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- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 24
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- ART
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- RICHARD POUSETTE-DART: A RETROSPECTIVE, Indianapolis Museum
- of Art. Overshadowed by such contemporaries as De Kooning and
- Pollock, the pioneering Abstract Expressionist Pousette-Dart,
- 74, is here done belated and handsome justice. Through Dec. 30.
-
- THE WANDERERS: MASTERS OF 19TH CENTURY RUSSIAN PAINTING,
- Dallas Museum of Art. The Wanderers spurned the Moscow Academy
- and took their work to the Russian people in the form of touring
- shows, which became rallying points for social change. This
- exhibition gathers some 100 of their canvases, most never before
- shown or even reproduced in the U.S. Through Jan. 6.
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- MUSIC
-
- RUBAIYAT, ELEKTRA'S 40th ANNIVERSARY (Elektra). If a
- company has to give itself an anniversary toast, this is an
- intrepid -- and often amusing -- way to do it. Thirty-eight
- current Elektra artists (from Tracy Chapman to Metallica) polish
- up some tunes from Elektra's past and take them out for a
- Sunday drive. Surprise is constant on this 2-CD set,
- satisfaction frequent, and transcendence (as on Jackson Browne's
- version of First Girl I Loved) available on request.
-
- BRENDA FASSIE: BRENDA FASSIE (SBK). An American debut album
- with heavy credentials, having more to do with politics than
- music. Fassie and Nelson Mandela claim tribal kinship, but the
- first fleet sounds of the African-inflected,
- dance-floor-destined opening cut blow away any notions of
- obligation to genealogy, or to conscience. All on her own,
- Fassie's just fine.
-
- THE ISAAC STERN COLLECTION, VOLS. 1 & 2 (Sony Classical).
- These boxed sets, spanning the years 1946 to 1958, can serve as
- the foundation for a violin concerto library or as a reminder
- that, though he has de-emphasized his playto pursue benevolent
- causes, Stern is one of the truly great violinists of the
- century.
-
- MOVIES
-
- WHITE PALACE. James Spader and Susan Sarandon bring so much
- intelligence and redeeming prurient interest to this
- May-September romance that the movie is almost over before you
- realize it's just another story of rich boy falling for poor
- woman. Say this, though: when it's hot, it's hot.
-
- JACOB'S LADDER. Vietnam vet Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is
- seeing things: whirling heads, killer cars, villains everywhere.
- Is he a conspiracy victim? Or is he dead? And if so, will any
- moviegoer care? Adrian Lyne's revved-up spook show plays like
- a Twilight Zone episode on steroids.
-
- HIDDEN AGENDA. This contentious melodrama blames British
- intelligence for everything from political murders in Northern
- Ireland to sabotage of the Wilson and Heath governments. But
- even conspiracy buffs may find it hard to be stirred by Ken
- Loach's dour direction. Paranoia deserves better than this.
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- TELEVISION
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- COP ROCK (ABC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m. EST). Steven Bochco's
- much hyped experiment seems doomed unless the ratings pick up.
- Catch it while you can: the station-house drama is compelling, a
- few musical numbers have clicked, and the rest of the fall
- season is a bore.
-
- IT (ABC, Nov. 18 and 20, 9 p.m. EST). Childhood friends
- return to their hometown to battle an evil force that takes the
- shape of a clown. TV rarely ventures into real horror, and this
- clunky mini-series based on Stephen King's novel shows why.
- There are more shudders in an average episode of Twin Peaks.
-
- WALL STREET WEEK WITH LOUIS RUKEYSER (PBS, Nov. 19, 10 p.m.
- on most stations). TV's longest-running business-news show
- celebrates its 20th anniversary with an hour-long special.
-
- THEATER
-
- TWELFTH NIGHT. "Journeys end in lovers meeting," Feste
- sings, defining in a phrase all stage comedy. Fans have the
- choice of journeying to fine productions on either coast --
- Riverside Shakespeare's traditional staging in New York City or
- La Jolla Playhouse's innovative yet respectful one in
- California.
-
- SUBFERTILE. The biological clock is ticking, loudly. You're
- nearing 40. Your wife wants a baby, but your sperm count is
- lower than your I.Q. What to do? Abetted by a talented quartet
- of supporting players, actor-dramatist Tom Mardi rosian has
- fashioned a frequently hilarious narrative from his own mid-life
- fertility crisis. At Manhattan's Playwrights Horizons.
-
- BOOKS
-
- UNDER GOD: RELIGION AND AMERICAN POLITICS by Garry Wills
- (Simon & Schuster; $24.95). Conservatives find Wills too
- liberal, and liberals complain that he is too conservative. Thus
- this book should displease everyone -- except millions of
- churchgoing Americans, who do not have to read it because they
- know what Wills takes more than 400 pages to point out: the U.S.
- remains an avidly religious nation.
-
- A HOLE IN THE WORLD by Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster;
- $19.95). An autobiography of modest dimensions but classic
- proportions about growing up in the Midwest with a wicked
- stepmother and a see-no-evil father, and how the author and his
- brother were saved when they went to live on a farm for orphaned
- boys.
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- TOP-CLASS TENORS
-
- A concert of the century, like a heavyweight fight of the
- century, seems to come around every decade or so, but last
- summer's knockout at the Caracalla Baths in Rome might merit the
- title. There, ranged amicably before the picturesque ruin, were
- the three leading tenors of our day -- Luciano Pavarotti, Jose
- Carreras and Placido Domingo -- singing everything from opera
- arias to pop songs, fronting two Italian orchestras led by Zubin
- Mehta. Now comes the record, THE THREE TENOR CONCERT (London).
- Back from his bout with leukemia, Carreras sounds fit in (among
- other things) an aria by Francesco Cilea and Agustin Lara's
- famous Granada. The reliable Domingo chips in with a sturdy E
- lucevan le stelle from Puccini's Tosca. But the winner and still
- champion is Pavarotti. Whether the King of the High C's is
- letting 'em rip on his British pop-chart hit, Nessun dorma (from
- Turandot) or O Sole Mio, Pavarotti's Sunday punch is still
- without equal.
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- By TIME's Reviewers. Compiled by Andrea Sachs.
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