Preludes: Taming the Past

I wanted to see Preludes at Lincoln Center Theater the minute I heard about it. A musical about Sergei Rachmaninoff's three-year writer's block brought on by the botched premiere of his first symphony, and the hypnotherapist who saved him? That's for me. Where the arts are concerned, I have a fascination with the past that goes beyond curiosity. I want to live in it as deeply as I can, in order to experience it, as nearly as I can. I want to hear Louis Armstrong at the Roseland Ballroom with the...