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Happy returns

Boston Ballet’s Coppélia , Alvin Ailey at the Wang
George Balanchine didn’t go in for productions of the old classic ballets.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | April 20, 2010

A live album for a dead rock singer from Kino Proby
The quick back-story on Kino Proby: Three Mainers take a liking to the Russian band Kino, and its legendary lead singer Viktor Tsoi, who died in a car wreck in 1990 after becoming maybe the single most famous Russian rock star.
By SAM PFEIFLE | January 06, 2010

Booked solid

A hefty season of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry
The holidays are over — time to hit the books.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | January 04, 2010

On Westminster: Coffee and Iggy Pop

Storytelling Dept.
Andrew Losowsky and Lyra Monteiro, husband and wife, are huddled around a small table in a chilly and mostly empty room on the bottom floor of the Kresge building on West-minster Street in downtown Providence.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 09, 2009

News worth paying for?

The ProJo considers charging for access to its Web site
The Providence Journal , offering a rare window onto its own affairs, recently reported that the newspaper could start charging for access to large swaths of projo.com as early as the first quarter of next year.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 02, 2009

Punch drunk

Aqib Talib's press coverage. Plus, the Whizzinator wilts, and Christmas comes early to Philly.
Charges have finally come in on Aqib Talib, the frequently high (if you believe his pre-draft drug tests) and drafted-up-high (20th overall in 2008) Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback who reportedly decked a cabbie because . . . well, it’s still not exactly clear why.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 28, 2009

Both ears and the tail for this Carmen

Boston Ballet's 'World Passions'
"World Passions," the collection of four works that Boston Ballet opened at the Opera House last night, was more pleasant than passionate until Kathleen Breen Combes sashayed out as the title character in Jorma Elo's Carmen .
By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 28, 2009

America's scam

Eugene Lockhart funds his own buyout. Plus, why do pro athletes hate cabbies?
What a year for former New England Patriots and the criminal-justice system!
By MATT TAIBBI | September 09, 2009

Short-sighted?

The Projo 's ultra-local approach could save the paper — or spell its demise
There may, in the end, be no way to save the American metropolitan newspaper. Plummeting advertising revenue and competition from the Internet often seem forces too daunting for even the savviest of publishers.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 26, 2009

Review: Cold Souls

Paul Giamatti can't heat up Cold Souls
What if human souls were as interchangeable as hearts, kidneys, movie concepts, and auto parts? Writer/director Sophie Barthes's feature debut toys with the notion, but instead of breaking new ground, Cold Souls settles for rehashing elements from other films.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 17, 2009

Dark night of the soul

Boris Eifman's Eugene Onegin
St. Petersburg's Eifman Ballet presents Eugene Onegin at the Cutler Majestic Theatre this weekend.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 08, 2009

Home cooking

The National Philharmonic of Russia at Symphony Hall
If the name "National Philharmonic of Russia" puts you in mind of some provincial Slavic ensemble making the American rounds, you're not alone.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | April 23, 2009

Restoring a master

A new biography seeks to redefine Marc Chagall's place in art history
When Marc Chagall died in 1985 at the age of 98 he was internationally famous, wealthy, and had lived to see a museum built for him by the French government.
By KEN GREENLEAF | March 30, 2009

Cooking with two Russians

A day of authenticity, gross assumption, and great soup
Yulia Converse welcomed me into her kitchen in Maine to learn from her mother, Alla Zagoruyko, how to make authentic Russian borsht.
By LINDSAY STERLING | March 11, 2009

Schnozzola!

Opera Boston doesn't blow The Nose — plus Yannick Nézet-Séguin's BSO debut and the return of Lang Lang
By the time you read this, you've either seen or missed one of Boston's most exciting opera productions, Opera Boston's brilliant version of Shostakovich's The Nose .
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 05, 2009

Crowning glory

Boston Ballet's Jewels at the Wang Theatre.
In 1967, George Balanchine created Jewels for New York City Ballet, and in short order this evening-length triptych — Emeralds , Rubies , and Diamonds — became the crown jewel of 20th-century dance.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 04, 2009

Revolutionaries

Kino Proby pay tribute to a legend
Tribute bands are usually considered blights, godsends, or novelties of dubious value.
By DAN CLARK | January 07, 2009

Sex and food and Abraham Lincoln

Gift books for every (perverse) taste
We put out a call to our contributors to suggest appropriate holiday gift books and what do we get back?
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 05, 2008

Vertical energy

Irina Muresanu gave an emotionally compelling performance, even if her view of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto didn’t always jibe with conductor Jonathan McPhee’s.
The word “concerto” comes from the Italian for “to bring into agreement,” and it’s not always as easy as soloists and symphony orchestras make it seem.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 14, 2008

Conscientious objectors

Two films on being fanatic
How do people become fanatics? When does individual conscience take a stand?
By PETER KEOUGH | October 27, 2008

Getting hitched

‘Wedded Bliss’ at the Peabody Essex Museum
It's a show that stretches from va-va-voom to the solemn roots of marriage in our culture. And maybe says a bit about — if I dare be so grand — the magical, irresistible force of love.
By GREG COOK | July 23, 2008

Russian revel?

Looking ahead to Ballets Russes 2009
The Russians are coming!
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 23, 2008

Flash without fire

Is New England better than the DeCordova’s Annual Exhibition?
The aim of the DeCordova Museum’s Annual Exhibition is to round up “some of the most interesting and visually eloquent” New England artists.
By GREG COOK | May 13, 2008

Oppositions

The Kirov's Balanchine at City Center
The end of a three-week, thousands-of-miles-from-home season is never the right time to assess a dance company.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 30, 2009

Dunkin' rage

Sightings
They were siblings in a spat.
By IAN SANDS | March 19, 2008

Moonbeams

Boston Ballet illumines George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a dizzy dance of a drama, meandering mystifyingly between May Eve and Midsummer Eve under a moon that goes from new to full swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 24, 2008

Ebb and flow

Dance: 2007 in review
The good news is that we still have our own major company, Boston Ballet, and it made its first international tour — to Spain — in more than a decade.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 17, 2007

Wikipedia rules

Wikipedia doubled its number of articles in just 18 months. But who are the “Wikipediots” writing them? And why do they do it?
The ancient Library at Alexandria, once the largest on Earth, housed perhaps 500,000 volumes.
By MIKE MILIARD | December 12, 2007

Baritone bliss?

Дмитрий Хворостовский at Symphony Hall
Ну, что, как вы — oops, sorry, that’s what happens when the conversation around you is all-Russian-all-the-time.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 11, 2007

More than child’s play

Boston Ballet’s grown-up Nutcracker
After a slow start, The Nutcracker went on to become the most-watched ballet of the 20th century.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 09, 2007