Category: REVIEW

A Philosophical Adventure Towards Freedom

In Outside the Gates, Hackett reveals to us that transcendence is woven into social reality, most especially in that highest friendship which tyranny seeks to root out: the friendship of virtue.

An Antidote to the Woke Virus

Counter Wokecraft makes the case that woke strategies, “while tricky and manipulative,” are also “comprehensible, predictable, and able to be countered.”

When We Were Journalists

The reason why Lance Morrow matters is that he may well be the last living bridge to a bygone age in journalism.

A Rigorous Evaluation of Colonialism

While Biggar ultimately concludes that progressive discussions of colonialism are flawed and overly simplistic, he does not fall into the opposite extreme in favor of every aspect of Western colonialism.

In Defense of the Nation-State

Thanks to authors like Hazony, we can see more clearly the deceptive arguments of those who condemn the nation-state to either extinction by the verdict of history, or to extermination by means of a brutal imperial policy.

A Macbeth Signifying Nothing on the Salzburg Stage

Following an unfortunate trend in European stage production, Warlikowski reduces Macbeth to a psychiatric diagnosis, with the characters exploring their pathologies in the confines of a mental institution.

The 9th Art: The Captivating Style of <em>Blake and Mortimer</em>

The 9th Art: The Captivating Style of <em>Blake and Mortimer</em>

The series, which focuses on the adventures of the daring duo of Francis Blake and Phillip J. Mortimer, has a feeling, a style, all its own. Edgar P. Jacobs and his successors craft fully fleshed-out worlds that draw readers in, making us sad to leave at the end of each work.

A Promising Role Debut Puts Teatro San Carlo’s <em>Die Walküre</em> on the Map

A Promising Role Debut Puts Teatro San Carlo’s <em>Die Walküre</em> on the Map

Tiezzi’s production eschews the interpretive fripperies and psychological baggage common in contemporary Wagner productions in favor of appealing abstractions.

July 4, 2023
Back to the Future: The Prayer of the Roman Church

Back to the Future: The Prayer of the Roman Church

The Once and Future Roman Rite is an historical study and a call to action. The author writes that, “We are privileged to be living at a moment when it is possible for the laity and the lower clergy to be taking the steps needed to recover our glorious inheritance.”

July 2, 2023
Grafenegg Festival 2023: Stars and Orchestras

Grafenegg Festival 2023: Stars and Orchestras

Grafenegg has risen to become one of the finest regional European music festivals. The unique blend of nature, architecture, and music makes one feel as though the great romantics are still at home here.

July 1, 2023
Forgotten Classics: Interest and Presence in Tove Jansson’s <em>Summer Book</em>

Forgotten Classics: Interest and Presence in Tove Jansson’s <em>Summer Book</em>

Despite her own failings, Sophia’s grandmother offers us a model of presence and love.

<em>Of Gardens and People</em>: Designed Nature, Art and Landscape Architecture Exhibition in Vienna

<em>Of Gardens and People</em>: Designed Nature, Art and Landscape Architecture Exhibition in Vienna

From Habsburg in Vienna to Jefferson at Monticello, this special exhibition focuses on the overriding power of the garden as a pendant in the life of civilized society.

June 30, 2023
Revolutionary Dreams: Splendid Revival of <em>Andrea Chénier</em> at La Scala

Revolutionary Dreams: Splendid Revival of <em>Andrea Chénier</em> at La Scala

Andrea Chénier‘s high melodrama and appealing theme of feminine self-sacrifice has proved more lasting and appealing than the true story it is based on—but this is how opera thrives.

June 23, 2023
The Last Mystery

The Last Mystery

History is a story that is at once true and false, a story in which truth sometimes requires us to record a falsehood, if only so we do not forget that a falsehood was once told. 

June 22, 2023
Profiles in Zionism

Profiles in Zionism

A new book traces the words and deeds of eight leaders who devoted their lives to their fellow Jews.

Land of Upsets and Upheavals

Land of Upsets and Upheavals

A segment of Spanish society—the Left’s leaders, if not their voters—has been too quick to paper over the difference between lawful politics and violence.

Dialogues des Carmélites: A Stupendous Revival in Vienna

Dialogues des Carmélites: A Stupendous Revival in Vienna

Bernanos and Poulenc dare us to ask why men of differing opinions would condemn their fellow men to death, leading to new waves of chaos and destruction.

June 10, 2023
Digging for Spanish Gold

Digging for Spanish Gold

Robbins’ study of the Golden Age might be called a work of skepticism in that it “refuses to create a unitary narrative, a single interpretive vision” of the period, but instead dissects it piecemeal under a microscope.

June 8, 2023