This past Saturday I was quite sated with music! In the afternoon, I attended a matinee performance of Gioachino Rossini's comic opera Le Comte Ory at the Metropolitan Opera, and in the evening I was at Washington Irving High School for a concert by the ATOS Trio sponsored by Peoples' Symphony Concerts. Each in its own way was a feast for the ears.
Rossini's Le Comte Ory was his last comic opera (the last dramatic … <Read More>
Reversing a three-judge panel and dismissing a suit brought by a gay couple seeking a proper birth certificate for the Louisiana-born child who they had jointly adopted in New York, an en banc majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled on April 12 that Louisiana officials had not violated the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution by refusing to give full effect to a New York adoption decree by listing … <Read More>
Over the past two seasons the American Symphony Orchestra, led by Leon Botstein, has presented the complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies in its Classics Declassified Series at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Tonight was the triumphal conclusion, with a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that lacked nothing in excitement, thrills, depth, beauty, and inspiration. This came on top of a superb performance just two days ago of the 8th Symphony at … <Read More>
A unanimous panel of the New York Appellate Division, First Department, based in Manhattan, ruled on April 8 that opinions rendered last year by New York Supreme Court Justice Louis B. York, rejecting constitutional challenges to the NYC Zoning Resolution concerning location of adult businesses, were so terse that they lacked the necessary findings of fact that would enable the appeals court to determine whether Justice York's conclusions were supported by the factual record in the … <Read More>
I had the privilege on Friday night of attending a special event for subscribers to the Orchestra of St. Luke's series at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra would be recording a concert for radio syndication in their new rehearsal/recording space, the Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, an extraordinary building at 450 W. 37 Street (near 10th Avenue) that has been adapted both for classical music and – on higher floors … <Read More>
I was lucky to attend the first of four performances by the New York Philharmonic this week of Stephen Sondheim's classic musical, "Company." I had seen the recent Broadway revival, but otherwise my only exposure to this show had been through recordings (original cast, and also individual songs that show up frequently on Sondheim recital programs). Because of the peculiar staging of the recent Broadway revival (with members of the cast carrying around instruments and … <Read More>
In a letter ruling issued to the parties in Shineovich v. Kemp, Multnomah County Case Number 0703-63564, on March 31, 2011, Circuit Judge Katherine Tennyson ruled that Sondra Shineovich and Sarah Kemp were a "same-sex couple" as that term was used by the Oregon Court of Appeals in its precedent-setting decision in Shineovich v. Kemp, 214 P.3d 29 (Or. App., 2009), and thus as Shineovich had consented to donor insemination of Kemp while … <Read More>
Classify this one under "what could he have been thinking?"
On April 4, the California 4th District Court of Appeal, unanimously reversing a decision by San Diego Superior Court Judge Steven R. Denton, ruled that the San Diego School District was justified in discharging Frank Lampedusa, who had posted a "men seeking men" sex ad on Craigslist that included sexually explicit language and nude photographs showing his genitals and his face.
Again, what could he … <Read More>
The Arkansas Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a popularly-enacted statute prohibiting adoptions by adults living in homes where unmarried adults were cohabiting violates the Arkansas Constitution's implicit protection of individual privacy. The ruling in Arkansas Department of Human Services v. Cole, 2011 Ark. 145 (April 7, 2011), affirmed a decision by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Christopher C. Piazza. Associate Justice Robert L. Brown wrote for the unanimous court.
There has been an ongoing … <Read More>
I seem to be having a very lucky concert season, with few complaints to raise about the quality of the concerts I've been attending. The luck continued this weekend with superb performances by The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips, in an all-Victoria concert on Saturday night (April 2) at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and by the Quatour Eb