The Vargas Blog

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

Saturday, September 30, 2017

NY FILM FESTIVAL: The Old Dark House -- a preview

›
The New York Film Festival opened on Thursday (likely as a result of Yom Kippur) instead of the usual Friday night with Richard Linklater...
Friday, September 29, 2017

Playwright Albert Innaurato, dead at 70

›
Ask anyone who grew up in the late 1970s about the play Gemini , or its author Albert Innaurato , and they might not remember anything about...
Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Bellini's NORMA opens MET Season

›
Norma , Vincenzo Bellini ’s great bel canto opera has opened the Metropolitan Opera season only three times. I was there at the 1981 open...
Monday, September 25, 2017

Judith Cabaud at Barnes & Noble

›
Author Judith Cabaud will be at Barnes & Noble (33 East 17th Street, New York City) to sign her new book Mathilde Wesendonck, Isolde...
Sunday, September 24, 2017

Wieland Wagner

›
Whether or not you read German, the book to get this year if you are a fan of the works of Richard Wagner is Wieland Wagner, Revolutionär...
Saturday, September 23, 2017

Listening to Bellini's NORMA

›
On Monday night the Metropolitan Opera opens with a new production of Norma , by Vincenzo Bellini .  The new production will be staged by...

A New Look

›
And with the new name comes a new look for the old blog.  I hope you like it.  Do let me know.  I don't think I'm going back to th...

The Vargas Blog

›
In a total fit of narcissism, I have changed the name of my blog from the "Wagner Blog" to " The Vargas Blog ." Why?  ...
Friday, September 22, 2017

Mother! by Darren Aronofsky

›
Mother! (With an exclamation point, no less!) What can one say about a movie called Mother! that starts off with the word “baby” and go...
Tuesday, August 15, 2017

René Pape at Bayreuth

›
René Pape , who is singing the role of King Marke at Bayreuth this summer, stayed at my hotel.  He arrived a few hours before the perform...
1 comment:

Parsifal at the Festspielhaus

›
Parsifal , Wagner 's last major work for the lyric theater, which premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus , was the opera presented fo...
1 comment:
Monday, August 14, 2017

Götterdämmerung at the Festspielhaus

›
During the immolation scene that ends Wagner 's great epic The Ring of the Nibelung , the dead body of Siegfried lies burning on a pyr...
Sunday, August 13, 2017

Tristan und Isolde at the Festspielhaus

›
The new production of Tristan und Isolde by Katharina Wagner premiered last year to great acclaim.  It is a production that has been out...
1 comment:
Friday, August 11, 2017

Siegfried at the Festspielhaus

›
Of the four operas in Frank Castorf 's The Ring of the Nibelung , it's Siegfried that has drawn the anger of the audience the mos...
1 comment:
Thursday, August 10, 2017

Johannes Martin Kränzle and me

›
While walking around Bayreuth I ran into opera singer Johannes Martin Kränzle who plays Sixtus Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger: the first...
Wednesday, August 09, 2017

Die Walküre at the Festspielhaus

›
After subjecting us to his low-down, white trash film noir with music by Richard Wagner which Frank Castorf calls his Das Rheingold , th...
Tuesday, August 08, 2017

Das Rheingold at the Festspielhaus

›
After three years of listening to the boos overpower the cheers, together with a list of controversial reviews and awful word of mouth, I ...
Monday, August 07, 2017

Meistersinger at the Festspielhaus

›
There was no denying that Barrie Kosky 's new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was envisioned in part for the TV screen. ...
Tuesday, July 25, 2017

A new Meistersinger at Bayreuth

›
The new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg that kicked off the 2017 Bayreuth Festival is the brainchild of Australian director...
Saturday, June 10, 2017

Tom Cruise in a reboot of The Mummy

›
At the beginning of The Mummy a supposed Egyptian proverb appears on the screen asserting that we never die, but assume new forms and kee...
‹
›
Home
View web version

About Me

My photo
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).
View my complete profile
Powered by Blogger.