PERFORMANCE

Long Island Ballet Theater
The Nutcracker

Tonight we had an adventure.  The ballet student living in our building that we've grown quite close to was performing in The Nutcracker in Port Washington.  It was a one hour train ride on the Long Island Railroad to the theater in Port Washington.  It was a community presentation that was really good and fun.  Young children were welcomed in the audience and the presentation was a great deal of fun.

http://www.liballettheatre.com

We went with a small group of friends and the train ride was a great way to get around the metropolitan area.

CABARET

The Metropolitan Room
Ken Slavin - Singer

Ken Slavin is a dear, longterm friend of ours from San Antonio.  He's played several times at The Metropolitan Room and we're getting to hear and see him perform this evening.

When: Saturday, Nov 29, 2014 9:30 PM (Doors open at 9:00 PM)

Ticket Price: $25.00 - $115.00

Door Time: 9:00 PM

Show Type: Jazz

Restrictions: 2 Beverage Minimum

Ken Slavin: I've Got a Crush on New York Town

Texas-based jazz crooner Ken Slavin returns for his third engagement at the Metropolitan Room on Thanksgiving Weekend.  Come see and hear why Ken is creating excitement on New York area radio stations and across the country with his new CD recorded right here: "You Gotta Have Heart: Ken Slavin LIVE at The Metropolitan Room in New York City."

As always, you can expect an intimate and highly enjoyable show of great standards and jazz classics that will leave you tapping your feet, snapping your fingers and shouting for more!  There will even be some swingin' Holiday

classics thrown in for good measure!

His sound has been compared to Tony Bennett, Johnny Hartman, Mel Torme and other greats. One reviewer dubbed him “Mr. Tuxedo Voice.” Texas Monthly says he’s one of the “Swing Set.” In reality, Ken's voice, persona and performance style put him in a category all his own. But no matter how you describe him, there isn’t anybody on today’s music scene quite like jazz crooner KEN SLAVIN.

Long before the current crop of young interpreters of classic jazz and the Great American Songbook embarked on their careers, Ken was singing the classics while working the microphone and building a fan base deep in the heart of Texas - in the culturally diverse and vibrant city of San Antonio, which is now the seventh largest metro area in the country.  He performs regularly in San Antonio and in Austin - the musical capital of the Lone Star State.  He also has sung as far north as Alaska and as far south as Mexico City!

A late bloomer who had his first professional gig at age 29, he has racked up numerous awards and glowing reviews across the country and overseas.  His CDs are programmed on many traditional and internet radio stations in the USA and Europe.  His critically acclaimed "I'll Take Romance" has been spotlighted on programs from Alaska to New York and as far away as the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, New Zealand, Portugal, France and Mexico - and is currently programmed on the "Singers and Swing" channel of cable TV's Music Choice network, headquartered in New York City.  It is also a Spotify and Apple iTunes favorite.

Ken has opened for such jazz legends as The Four Freshmen, Eddie Palmieri, Dee Dee Bridgewater, David Sanborn and Chico Hamilton.  He also has performed in concert with the internationally acclaimed Jim Cullum Jazz Band (famous for its National Public Radio program, “Riverwalk, Live From The Landing”), and has given private performances for Grammy Award winners Helen Reddy and Vikki Carr. His unique interpretations of jazz, pop, blues and Spanish language classics and his charismatic stage presence have made him the top male jazz vocalist in South Texas - popular everywhere from the "country club set" and sophisticated nightspots to jazz festivals and college campuses.

