W. L. Taitte

A Fan in Exile

One man’s long-distance love affair with the New York City Ballet.

Sixteen Strings

As befits masterpieces, Beethoven’s string quartets have been recorded a hundred times. Our trusty critic guides the novice through a maze of choices.

Trial by Piano

Why knock yourself out for two grueling weeks at a piano competition in Fort Worth? For $12,000—and a string of concert bookings money can’t buy.

The Neon Lights Are Bright in Dallas

Dallas productions of The Elephant Man and Children of a Lesser God proved that Broadway is getting closer to home.

The Kingfish Revisited

Mozart Is As Mozart Was

Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are two centuries apart, but their ideas about music are exactly the same.

A Good Catch

Schrenkeisens’ is so elegant you’ll think you’re in the big city, but the fish is so fresh you know you’re on the coast. Ninfa’s runs thirteen Mexican restaurants across Texas, and amazingly, they can all cook.

Miracle on Main Street

Le Select gives Houston fine French cooking in simple surrounds and at unbeatable prices; Hedary’s, a Lebanese outpost in Fort Worth, offers adventurous Cowtowners some exotic alternatives to beef.

China Towns

In San Antonio, everything that glitters is in the Golden Palace, where the food is as gaudy as the décor. Austin’s OMei China gives you a zap on the mouth.

Mr. Nice Guy Takes the Baton

The San Antonio symphony is beleaguered. Conductor Lawrence Smith is well mannered. They’re both mediocre.

Marty Martin, Marty Martin

A young Austin playwright is making a name for himself by writing plays about famous people.

French Toasts

Two new restaurants in Dallas and Houston will save you a trip to Paris.

Going for Baroque

Dallas Civic Opera lured audiences back to the eighteenth century with its American premiere of Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso.

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Lighting a stage for an operatic performance isn’t just a matter of flipping a switch.

High Texana

Alan’s Texas Cafe in Austin is good eats with Alan; Don’s in Houston has Cajun food worth ragin’ about.

Home, Bittersweet Home

An Alley Theatre world premiere, To Grandmother’s House We Go was a play about family foibles that really hit home.

Cowboys and India

Beef is king at Cattlemen’s in Fort Worth; food fit for a rajah is yours at Houston’s Taj Mahal.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

These recordings of Christmas carols and cantatas will help ye rest merry.

Man on Bass

A double basist leads a singular life.

Bordeauex Patrol

A loaf of bread, a glass of wine, and though hast a wine bar.

A Fan’s Notes

Arnold Shoenberg is the century’s most maligned composer, but to know him is to love him.

Shock Tactics

Houston’s Equinox Theatre has fine actors and directors, but its raunchy sex and violence can make you squirm. The nineteenth-century Granbury Opera House is a fetching setting for Texas Meg.

Lasagne and Old Lace

Try pasta and veal at Sergio’s in Dallas—that’s Italian! For an outstanding Sunday brunch, put your stock in Austin’s Green Pastures.

Bring Home the Bach

Mozart and Beethoven made an appearance, but Johann Sebastian was the guest of honor at Victoria’s annual Bach Festival.

Grape Days Coming

Move over, Jett Rink. The West Texas wildcatter may give way to a new breed: the West Texas vintner.

Magic Wands

Two guest conductors in Texas are wizards at their work; three Houston Grand Opera productions are enchanting.

Once More With Fonda

When NBC televised The Oldest Living Graduate, it broadcast the flaws of live TV drama. Theatre Three’s Second Stage Festival deserved a larger viewing audience.

Stir-fried and Refried

You can find the spice of your life at Uncle Tai’s in Houston; you don’t have a choice at Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth - except good, reliable Tex-Mex.

The Little Symphony That Could

The Texas Little Symphony’s April concert was no whistle-stop - it was Carnegie Hall. Two chamber groups, Voices of Change and Syzygy, take the Twentieth Century Limited.

Chief of Staff

A Dallas composer is reviving medieval music in a modern context, while two new classical groups attempt a chamber music renaissance.

The Late Reign of Francois Huybrechts

When the San Antonio Symphony fired its brilliant and popular young conductor, it produced a cacophony of artistic and political discord.

All Show and No Souffle

While the Pyramid Room in Dallas relies on pomp, two of its rivals in French dining are putting foot before pretension.

Putting On the Don

One man’s lifelong quest for the perfect recording of Mozart’s masterpiece.

Theater in a Suitcase

On its Houston stop, the Acting Company unpacked performances for Texas theaters to live up to. Austin’s Center Stage is in the know but lacks the how.

The Foreign Legion

Dallas Civic Opera is a grand old lady who knows her European opera. But sometimes she gets a little senile.

The Vanishing Steak

Beefing and chewing the fat about a rare pleasure that’s almost done for.

Life After SMU

When Stage #1 opened as a halfway house for theater graduates from SMU, the participants weren’t pitied but applauded.

The Trill of It All

Houston and Dallas opera companies could fudge on shoe sizes when it came to casting Cinderellas, but the voices had to fit just so.

Why the Alley?

For the sake of the audience, it’s a question that needs to be asked. College productions of A Doll’s House show why actors go to school. Fort Worth has good actors and good producers—but not, alas, in the same theater.

The Ultimate Croissant

With open arms—that is, mouths—Texas welcome a new breed of bakery.

The Big Loser

A young Russian defector blows his chance to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and goes on to find fame and fortune.

Three’s Company

Some Texas funny people get serious about their jokes.

Semiconductors

The leaders of Houston and Dallas symphony orchestras start off the season with two perplexing concert series.

Cutups

Can’t hull a strawberry? Can’t boil an egg? Can’t wash leafy vegetables? Relax. Help is on the way.

It’s a Lulu!

Even incomplete, Lulu was a great opera. Now it’s finished, and Santa Fe Opera got the stage the coveted U.S. premiere.

The Zest is History

Texas, our Texas, all hail the mighty state-audiences applaud history plays in Galveston and Palo Duro Canyon.

Who Needs Nelson Eddy?

Houston Grand Opera’s spring festival of operettas proved that golden-voiced, handsome men aren’t out of style. Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Mahler festival had its good days and its bad days.

Counter Culture

Strawberry sodas, vanilla Cokes, grilled cheese sandwiches. That’s what we love about soda fountains.

After the Honeymoon

Talent marries business sense at Dallas’ Theater Onstage.

Talent Clout

Houston Opera Studio’s students learn their way into the limelight.