Thursday, May 30, 2019

Enjoying the 'Three Rs' of DSO Music

By Christine Facciolo

Forget the three Bs. The Delaware Symphony Orchestra (DSO) capped off its 2018-19 season with works by 'the three Rs': Respighi, Rachmaninoff and…Rozsa?

You may not know his name, but chances are you’ve heard his music, especially if you’re a film buff. Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) was a Hungarian-American composer best known for his film scores. Rozsa’s Hollywood career earned him considerable success and recognition, including 17 Oscar nominations and three wins for “Spellbound” (1945), “A Double Life” (1947) and “Ben-Hur” (1959).

Rozsa also remained faithful to his classical music roots with his compositions earning the plaudits of the likes of Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky and Janos Starker, who commissioned the work played this night.

The orchestra eased into the evening with a performance of Respighi’s highly descriptive symphonic poem the “Fountains of Rome.” Composed in 1916, the work remains a fine example of the brilliance with which Respighi uses the resources of the orchestra. (That’s not surprising since he was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, who wrote the book on orchestration, both literally and figuratively).

The DSO invested its performance which much skill and care. The first movement, The Valle Guilia Fountain at Dawn, conveyed a distinctly bucolic tone, while the buoyancy of The Triton Fountain in the Morning conjured up images of water spouts. The solemnity of The Trevi Fountain at Mid-Day soon gave way to euphoria reminiscent of a classic Hollywood film score. The Villa Medici Fountain at Sunset provided a pastoral conclusion with notable contributions from the woodwinds. The expressive playing led to a distant tolling of a bell — in this instance one of the Kerrigan Bells of Remembrance — heralding the ebb of the music.

Cellist Nicholas Canellakis. Photo courtesy of artist.
Rozsa’s Cello Concerto, Op. 32 offered another palette, not to mention tangy harmonies and the rhythmic flair of the composer’s native Hungarian language. The first movement full of strong ideas and a cadenza of riveting virtuosity. By contrast, the central movement is lyrical and tinged with anguish. The final movement bristles with energy and — once again — rhythmic élan.

This is a stout, boldly communicative work that deserves and demands to be heard much more often. Kudos to DSO Music Director David Amado for programming it and to virtuoso cellist Nicholas Canellakis for learning it for this concert. (The work is so well-hidden that not even the majority of cellists know it exists.)

Canellakis is a highly articulate soloist who not only performs the music; he inhabits it. His impeccable technique enables him to remain confident and in control while executing the fiendishly difficult passages Rozsa throws at him (and there are many). That composure allows him to convert pyrotechnics into phrases that are rich in beauty and meaning.

The audience responded by breaking decorum with applause between movements. After three curtain calls, Canellakis obliged with a performance of the Sarabande from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite, No. 1 in G major.

Following intermission, DSO Board Chairman Charles Babcock honored philanthropists Gerret and Tatiana Copeland for their support of the orchestra. Mrs. Copeland told the audience that she and her husband had their first date at The Grand. She also told the heartfelt story of how Rachmaninoff — “Uncle Sergei” to her — supported her family during a financial crisis.

The DSO’s rendering of the composer’s final symphony was equally heartfelt. Amado caught all the passion of the first movement while simultaneously retaining its lyrical qualities, defined the poetic elements of the second movement and concluded the symphony with all the energy and enthusiasm a finale deserves.


Museum Purchases Work by Hank Willis Thomas & Chakaia Booker

The content of this post comes from a previous press release from The Delaware Art Museum...

The Delaware Art Museum is delighted to announce recent purchases of art by women artists and artists of color. This spring, the Museum purchased a series of prints by Hank Willis Thomas, an 1871 oil painting by Robert Duncanson, and a 1940 poster by Robert Pious.

These three recent purchases reflect the Museum's continued effort to collect more art by women artists and artists of color. In 2018, the Museum purchased 24 works of art, of which one-third were created by women and one-third were created by African American artists. In total, 74 percent of acquisition funds spent in 2018 went toward acquiring works by women artists and artists of color. 