SAMPLE REVIEWS:

"I looked you up on YouTube and really like the way you sing, with feeling and emotion, especially the New York medley.  I have never heard the 'I've Got a Crush on New York' tune....thank you for drawing my attention to your singing, and I hope to see and hear you soon in person." - REX REED, NEW YORK OBSERVER

"When jazz singer Ken Slavin went to New York City for a Halloween night gig, he didn't mess around. Not only did Slavin land a return engagement . . . he ended up with a live CD, “You Gotta Have Heart: Ken Slavin Live at The Metropolitan Room in New York” . . . The disc sounds great. Working with Ehud Asherie (piano), Joel Forbes (bass) and Phil Stewart (drums), Slavin turned in a night of classics including “I Love Being Here With You,” “The Way You Look Tonight” and a first-class New York medley. Slavin was in fine voice, the band cooked and Brake Brake (recording engineer) captured it beautifully. When live shows go well, they're tough to beat. New York City agrees with the man." - JIM BEAL, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"It is obvious, listening to 'You Gotta Have Heart' and his previous recording, 'I’ll Take Romance,' that Ken Slavin loves to sing. His enthusiasm is infectious, he has a real understanding for the lyrics that he interprets and he

swings. His voice is excellent, he has a fine range and he is always in-tune . . . 'You Gotta Have Heart' was recorded at the Metropolitan Room in New York and it is apparent throughout this set that he is thrilled to be singing in the Big

Apple.  With tasteful and sympathetic support supplied by pianist Ehud Asherie, bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Phil Stewart (all of whom also have occasional short solos), Ken Slavin is heard at his best . . . Whether one considers Ken Slavin to be a jazz singer or a cabaret performer (he fits into both areas), it is indisputable that he is a very good singer, one well worth discovering." -- SCOTT YANOW, LOS ANGELES JAZZ SCENE, NOTED JAZZ HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR (The Jazz Singers, Swing, Jazz On Film and Jazz On Record 1917-76, among many others.)

"Jazz and cabaret singer Ken Slavin has what it takes to make hearts melt: a deep baritone voice that fills the room and a sincere approach to lyrics that reach out tenderly with genuine passion. . . Slavin feels as comfortable with

Brazilian romance as he does with Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Harold Arlen: honoring a timeless songbook that will never be forgotten." – JIM SANTELLA, CADENCE MAGAZINE

"I heard Ken stop the room...literally one of the most difficult rooms to stop in New York City and perhaps the entire world. This crowd never asks for encores, but they asked for two from Ken that night. I'll never forget it.” – CLINT BROWNFIELD, travel writer for THE NEW YORK POST and other major publications (After watching Ken sit in at a packed open-mic night at The Townhouse in Manhattan

"Like a comedian careening through a familiar joke, Slavin has incredible control over the pacing and melodic intricacies of the best pages of the [Great American Songbook]. But, Slavin and company don’t stick exclusively to

standards—towards the end of the evening, he and the trio bring out a great lounge rendition of Robert Johnson’s “Everyday I Have the Blues. . . Recorded on Halloween night ["You Gotta Have Heart"] features pianist Ehud Asherie, bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Phil Stewart—all NY players. . . Before his closing number “Mack the Knife,” Slavin gives a little personal history of his bond with the Kurt Weill tune . . Cool without sounding corny, Slavin burns up-tempo through the violence of [that song] far away from the San Antonio River Walk tourist crowd in time, space and recognition" - MATT STIEB, SAN ANTONIO CURRENT.

 "Stunning . . . and his appearance matches his voice - it's quality . . . Wonderful! . . . the perfect punctuation point to an enjoyable evening."  - JOANNE GOOD, HOST OF "LATE NIGHT WITH JOANNE GOOD" ON BBC LONDON 94.9 FM  (Ken was invited to appear on her radio program while on a promotional trip to London in 2011.)

