Culture Gulch - The Durango Herald

Memory and its mysteries

Two productions bring classics to life

DATE: May 11, 2017 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Time and time again : The MET stages contemporary ‘La Traviata’

Time is the big villain in Verdi’s “La Traviata,” and in case you don’t get it, director Wily Decker puts a huge clock on stage even before the overture begins. At 11 Saturday mo...

DATE: Mar 10, 2017 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Collaborative ‘Carol’ is innovative and moving

When Ebenezer Scrooge (played with crabby directness by Bob Thom) tucks himself into bed on Christmas Eve, he happens to be standing on stage. The illusion is so complete and so ...

DATE: Dec 8, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Culture Gulch Sirens of song: Two musical programs not to miss

I’m borrowing Kerry Ginger’s title for her upcoming presentation in Life Long Learning to alert readers to two musical programs next week. One is about women’s roles in Western o...

DATE: Nov 12, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Plenty of opera to be seen in Durango

Opera offerings are expanding in Durango. Some showings stream live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and others are taped broadcasts from opera houses around the world. It...

DATE: Sep 8, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Music for our troubled time

For me, music that speaks to our troubled time more powerfully than any other is anything by Beethoven and anything by Brahms. Luckily, in this summer of political discontent, th...

DATE: Jul 7, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

50 shades of satire at Durango Arts Center

Satire rides on a spectrum from mild to wild – to borrow a line from a local rafting company. Last Friday, the sixth annual 10-minute Play Festival at the Durango Arts Center floa...

DATE: Jun 9, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

A body of work exhibited at the arts center

At first glance, Laurie Archer’s solar plate etchings look like random nature studies. In the three sections of “The Thread,” her exhibit now on view in the library of the Durango Arts Cente...

DATE: May 12, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

High drama to be had in Philadelphia

I hit a travel jackpot earlier this month on a trip to Philadelphia. I flew there for my annual conference of the American Theatre Critics Association. Seventy critics and their ...

DATE: Apr 21, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Exhibit is astute political commentary laced with outrage

“The best political art is always viciously negative.” British culture critic Jonathan Jones wrote that last week in his column in The Guardian. Jones pointedly asked...

DATE: Mar 10, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Catch one of the greatest comic operas ever

MET Live returns to Fort Lewis with the whimsical ‘Magic Flute’

DATE: Feb 11, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Gratitude and ‘the givens’in the new year

“It’s a given,” Denzel Washington said in an interview a few years ago. He was talking about racism in America. He calmly said that racist remarks and experiences were simply a given for Afr...

DATE: Jan 14, 2016 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch