Tag Archives: Tom Stoppard

Heratio premieres at the Guild Festival Theatre

Posted on August 11, 2025 by barczablog

I’ve just seen Genevieve Adam’s Heratio, a new play that picks up from where Hamlet ended. It’s another of the scripts that build on Shakespeare, with much of the fun coming if you know the original, as in Stoppard’s Rosenkrantz … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Karel Ančerl of the Toronto Symphony

Posted on May 17, 2021 by barczablog

While reading Hermione Lee’s account of Tom Stoppard’s childhood in Czechoslovakia I was reminded of Karel Ančerl, the Toronto Symphony’s conductor and music-director roughly fifty years ago. Before Kenneth Stoppard appears on the scene in Darjeeling India, marries Magda Sträussler, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hermione Lee: Tom Stoppard A Life

Posted on May 16, 2021 by barczablog

I’m humbled reading Hermione Lee’s biography of Tom Stoppard. I was exalted by Alex Ross’s colossal Wagnerism study because I’m a typical grandiose Wagnerian, thinking I know something about the topic. Its 784 pages flew by, the book flattering my … Continue reading →

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Young Cassidy, Old Stoppard

Posted on March 28, 2021 by barczablog

Celebrating World Theatre Day in a pandemic that prevents one from going into a theatre might seem to be an oxymoron. Or it might be the best time to really understand what one has lost. Absence and abstinence make the … Continue reading →

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Meditation with dog

Posted on March 15, 2021 by barczablog

My title might be an unconscious imitation of Tom Robbins’ Still-life with Woodpecker. Might? I suddenly felt the need to make a parenthetic google search. Tom Robbins. Is he still alive? And I see that he was born in 1932, … Continue reading →

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