"When it comes to crooning in the classic jazz/pop tradition, Ken Slavin has no peers." – SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"Ken's 'I'll Take Romance' is simply stunning. . . I haven't heard "But Beautiful" done so well since Billie Holiday." - JIMMY R. SMITH, 'FRESH BEATS,' THIS WEEK IN TEXAS

"Slavin is making inroads in the worldwide music scene...a remarkable talent -- a voice that has been variously described as 'velvety,' 'sultry,' 'clear,' and 'rich' -- combined with his showmanship, have gained notice as far away as

France and Portugal. Slavin says he is a Texas performer looking to break out. The way he's going, it won't be too long before his wish comes true." - SCENE IN SA MONTHLY

"Ken Slavin’s got some pipes and he knows how to use them. Attend a show and you are likely to fall in love – not only with his sultry voice, but also with that mile-wide, boyish grin and those handsome good looks. Slavin is funny, charming and works hard to ensure the entire audience has a great time.” – MISI WOOLARD, “ART & SOUL,” NORTH SAN ANTONIO TIMES

“A sultry, late-night ode to love, ‘I’ll Take Romance’ is a seductive 16-song collection that features both the lushest texture (particularly with the string-laden bookends “Thoughts of Your Smile” and “I’ll Take Romance”) and the

most intimate, casual vibe ever heard on a Slavin album...More than most contemporary interpreters of the Great American Songbook, Slavin delights in turning his material sideways, making even the most familiar tunes sound like new discoveries...” - GILBERT GARCIA, MUSIC EDITOR, SAN ANTONIO CURRENT

THEATER

The Blackbox Theater
The Seagull - Anton Chekhov

A week ago we saw "Sense and Sensibilities" by Jane Austen performed by the Bedlam Theater Group.  For that I included a review by the noted critic, Ben Brantley.  Today we are going to see "The Seagull" by Anton Chekhov by the same Bedlam Theater Group.  I include another review by a different critic.

The Bedlam Theater Group is one of the most creative, entertaining performance we've enjoyed since coming to New York.  I encourage you to visit our 2/22/14 and 3/1/14 posts to see about St. Joan by George Bernard Shaw and Hamlet by Shakespeare.

This is way off Broadway.  In fact, it's down near SOHO and the West Village.

Bedlam Overtakes Jane Austen

Posted: 11/21/2014 2:17 pm EST Updated: 11/21/2014 2:59 pm EST

New York theatergoers with an adventurous spirit -- or mainstream theatergoers unafraid to venture off off Broadway when recommendations warrant -- are being rewarded this month with special treats of high quality and relatively low price.

The Bedlam Theatre Company raised eyebrows and earned huzzahs last season with its four-actor productions of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and Shakespeare's Hamlet. I didn't see Hamlet, as I only discovered Bedlam the final weekend of its run. Saint Joan, though, was smashingly good; stripped of its trappings and the two-dozen actors normally needed to present it, Shaw's central ideas were searingly presented in a direct, immediate and exciting manner.

Bedlam is back, in a basement space on Bleecker Street near the Bowery, for a second season. To the considerable number of theatergoers who heard great things about Bedlam last year but didn't get there, I can only say: go! This time, the brave young company is presenting Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, in a translation by Kate Hamill; and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, in a translation by Anya Reiss. Both are performed by ten accomplished actors who seem delighted to be spending the evening with you.

Working in a bare space with minimal scenery and props, Bedlam purposely brings their intimate audience -- they are happy with eighty bodies in the seats -- into direct contact with the actors and thus the characters. Both plays are presented in a rectangle of a space in what seems to be a church basement. (Technically, this is the Black Box Theatre of The Sheen Center.) Sense and Sensibility begins as the cast, in rehearsal clothes, mingle with patrons seated on chairs surrounding the playing area. Rock music is heard, and the actors fall into a contemporary dance. Within moments, they move into somewhat more formalized lines, and haphazardly start dropping articles of clothing to reveal nineteenth century underdressing; within moments, they are magically dancing a Pump Room gavotte and we are fully in Austen-time.

Sense and Sensibility -- Austen's first published novel -- is the comedy of manners about the Dashwood sisters of Norland Park, Elinor (with a full store of common sense) and Marianne (filled with sensibility, or emotion). Cheated out of their inheritance and forced from the family home by a rapacious sister-in-law, they pull through and form happy alliances while novelist Austen entertains us with her sharply-drawn character studies. One of the pleasures of Austen's novels is her ability to dissect characters with a mere sentence or two. Part of the sparkle of this adaptation is that Author Hamill (who also plays Marianne) and director Eric Tucker (who plays the larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Jennings) are able to translate Austen's sharp pencil to the stage.

Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility is unalloyed joy altogether, with Andrus Nichols -- co-founder of Bedlam with Tucker, and the actress who was so memorable as Shaw's Joan -- at the play's center as Elinor. Delectable portrayals abound, including those from Jason O'Connell (as the earnest suitor Edward Ferrars and in a grand comic turn as his bluff brother, Robert); Samantha Steinmetz, in her guise as Anne Steele; Stephan Wolpert, who as Sir John Middleton seems to be channeling Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle; and Laura Baranik as nasty sister-in-law Fanny. But all of the actors contribute droll characterizations.

As for The Seagull, this will be covered more fully by my Huffington Post colleague but playgoers can feel confident in rushing to see either or both before the Bedlam season ends on December 21. Let me add that the Chekhov -- which retains the characters and names, but places them in contemporary times -- takes the play out of the realm of what Konstantin rails at as museum theatre ("three walls, some artificial light and seat a few hundred people down to watch people like them pretend to be people like them") and puts it in our laps. The actors are equally stellar here, with a special nod to Ms. Baranik as Nina and Mr. O'Connell as Trigorin.

At intermission of both Bedlam plays, I noticed a considerable portion of the audience quiz the house staff ("is the other play just as good!") and enthusiastically consult the schedule on the wall to see when they could return for more Bedlam. With tickets at $30 ($15 for students), you might want to pay a visit to Bleecker Street.

THANKSGIVING

 

LINCOLN CENTER

Avery Fisher Hall
New York Philharmonic

Mozart & Shostakovich

Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 8

Jaap van Zweden - Conductor
Sheryl Staples - Violin
Cynthia Phelps - Viola

The Mozart that we will be hearing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szMu8si_YYQ

The stage was completely filled for the Shostakovich with many of the world's best musicians.  To hear them as soloists and in total is a real thrill.  Their full sound is powerful.

THEATER

The Blackbox Theater
Sense & Sensibility - Jane AustenD

"Directed by Eric Tucker, Kate Hamill’s rollicking, highly theatrical, brand new adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters–the very sensitive Elinor, and the hypersensitive Marianne.  Set in gossipy 18th Century England, SENSE & SENSIBILITY examines our reactions (both reasonable and ridiculous) to societal pressures. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart?  This world premiere is presented by Bedlam, whose Off-Broadway repertory productions of SAINT JOAN and HAMLET last season, received critical acclaim and multiple award nominations.

SENSE & SENSIBILITY features: Laura Baranik, Nigel Gore, Kate Hamill, Andrus Nichols, Jason O’Connell, John Russell, Vaishnavi Sharma, Samantha Steinmetz, Eric Tucker, and Stephan Wolfert.  Runs in rotating repertory with THE SEAGULL.

Committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience BEDLAM creates theatre in a flexible, raw space and is interested in contemporary reappraisals of the classics, new writing and small-scale musical theatre.

The theatre we make always includes the audience. Storytelling is paramount to us. We believe that innovative use of space can collapse aesthetic distance and bring the audience into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life––inciting laughter and chaos, exciting thinking and recreating the thrill of lived experience."

Last season we attended two performance by Bedlam, Saint Joan by Shaw and Hamlet by Shakespeare.  They did both plays with all the characters with only 4 actors, 3 men and 1 woman!  They are very creative and very good.

Interestingly, we sat directly next to Ben Brantley, the theater critic for the New York Times.  Through his reviews, he literally makes and breaks shows in New York.



I will attach his review of the performance we saw when it's published.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Brantley

Here's Brantley's review...

