The Vargas Blog

The official blog of Vincent's Casablanca HomePage and Wagner Operas. Click the links below to explore my sites.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

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The maximalism of Baz Luhrmann can easily put you off. He doesn't so much adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby as he hi...
Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Richard Wagner at 200

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Today, May 22, we celebrate the birth of Richard Wagner .  The composer was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1813, 200 years ago today.  But ho...
2 comments:
Sunday, May 05, 2013

Maurizio Pollini at Carnegie Hall

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In the twilight of his years Maurizio Pollini continues to amaze with the aristocratic virtuosity and technical dexterity that has garner...
Saturday, April 20, 2013

Wagner's Siegfried at the MET

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The Metropolitan Opera is in the middle of presenting three Ring Cycles this spring, and this afternoon was the premiere of Siegfried , t...
Saturday, April 06, 2013

Music meets Technology at the American Composers Orchestra

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The American Composers Orchestra concert on Friday evening at Carnegie's Zankel auditorium, under the direction of George Manahan , e...
Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Blancanieves, A Silent Snow White Set in Spain

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If you are a Spanish filmmaker and you are going to update Snow White and the Seven Dwarves you might as well pull all the stops and set ...
1 comment:
Sunday, March 24, 2013

New York Times Article about Peter Gelb

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The New York Times Sunday magazine has a very interesting, in-depth article on Peter Gelb 's tenure as the Metropolitan Opera 's...
Thursday, February 21, 2013

Las Vegas Rigoletto at the MET

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  Wieland Wagner ushered in the era of the director in opera with the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival in 1951.   His historic p...
Saturday, February 16, 2013

New Parsifal at the MET

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 When I heard Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival this summer, I wrote on this blog that the experience was like listening to the work for...
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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Argo: a film directed by Ben Affleck

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When militants stormed the United States embassy in Tehran in 1979 in retaliation for the U.S. sheltering the deposed Shah of Iran, more t...
Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Django Unchained: New Tarantino Film

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When Dr. King Schultz ( Christoph Waltz ) learns that the slave Django ( Jamie Foxx ) is married to a woman named Broomhilda ( Kerry Washi...
Sunday, November 25, 2012

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln

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Lincoln begins with a chaotic battle from the middle of the Civil War: brother against brother in hand-to hand butchery.  A scene that re...
Thursday, November 22, 2012

The Philarmonia Orchestra presents Wozzeck

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The Philarmonia Orchestra under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen visited New York City earlier this week and presented two performances at...

Thomas Adès's The Tempest at the MET

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When The Tempest , Thomas Adès 's opera based on Shakespeare 's play of the same name, premiered at the Royal Op...
Sunday, October 14, 2012

New York Film Festival: Flight

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In Robert Zemeckis 's excellent new film Flight , Denzel Washington portrays Captain Whip Whitaker, an airline pilot whose experience...

New York Film Festival: Fellini-Satyricon

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I've begun to dread the words "a brilliant new restoration," or "a brilliant new 35 millimeter print," when it com...
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Lawrence of Arabia: New Blu-Ray Disc

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I'm watching the UK release of the latest restoration of David Lean 's Lawrence of Arabia on Blu-Ray, and I have to report that I...
Monday, October 08, 2012

New York Film Festival: Lawrence of Arabia

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Last year the New York Film Festival presented a stunning restoration of 1959's Ben Hur .  Watching it on the screen for the second t...

New York Film Festival: Beyond the Hills

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Beyond the Hills ( După Dealuri ) , Christian Mungiu 's outstanding new film dramatizes real life events that occurred less than a d...
Saturday, October 06, 2012

New York Film Festival: Amour

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While Life of Pi takes pleasure in showing us the toll of the sea on a shipwrecked boy, Amour , the winner of the Palme d'Or at this ...
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Vincent Vargas
Vincent Vargas is a retired foreign language and film history teacher from New York City. He runs websites dedicated to Casablanca (www.vincasa.com) and Richard Wagner (www.wagneroperas.com).
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