence of a white public who “sought a heightened reality in the realm of black American song.”

Orchestras, Oboes and Orgies

by Paul Comstock

April 3rd, 2007

“I was honest about my own behavior and that of others, yet stopped short of revealing 95 percent of the worst in our business. The nature of memoir is that of truth; only real people can illustrate real stories. However, a measure of effective journalism is its ability to instigate societal change, and only a picture based on truth can do that.”

Nothin’ Short of Dyin’ Half as Lonesome as the Sound

by Laurel Snyder

March 26th, 2007

The last time I saw Johnny Cash was the first time I saw Johnny Cash – and he didn’t look good, but he sounded like home.

The Funk Brothers

by Tim Reynolds

March 26th, 2007

A few hundred fortunate Californians were sharing a moment of transcendence with the Funk Brothers, the legendary Motown musicians, who were entertaining that night.

Life, Death and Hip-Hop

by Jonathan Wolf

March 26th, 2007

Within Hip-Hop we discover the struggle of the artist to make sense of their unjust world and to find the balance between their desires (and everyday survival) and the morality of their actions to fulfill these desires.

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