Monthly Archives: April 2018

“Neoliberal Austerity and Left Melancholy”

I have just published in the Michigan Quarterly Review a review essay on the anthology Austerity Measures: The New Greek Poetry (New York Review Books, 2017), edited by Karen Van Dyck.  It is fitting that Michigan’s C. P. Cavafy Modern … Continue reading

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Χρόνος, Χάυντν, Χάιντεγγερ

Ο Δημήτρης Καλοκύρης, κορυφαία μορφή των ελληνικών γραμμάτων, τεχνών και εκδόσεων, ζήτησε από 40 συνεργάτες και συνομιλητές του να σχολιάσουν με λίγα λόγια ορισμένους από τους 88 καταπληκτικούς εικαστικούς Ωρολογιακούς Μηχανισμούς (2017) που πρόσφατα δημιούργησε, εξέθεσε και εξέδωσε.  Αυτό είναι … Continue reading

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Pirandello’s “Enrico IV,” a tragedy of refusal

Luigi Pirandello’s tragedy, Enrico IV (1922), is a great post-modern Hamlet. I discuss its politics of refusal in terms of melancholic disengagement and destituent power in a chapter of my book-length scholarly project on the self-destruction of revolution since Romantic theater.

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Listening for the zeibekiko dance

Listening to five pieces: Manos Hadjidakis: The Accursed Serpent, “The great dance of Karaghiozis” Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert, excerpt (7:30) Michael Daugherty: Le Tombeau de Liberace, II. “How Do I Love Thee?” Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.4, IV: “Passacaglia” Joy … Continue reading

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Learning Greek

Having discussed in my previous post Zimmermann’s Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu, an orchestral composition consisting solely of musical quotes and running through an entire canon, I thought I might also mention a poem consisting solely of verse … Continue reading

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Ubu Roi in the German concert hall, the Parisian arcades, and the White House

This is the most self-referential piece of classical music ever written – but is it a huge prank, a farcical tale, a parlor game, a final exam, a postmodern primer, a funeral march? Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s orchestral “ballet noir,” Musique … Continue reading

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