Polio is something I never talked to anyone about. Since the age of 10 I’ve not had this conversation with another person who’s had polio.
-- Karen Chase, author of "Polio Boulevard."
Perhaps, however, in playing this piece year after year to close the Tanglewood season, the BSO has forgotten what a pregnant masterpiece it really is.
The BSO has a long and commendable tradition of offering chamber music from members of the orchestra at 6 p.m. on Friday evenings, free to anyone who has a ticket to enter the grounds.
This is a perfect show with which to bring to a close the principal season (there is a fall show to come) for this best of all summer stock houses in this region.
They gave new meaning to the ancient integration of music and dance, pioneered in modern times by Sergey Diaghilev and his colleagues in the Ballets Russes.
"If one minute's freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it — just to stand one minute on God's Earth a free woman."
-- Mum Bett, in Jesse Waldinger's "Mum Bett's Minute"
This is Jonathan Epstein's moment of glory, and he deserves every kudo he is getting from this writer right now. The work is risky and the result is wonderful.
