Have Mandolin Will Travel

My review / analysis of Opera Orlando's 2024 production of Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth . I look at the Opera Orlando production in specific and the opera as an adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

A look at four film versions of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. I was originally just going to watch 1 version, but lost control of the assignment and watched Macbeth (1979) , The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) , Macbeth (2015), and Macbeth (1971) in a week. This is the first in a series of 4 episodes about the play and its adaptations.

A look at two Japanese period films. Both deal with war and its consequence on regular folk. Ugetsu is explicitly a ghost story and Onibaba is about desperation and moral degradation with an ambiguous supernatural element.

A deep dive into James Gunn's 2025 film Superman . Spoiler: I love this one. I think it's the best Superman film by a good margin and it's probably my favorite movie in quite a while.

My traumatic experience watching both versions of Zack Snyder's 2016 disaster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I take a close look at the myriad writing problems and filmmaking issues with this train wreck. And I say the f word a lot...

A dive into the 2013 Superman film Man of Steel , directed by Zack Snyder. I both like this movie and don't think it's all that good and I take a look at some of the reasons why. (It's almost good...)

A look at Opera Orlando's 2025 production of Scott Joplin's 1910 opera Treemonisha . This opera was lost for decades and doesn't get performed very often; the Opera Orlando production was Treemonisha's Florida premier.

A look at Orlando Ballet's May 2024 performance "Casanova," a ballet by Kenneth Tindall based on the biography "Casanova: Actor Lover Priest Spy" by Ian Kelly. This was the US premier of the work and, spoiler, I really liked it.

The first in a 3 part series looking at my Lorem Ipsum Christmas EP, released on Nov 29, 2025. This episodes is about the EP conception in general and focuses on the tracks "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "O Holy Night."

The second in a 3 part series about my Lorem Ipsum Christmas EP, released on Nov 29, 2025. This episode focuses on my original song "Maybe Next Year (Christmas 1914)," a song inspired by the real life Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War I.

The final episode in a 3 part series about my Lorem Ipsum Christmas EP, which released on Nov 29, 2025. This episode focuses on the writing and paleontology of "The 12 Tyrannosaurs of Christmas," my version of the traditional "The 12 Days of Christmas." T.rex forever!

A look at Leo Tolstoy's masterful Anna Karenina , one of my favorite novels. I talk about the writing mechanics and share some thoughts about the title character.

A deep dive into Superman, my favorite superhero, focused on how he appears in his comics. I talk about his character, his humanity, and what he stands for as well  a bunch of stuff I like about him, including stuff that people who only know him from pop culture osmosis may not know.

A quick rundown / re-introduction to my ongoing classical music project, where I resurrect nearly forgotten pieces of music that have no extant recordings. I heard recently at an Orlando Philharmonic event that less than 1% of music survives. Doing my small part to get that number up....

This is a deep dive into / review of Opera Orlando's 2025 production of "La Boheme," set in 1930s Shanghai. Spoiler: It was both very good and very interesting.

Hello! I'm Matt Juliano and this is a little bit about what to expect from the Have Mandolin Will Travel podcast, a podcast focused on music, film, live theater, books, comics, and whatever other creative endeavors tickle my fancy.

A look at Ryan Coogler's fantastic 2025 film "Sinners" where I talk about the filmmaking and its themes and ideas. Originally published on havemandolinwilltravel.com on Sept 14, 2025.