A.J. Goldmann

Film, Music, Opera, Art & Theater Critic + European Cultural Correspondent @nytimes, @wsj, @ft, @jdforward, @vanmusicmag

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

It was a great honor to write the @nytimes obit for Alexander Kluge, a brilliant & influential artist & thinker whose work is too little known in the English-speaking world. Alexander Kluge, Lodestar in New German Cinema Movement, Dies at 94 https://t.co/y9TwXd5CXx via @NYTimes

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

When #berlinale76 jury president Wim Wenders suggested cinema is the opposite of politics, critics pounced.

But the controversy obscured a more interesting question: what exactly is a political film festival supposed to do?

My latest for @readliberties

https://t.co/1ad8DcYAOp

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

Though programmed long before the Salzburg’s current difficulties, Il Viaggio a Reims, about elegant people stranded en route to an official ceremony, acquired a certain resonance in a city where the cultural machinery has recently looked less than smooth https://t.co/5j6Nw70NnD

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

“The Berlinale’s political identity is strongest when controversy is not the end of the story, and when political urgency is not mistaken for moral simplification.” https://t.co/1ad8DcYAOp

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

A hearty Dankeschön / shayne dank to @readliberties & @Celestemarcus3 for letting me go long for this in-depth report from the 76th Berlin Film Festival, the strangest and most heated edition in recent memory.

[Liberties Journal of Culture and Politics @readliberties]

"Over the past three quarters of a century, the Berlinale has a record of debuting, and awarding, politically important, and often divisive, films." So what happened?
Read @ajgoldmann on politics vs the Berlinale
https://t.co/sHi7lHBRmS

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

I reviewed Barrie Kosky’s exuberant production of Il viaggio a Reims that headlined Cecilia Bartoli’s Salzburg Whitsun Festival for @ParterreBox, weighing in, as well, on @SbgFestival’s recent past & uncertain future.

The Grand Salzburg Hotel - https://t.co/5j6Nw70NnD

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

A sensational Götterdämmerung last weekend in Bayreuth. Kent Nagano and @dresdenfestival’s orchestra + @ConcertoKoeln period performance was lucid, persuasive and dramatically gripping. Catch it if you can in Cologne (4 JUNE), Lucerne
(10 SEPTEMBER) or Paris
(13 SEPTEMBER)!

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

Dispirited by the dearth of comprehensive English-language appreciations of Valie Export, I decided to write my own in-depth obituary of the remarkable Linz-born feminist art, performance and film pioneer for my Substack, The Feuilleton.

https://t.co/doRF6D7pJl

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

One of the weirdest and most endearing of Cannes traditions. No matter what awesome beach / yacht party might be going on, the glitterati and the hoi polloi will always converge at le petit majestique at 3 a.m.

[Whit Stillman @WhitStillman]

Saturday night #Cannes2026 - the habitual street party for the less affluent outside Le Petit Majestic bar. (Biz types are at Le Mondrian - formerly Le Grand - nearby.)

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

This @nytimes "if opera is to survive" oped is bizarre. Instead of looking for a unicorn donor, @MetOpera should think about why they spend $326 million per season. For that $, Berlin sustains 3 opera houses (w/90+ titles, incl. 24 premieres) + a ballet! https://t.co/7FWs4sn8iR

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

No.

[Opera Today @operatoday]

Does This Man Have the ‘Most Difficult Job on Earth’? https://t.co/hSzdpDDCRo via @NYTimes

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

@THR Legendary?

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

To quote the Chinese (or was it Yiddish?) proverb, "may you sing in nebulous times..."

https://t.co/nuMM3PrgBP

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

Florentina Holzinger tells @friezeofficial performance @la_Biennale is "fucking challenging." "You need to hustle like a motherfucker. I come from statefunded systems & suddenly I’m busy w/private funding & sponsors. I know I’ll have to make compromises."
https://t.co/aBpwcIEhLC

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

It’s about bloody time! https://t.co/VkkTsQRxKm

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

For @jdforward, some reflections on my first @la_Biennale Arte opening, the controversies surrounding Israel and Russia’s participation, the politization of art, and an organizational structure that increasingly seems like a shining artifact of the past.
https://t.co/cgwVmI1Y5x

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

RIP VALIE EXPORT (1940–2026)

[Cahiers du cinéma @cahierscinema]

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Notre traditionnel tableau des étoiles est en ligne sur le site des Cahiers du cinéma : https://t.co/dKEB5HWIhI

Chaque jour, la rédaction partage ses notes des films vus lors de ce 79ème Festival de Cannes, toutes sections confondues.

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

“Giotto and St. Francis” at the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia, is a cultural high point of the Jubilee Year of St. Francis, proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV to honor the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death

https://t.co/tYFTFTzD2L

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

Naturally, the first opera I reviewed for @FT was going to be a world premiere (no pressure, whatsoever...) @bay_staatsoper #BrettDean #BSOoneblood

https://t.co/DsFcypdR0k

[A.J. Goldmann @ajgoldmann]

Here's a gift link to my FT Weekend article about Kent Nagano's historically-informed "Wagner Cycles," which nears completion later this month at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele ahead of full "Ring" performances next year, in Vienna & Shanghai.

https://t.co/NmNNIni5K3