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Lloyd Schwartz Lloyd Schwartz is the classical music critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
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The DVD Room

Classic Musicals on DVD

Fresh Air

Movie musicals usually get lumped together as a category. But classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says that a batch of original musicals from MGM and 20th-Century Fox, just released on DVD, reveals an array of categories that date back to the earliest sound films. The batch includes Till the Clouds Roll By, Summer StockDown Argentine Way and It's Always Fair Weather.

Classic Musicals on DVD

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The DVD Room

Busby Berkeley's Work on DVD

Fresh Air

Director and choreographer Busby Berkeley was noted for Hollywood musicals featuring lots of scantily clad show girls filmed from overhead in intricate kaleidoscopic patterns. After seeing some of these films again in a new DVD collection, our critic notices a connection between Berkeley and the avant-garde artists of an earlier generation.

Busby Berkeley's Work on DVD

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Art & Design

Dada at the National Gallery

Fresh Air

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz describes the first major American exhibition of Dadaist art at Washington's National Gallery of Art. The exhibition will be at the National Gallery of Art through May 14 and reopens at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC on June 11.

Dada at the National Gallery

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Review

Remembrances

Looking Back on Caldwell's Operatic Career

Fresh Air

American opera visionary Sarah Caldwell founded the Opera Company of Boston in 1958. The company's principal prima donna was Beverly Sills, and Placido Domingo was an unknown young tenor when he first sang with the company. Caldwell died on March 23 at the age of 82.

Looking Back on Caldwell's Operatic Career

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The DVD Room

Catching Vintage Jazz Tap on DVD

Fresh Air

Several recent DVD releases feature great black entertainers of the 20th century. For classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz, his favorites feature the great tap dance team of Harold and Fayard Nicholas.

Catching Vintage Jazz Tap on DVD

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The DVD Room

Prized 'Tales of Hoffmann' Opera on DVD

The 1951 film version of the Offenbach opera The Tales of Hoffmann, now on DVD, is recognized as a masterpiece of darkly fantastical storytelling from the British team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Prized 'Tales of Hoffmann' Opera on DVD

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Review

Music Reviews

Baltimore's Alsop Handles Brahms, Weill, Bernstein

Fresh Air

A disc devoted to concert music by Leonard Bernstein is among four recent releases from conductor Marin Alsop, the new director of the Baltimore Symphony. The recordings show Alsop handling Brahms with the London Symphony Orchestra, and two Kurt Weill symphonies with the Bournemouth Symphony.

Baltimore's Alsop Handles Brahms, Weill, Bernstein

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Cinderella, Animated and On Stage

Fresh Air

The classical story of Cinderella is being told on two DVDs that offer favorite versions of the tale. Walt Disney's Cinderella gives an animated view, while Image Entertainment is releasing the 1956 TV production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

Cinderella, Animated and On Stage

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Movies

'I Walked with a Zombie' and other Classic Films

Fresh Air

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz is also a horror movie fan. He reviews a new DVD collection of the horror films of producer Val Lewton. The films include The Leopard Man, Curse of the Cat People, and I Walked with a Zombie, along with six other films.

'I Walked with a Zombie' and other Classic Films

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Review

Arts & Life

'Swing Time' with Astaire and Rogers

Fresh Air

A new collection of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers DVDs from Warner Home Video is out, called the Astaire and Rogers Collection, Vol. 1. It includes "Top Hat" and "Swing Time."

'Swing Time' with Astaire and Rogers

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Review

Movies

Sleuthing and Imbibing with Style in 'Thin Man' DVDs

Fresh Air

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz steps outside his usual arena to review The Thin Man films of the 1930s and '40s. They have just been released on DVD.

Sleuthing and Imbibing with Style in 'Thin Man' DVDs

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