Paul Festa

Naked on the set! Finale
Wherein my life becomes a surreal blend of "Hedwig" and "All About Eve."
Naked on the set! Part 5
Some post-audition debauchery leads our frustrated hero to take matters into his own hands. (OK, there were a couple of other people in the bed.)
Naked on the set! Part 4: Archive fever
It all boiled down to that courting query that my generation and adjacent ones will go to our erotic graves asking: "Hot or not?"
Naked on the set! Part 3
Wherein I learn that it's not a good idea to teach your mother how to Google and that good chamber music is like doing it onstage.

Read Part 1 and Part 2

Naked on the set! Part 2
I meet the director and struggle with my biggest question: Will he make me a star? Or will my audition expose me as a fraud?
Naked on the set!
As I prepare to audition for the new X-rated film project by "Hedwig" creator John Cameron Mitchell, I'm left to wonder: Will he think I have the whole package? Part 1 in a series.
"Mussolini," by R.J.B. Bosworth
He fought duels, seduced women, crashed planes, allied with Hitler, lost a war and ran Italy into the ground, but at heart Il Duce considered himself an artist.
"Indira" by Katherine Frank
Indira Gandhi led the most populous democracy in the world, but finally, ruthless and paranoid, she couldn't resist the temptation of tyranny.
Executioner's song
The ravaged lives of two men hired to pull the switch testify to the hidden costs of America's death penalty.
Dead man singing
"Dead Man Walking," the opera version, opens in San Francisco. Is it a misguided abuse of the genre -- or a radical reworking of operatic stagecraft?
As long as he doesn't sound gay
The mayoral candidate who articulated a growing angst in San Francisco may have been hurt at the polls because of the voice he said it in.
Flaming man
Queer erotics has its place in the sun at Burning Man's utopia. How fitting that the sun got too hot.
Does a good conductor have anything to say after 10 years?
While Boston Symphony patriots bemoaned the loss of 25-year conductor Seiji Ozawa, members of his orchestra said that it's been a long time coming.
Mommie Dearest in drag
Why would Joan Crawford's daughter embrace the gay cult that thinks her child abuse, detailed in her memoir 'Mommie Dearest,' is one big campy joke?
Sharps and Flats: John Dowland
 
Paul Paray
Sharps and Flats is a daily music review.
Classical music: R.I.P.?
 
Die Vvgel
Sharps and Flats is a daily music review.
Ute Lemper
Sharps and Flats is a daily music review.
3 Russian Fairy Tales
Sharps and Flats is a daily music review.
Stravinsky
Sharps and flats is a daily music review.
Salon: Sharps and Flats
 

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