THEATER | THEATER REVIEW

In Austen and Chekhov, a Test of Versatility

'Seagull' and 'Sense and Sensibility,' From Bedlam Company

SENSE & SENSIBILITY NYT Critics' Pick THE SEAGULL

By BEN BRANTLEYNOV. 26, 2014

Members of the troupe Bedlam in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel "Sense and Sensibility," in repertory with a new version of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” at the Sheen Center.

Gossip gallops in Bedlam’s invigorating stage version of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” which runs through Dec. 21 at the Sheen Center. The would-be and might-have-been lovers in this enchantingly athletic take on the perils of Austen-style courtship, adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Eric Tucker, find themselves pushed and pulled by the forces of speculation run rampant.

Why, a young woman can’t take tea with a friend without feeling that prying eyes and ears are pressed against the walls and windows, a sentiment to which the ensemble gives literal and very funny life. An ever-rising Babel of voices sometimes overrides the dialogue. And the scenery, which turns out to be highly mobile, has been mounted on casters, since it takes a well-oiled set of wheels to keep up with the velocity of rumor.

And you thought Jane Austen was all sedentary sitting around and sewing.

No troupe in New York these days rides the storytelling momentum of theater more resourcefully or enthusiastically than Bedlam. Last winter, using a cast of only four, this company performed Shaw’s “Saint Joan” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in repertory (also under Mr. Tucker’s direction), with an engrossing energy and narrative ingenuity that made these wordy, worthy dramas feel like suspenseful Olympic events.

Photo

From left, Nigel Gore, Jason O’Connell, Andrus Nichols and Stephan Wolfert, all part of the Bedlam company, in Kate Hamill’s adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” at the Sheen Center.

After that, you might think that Mr. Tucker and his producing director (and frequent leading lady) Andrus Nichols would retire to a spa for a year or two. But here they are again, fewer than 12 months later, alternating high-octane Austen with a loose-jointed production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” a play notorious for thwarting the most accomplished thespians.

The Bedlam “Seagull” isn’t the unconditional delightful that “Hamlet” and “Saint Joan” were and that “Sense and Sensibility” is. But it has an easygoing accessibility that suggests there’s no reason to be afraid of Anton Chekhov. Besides, it’s fun to see the same cast playing different characters, and in a relatively relaxed mode. After the dervishlike exertions required by “Sense and Sensibility,” this troupe’s “Seagull” almost feels like, to borrow another Russian play title, a month in the country.

Though a favorite of moviemakers in recent years (starting with Ang Lee’s sleeper hit “Sense and Sensibility” in 1995), Austen’s novels have never lent themselves naturally to the stage, even as drawing-room comedies. Their introspective heroines and sotto voce tone seem to call for the searching close-ups of cinema.

Ms. Hamill and Mr. Tucker have sidestepped the problem by transposing Austen into the key of Dickens. Theirs is a bouncy, jaunty take on Austen, with a 10-member cast taking on an assortment of roles that are always clearly defined, sometimes as graphically as caricatures by the Dickens illustrator Phiz.

“Heresy!” you might cry, especially if you happen to be a member of that fanatical tribe known as Janeites. Yet if this “Sense and Sensibility” offers a larger, less delicate canvas than the metaphoric “two inches of ivory” on which Austen said she composed, it also remains remarkably true to the values and priorities of its source.

A student required to read “Sense and Sensibility” as a class assignment should be able to pass an exam on that novel’s themes simply by attending this show (not that I am advocating such a shortcut, I promise). The classic Austen preoccupations with real estate, income, class, reputation and equilibrium in life are all rendered brightly and legibly here.

So is the dichotomy of the title, embodied by the elder Dashwood sisters, Elinor (Ms. Nichols) and Marianne (Ms. Hamill), who find their fortunes and matrimonial opportunities sadly reduced by the death of their father, who left his estate to their stepbrother. As the younger Marianne, Ms. Hamill (yes, our inventive playwright) exists in an entertaining state of feverish animation.

