Too Much Blood: The Problem With Shakespeare’s Tragedies

Jesse Green: “Theater critics thus have the opportunity – provided almost entirely by Shakespeare, since contemporary drama is notably short on gore – to watch hundreds of people die horribly each season. … Rarely do I see the plays done well enough to justify the awfulness they ask us to witness. And if they’re not properly awful, what’s the point? Do Much Ado and be done with it.”

Want People To Come To The Symphony? Pick A Damn Theme

“The old overture-concerto-symphony model, with no real relationship among the pieces, gives no identity to a concert, no marketing hook. It’s just another ‘one from column A, one from column B’ mishmash. Slapping alliterative labels for single pieces on concerts — ‘Marvelous Mozart,’ ‘Bombastic Beethoven,’ ‘Ravishing Ravel’ — is pretty lame.”