Fishko Files

Many decades ago, in the midst of another period of turmoil and uncertainty, concerned citizens and artists took their cameras into the streets to document real life. (Produced in 2011) 

Sviatoslav Richter was born in March 1915 - and he was an astonishing, original, non-conforming, charismatic, mesmerizing pianist, says WNYC's Sara Fishko, in this archival Fishko Files. (Produced in 2005 and updated in 2015)

As you may have noticed, says WNYC’s Sara Fishko, the new production of West Side Story has sharply divided the critics, who’ve been using a range of adjectives to describe it - from “gutsy and exhilarating” to “infuriating!” When the show was brand new, in 1957, the creators then, too, awaited the reviews. The late Arthur Laurents, who wrote the original, is the guest for this edition of Fishko Files.

The Whitney's new show Vida Americana reveals the impact of Mexico’s revolutionary art of the '20s on American realism - and it has WNYC's Sara Fishko thinking about one of Mexico’s most radical composers of that period. More in this archival Fishko Files. (Produced in 2002) 

Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945 continues through May 17.

David Lang’s one-act opera The Loser tells the story of two fictional piano students - both Glenn Gould wannabes - whose lives are turned upside down by their idolatry and frustration. Just before the work’s premiere in 2016, WNYC’s Sara Fishko spoke to Lang for this Fishko Files.

David Lang's The Loser has just been released digitally and on CD.

This Sunday will mark 70 years since a speech by Senator Joseph McCarthy cranked up America's post-World War II, anti-Communist crusade - and set in motion something known as McCarthyism. WNYC's Sara Fishko has more in this episode of Fishko Files.

One of the most eccentric and interesting artistic partnerships of the 20th century, as WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, was the collaboration between the composer Virgil Thomson and the writer and poet Gertrude Stein. Together, the two were instrumental in inventing American opera. More, in this episode of Fishko Files.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's production of The Mother of Us All, 100 years after the 19th amendment, begins Saturday, February 8, with four performances through February 14.

Thanks to Karen Ludwig for her reading of Gertrude Stein's poem "A Substance in a Cushion."

As the Met Opera's production of Porgy and Bess enters its final weeks, WNYC's Sara Fishko sorts through the long, checkered history of the piece in this archival Fishko Files - produced during the polarizing 2012 Broadway revival.

Porgy and Bess continues at the Met Opera through February 15.

Coming up in two weeks: New York Fashion Week! From WNYC’s Sara Fishko is this archival Fishko Files, with a little history.

It's forty years since Stanley Kubrick's The Shining showed us just what the remarkable Steadicam could do to our perception and sense of movement. This archival Fishko Files tells the story of its invention, the product of an unlikely obsession by a frustrated cameraman on a mission to perfect! (Produced in 2016)