The wiser, older Elinor is more contemplative and restrained. But Ms. Nichols’s centered, nuanced performance gives her an emotional transparency that allows us to see that in Austen the quiet suffer as intensely as, and perhaps more sincerely than, the loud. And this Elinor is nicely partnered by Jason O’Connell as her hesitant, insecure aspiring suitor, Edward Ferrars.

Mr. O’Connell also shows up as Edward’s younger, swaggering brother, Robert, and though the costume remains the same, you have no difficulty telling one from the other. Such transitions are part of the joy of a Bedlam production. And just watch how Laura Baranik and Samantha Steinmetz, with the aid of that rolling furniture, conduct conversations between two older and younger sets of characters in a drawing room scene.

Most of the cast doubles, triples and quadruples in roles, including servants, foxhounds and members of that buzzing chorus of gossips. In “The Seagull,” each has only one part to play, and you can’t fully appreciate their flexibility unless you’ve seen them in the Austen as well.

Ms. Steinmetz, for example, is terrific as Medevenko, the whiny schoolteacher (and future husband of the depressive Masha, superbly played by Ms. Nichols, who I’m beginning to think can do anything). Mr. Tucker, who played a bustling, wagging-tongued dowager in “Sense,” also undergoes a sex change to become the brooding young playwright Konstantin in “The Seagull.” (Ms. Baranik is his punk-rock Nina.) And Vaishnavi Sharma, who is most convincing as the youngest and silliest of the Dashwood sisters, is equally so as the worldly, middle-aged actress Arkadina, Konstantin’s mother.

This “Seagull” has been adapted and modernized by the young British playwright Anya Reiss, who sets the play on the Isle of Man and makes freehanded use of cellphones, laptops and marijuana. As performed here, the production can feel a bit like a thoughtful, generous-spirited acting class.

Not everyone is equally well cast or equally at ease here. (Mr. O’Connell is as diffident playing Trigorin, the caddish novelist, as he is as Edward Ferrars.) But there’s something affecting about seeing pliable, willing performers taking on difficult roles — even roles that don’t naturally suit them — in such close quarters.

And while Bedlam doesn’t go in for a lot of self-conscious fourth-wall breaking, it prefaces both of its current productions by having the cast members roam casually among the audience. When they finally gather onstage, they dance a bit, free form, shaking out the kinks and inhibitions the way one often does at a party or discothèque. Costumes are donned and offed before our eyes.

This dancing is partly a warm-up for the cast members. But it’s also a way to relax the audience. “We’re all in this together,” they seem to be telling us. “We’re going to pretend we’re somebody else for a while, and we need you to believe us. Really, it’s going to be fun.” And with all our imaginations thus limbered up, the storytelling begins, at full gallop.

LINCOLN CENTER

Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Il Turco in Italia - Rossini

Juilliard Opera

We attend Rigoletto performed by Juilliard last season and it was wonderful.  This year's Il Turco in Italia was as good or better.

They are so young and so good.  The performance is first rate and they throw energy off the stage toward the audience.  The theater, the orchestra, the singers, the music make for a wonderful experience.

New York Times Review

MUSIC | OPERA REVIEW

Comic Complications Swathed in White Terry Cloth

‘Il Turco in Italia,’ a Rossini Romp by Juilliard

By ANTHONY TOMMASININOV. 20, 2014

Any shortlist of the most confusing plots in comic opera — and there is lots of competition — would place Rossini’s “Il Turco in Italia” right near, or even at, the top. That this daffy opera, introduced at La Scala in Milan in 1814, is such a tangle of romantic intrigue and overlapping story lines may be one reason it isn’t staged very often.

But “Turco” has a bold dramatic element that, if seized on in a good production, can make the opera seem a triumph of comedic ingenuity. This is how “Turco” came off in the lively, cleverly updated Juilliard Opera production that opened on Wednesday night at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, directed by John Giampietro and conducted by Speranza Scappucci.

