It was sad news, opening an email and finding that Steve Spice was dead. He wrote freelance for the Shepherd Express for nearly 20 years, specializing in opera but also reviewing theater and occasionally contributing a long essay on film. His final piece, as it turned out, was an article on Alfred Hitchcock published at the end of last year. He didn’t intend it to be his last. He died at home, suddenly, on Saturday, March 2.
Steve was an older gentleman more confined to the house in the last years than he’d like but his mind was unchanged. His passing was a shock because his desire to live was evident as recently as the Thursday before his death when we last spoke. Steve knew as much as anyone in Milwaukee about his two favorite subjects: classic opera, meaning Mozart through Puccini; and classic Hollywood, which he reckoned as roughly 1938 through 1948. He tolerated Baroque opera and silent-early talking pictures because they were necessary preludes to the things we really loved.
As for operas composed since Turandot or films more recent than All About Eve, Steve took a stern view. The surprise was when he liked (much less loved) anything new because his standards were as impossibly narrow as they were high. His love of Brokeback Mountain helped convince me that it was a great film, entirely apart from its subject matter.
We argued as much as we agreed but we shared at least one conclusion: we are not currently living in the golden age of anything. I will miss him.
A tribute to Steve Spice will be broadcast 3:30-4 p.m. March 7 on Riverwest Radio, 104.1 FM. A memorial-fellowship will be held 1-5 p.m., March 8 at Wisconsin Memorial Park, 13235 W. Capital Drive.