The protagonist is a playwright who is under pressure to finish a farce but hobbled by writer’s block. In the original setting (a libretto by Felice Romani, adapted from an earlier work), the playwright arrives at a beachside Gypsy encampment near Naples, where he hopes to revive his creative juices. There, he finds a ready-made farcical plot in some people he encounters. In a “stroke of Pirandellian genius,” as the Italian opera scholar Philip Gossett calls it in his program note for this production, the playwright fashions a comedic tale before our eyes as we watch the goings-on with him.

In the Juilliard production, with sets by Alexis Distler and costumes by Sydney Maresca, the locale is shifted to a spa outside Naples in 1960, a place with white-lattice walls and a recessed hot tub. It looks so bright and inviting that you want to hop onstage and claim a poolside recliner. The Gypsies become a chorus of male and female spa attendants in matching red shirts and starched white pants.

With the playwright, sung by the suave, strong baritone Szymon Komasa, piecing the story together for us, suddenly “Turco,” with its ebullient and inventive music, seemed not just funny but almost followable. I think I have it straight.

Zaida, a sweet young woman, had been the contented lover of a Turkish prince, Selim. But her rivals convinced Selim that Zaida was unfaithful. So she has fled to Naples, where she works as a spa attendant. Meanwhile, Geronio, a well-off aristocrat, is anguished that Fiorilla, his flirtatious young wife, is continually inconstant. She has taken a new lover, Narciso. A Turkish ship arrives bearing none other than Selim. Fiorilla is immediately drawn to the prince, and the feeling is mutual, until Selim sees Zaida and realizes that he still loves her. Let me quit while I’m ahead.

Ms. Scappucci, the Italian conductor, whose education includes some years at Juilliard, drew energetic, stylish playing from the Juilliard Orchestra and excelled at performing on the harpsichord during the recitatives. Her accompaniments were a delightful mix of brusque chords and sly arpeggios. At 41, she seems on the cusp of a big international career.

The cast is delightful. The mezzo-soprano Kara Sainz brings vocal warmth and rich character to the role of the lovelorn Zaida. The soprano Hyesang Park’s bright, clear voice and impressive coloratura technique are ideal for Fiorilla. The lyric tenor Joseph Dennis is charming as Fiorilla’s current sideline lover, Narciso. Nathan Haller, another gifted tenor, is Albazar, Zaida’s supportive manager at the spa. Selim is the husky-voiced bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, a professional guest artist taking part in this student production. And my heart went out to Geronio, the duped husband of Fiorilla, as performed by the earnest, winning bass Daniel Miroslaw. In one scene, he and Selim, rivals over Fiorilla, wearing matching white bathrobes, start snapping coiled towels as each other, a locker-room brawl.

The production uses a scholarly 1988 edition of the score. Mr. Gossett explains in his program note that portions of “Turco” were farmed out by Rossini to an unknown assistant, and that various altered versions were performed during the composer’s lifetime. But that tale is even harder to unravel than the plot.

THEATER

The Pearl Theater
George Bernard Shaw - Major Barbara

Shaw writes plays to make statements.  This was a "discussion play" with many long dialogues.  It lasted 2 1/2 hours and we were never bored.

"When the charming weapons-manufacturer Andrew Undershaft goes toe-to-toe with his passionate daughter Barbara, a Major in the Salvation Army, over his “ill-gotten” fortune, it leads to the wager of the century. She is determined to save his soul—he is determined to open her eyes to a wider world. Their confrontation will knock their entire family’s moral compass up, down, and sideways, never to be the same again.

One of Shaw’s most beloved plays, MAJOR BARBARA offers a complex, comic, and challenging look at wealth and poverty, war and peace, and a wickedly funny appraisal of what it truly means to be “moral” in our modern world."

The temperature is in the low 20s today and unless a taxi is used, there's a bit of a walk to get to The Pearl.  It's worth it, though.  We've really enjoyed small theater.

LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Taffanel - Quintet in G minor for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn (1876)
Barber - Summer Music for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn, Op.31 (1956)
Dean - Polysomnography for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Piano (2007)
Poulec - Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon (1922, rev. 1945)
Mozart - Seranade in E-flat major for Winds, K. 375 (1781, rev. 1782)

"Treasures of the wind repertoire are celebrated in a program including Barber’s atmospheric Summer Music, which portrays the languid nature of the season, and Mozart’s lively Serenade, his earliest masterpiece for wind ensemble."

Do yourself a favor and hear and watch THE US MARINE BAND WIND ENSEMBLE play the Mozart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76fJWIZZ_f0

An interesting aside is that the horn player, Trevor Nuckols, is from South Texas.  We heard him in a competition at Juilliard when we first moved here.

http://www.chambermusicsociety.org/artists/artist/trevor_nuckols

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddnN7Q_yQo

Gilles Vonsattel , piano

Tara Helen O’Connor , flute

James Austin Smith , oboe

Stephen Taylor , oboe

David Shifrin , clarinet

Peter Kolkay , bassoon

Bram van Sambeek , bassoon

Romie de Guise-Langlois , clarinet

Trevor Nuckols , horn

Radovan Vlatković , horn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76fJWIZZ_f0

CHAMBER MUSIC

Merkin Concert Hall
An Die Musik

Mendelssohn - Octet for four violins, two violas and two cellos

Mozart - Quartet for piano and strings in G minor

Schubert - Trio for violin, viola and cello

Jerzy Sapaiyevski - Aesop Suite with Narration

The following video is "An Die Musik" by Schubert.  It's not on the program but it demonstrates the type of music being presented.

blob:https://www.youtube.com/d394b9cc-a674-4a38-abc6-894f18e6dc64

It will be a wonderful way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

An Die Musik has inspired audiences with their "ardent impetuosity, musical integrity, and fiery instrumental brilliance." - The New York Times

MUSEUM

The Frick

Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery

El Greco at the Frick Collection

The temperature today is in the mid-40s and there is little wind.  That makes for a good weather day.

Our goal was to visit the Frick Collection for two exhibits.  The route was riding the subway from Greeley Plaza to 59th & 5th that would put us off at the southeast corner of Central Park.  From there we walked through the park to The Mall and then over to 5th and the Frick.  While in the park we ate a foot long hotdog, a hamburger, and an order of fries.

Following the Frick we walked down 5th Avenue from around 72nd to 52nd to see the stores, lights, decorations, and windows along 5th Avenue.  We finished the journey by riding the bus home.

Following the museum's comments about the exhibits are some pictures of the park.  The interior garden is of the Frick.

 

From November 5, 2014, through February 1, 2015, the Frick will present ten masterpieces of painting from the Scottish National Gallery. The museum, one of the finest in the world, is distinguished for its holdings of works by the greatest masters of Western art and for its comprehensive collection of Scottish art. The upcoming exhibition will feature paintings from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries that invite illuminating comparisons to the Frick's permanent collection. Highlights include Botticelli'sThe Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child, which has never been exhibited in the United States, and Sargent's arresting portrait Lady Agnew of Lochnaw.

In 2015, the ten works will travel with an additional forty-five to the de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. This exhibition, Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland, will also draw upon the collections of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the two institutions that, along with the Scottish National Gallery, comprise the National Galleries of Scotland.

http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/scottish#sthash.MS1BChpx.dpuf

Henry Clay Frick had a deep appreciation for Spanish painting, particularly the work of El Greco, the extraordinary Greek artist who, after a brief period in Italy, spent most of his life in Toledo, Spain. Frick traveled to Spain twice and acquired three works by the artist between 1905 and 1913. Here they are displayed side by side for the first time in a presentation organized in concert with El Greco in New York(link is external) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Together, the two exhibitions show all of El Greco’s work in New York public collections and mark the 400th anniversary of the painter’s death. 

With this installation, the Frick continues its 2014 focus on the artist, which began with Men in Armor: El Greco and Pulzone Face to Face (August 5–October 26, 2014). 

http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/el_greco_frick#sthash.oei3W0gI.dpuf