Hank Willis Thomas' Black Survival Guide,
or How to Live Through a Police Riot (2018)
"It is particularly exciting to acquire as we plan for the reinstallation of several permanent collection galleries in 2020," explains Heather Campbell Coyle, Chief Curator and Curator of American Art. "These works will allow us to share a more inclusive and exciting story of art and artists with our community."

Hank Willis Thomas' Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot (2018) is the Museum's first major purchase of 2019. Commissioned by the Museum and on view during the summer of 2018, the work is a series of 13 retroreflective screen prints based on photographs from The News Journal and a booklet in the collection of the Delaware Historical Society. Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot became a catalyst for dialogue during the city-wide reflection on the 1968 occupation of Wilmington by the National Guard.

"Museum visitors overwhelmingly shared their enthusiasm for the project and love of the screen prints," shares Margaret Winslow, Curator of Contemporary Art. "We are thrilled that this series will remain in the city." Once installed, these prints will be added to the Museum's new Social Justice in Art Tour for local students.

In October, 2018, the Delaware Art Museum acquired Chakaia Booker's One Way (2008) for its contemporary collection. The large-scale sculpture was installed in the Museum's Copeland Sculpture Garden to align with the mid-October opening of the Juried Craft Exhibition. Made of recycled tires and stainless steel, One Way is the first artwork by an African American artist added to the Museum's sculpture garden. Chakaia Booker is best known for sculptures made of discarded materials 
— most often recycled tires. Her art explores race, globalization, feminism, and ecology. The interconnecting circles in One Way depict movement and perpetual cycles, and the sculpture conveys her concerns about diversity, mobility, and hope. This significant addition also supports the Museum's ability to showcase the diversity in process, materials, and interests occupying contemporary art today. The contemporary collection also welcomed gifts of work by Charles Burwell and Curlee Raven Holton.

As well as adding to the contemporary collections, the Delaware Art Museum continued the strategic expansion of its collection of modern art by African American artists with purchases of work by Loïs Mailou Jones, Hughie Lee-Smith, William Majors, and James A. Porter. These works add strength to a collection that already features paintings and prints by Beauford Delaney, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, and Norman Lewis. Produced between the 1940s and the 1960s, these works provide context for the early career of beloved local painter Edward Loper, Sr., which is well represented in the Wilmington region. Paintings by Loper, Sr., and his son Edward Loper, Jr., launched the Museum's Distinguished Artists Series this spring.

In addition to these works by artists of color, the Museum has focused on acquiring more art by women. Recent exhibitions on British Pre-Raphaelite artists Marie Spartali Stillman and Barbara Bodichon have benefitted from key purchases in years past.

In 2018, the Museum added collections of work by American illustrators Laura Coombs Hills and Rose O'Neill via purchase and gift. O'Neill, who previously had just one work of art in the Museum's collection, was a successful book and magazine illustrator, best known as the inventor of the Kewpies, cupid-like characters who started life in a 1909 cartoon in the Ladies' Home Journal and soon launched into popular culture as dolls, books, and other licensed merchandise. The Kewpie enterprise, which only began to wane toward the end of the 1930s, made O'Neill an independently wealthy woman. Illustration was an important career path for women and this is central to the story of the Delaware Art Museum.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Lend Us an Ear: 'Lend Me a Tenor' is a Heckuva Hit!

By Carol Van Zoeren
Carol is a 40+ year veteran of community theater and retired from DuPont.

Lend Me a Tenor (running at Candlelight Theatre now through June 23) is a six-door farce by prolific playwright Ken Ludwig. Originally produced in the late 1980s, the premise is that a world-famous operatic tenor, Tito Merelli (Paul McElwee), is coming to guest star with a mid-tier opera company. All involved are desperate and determined that this be a success, to raise their standing (individually and as a company) in the opera world.

“Desperate and determined” is an excellent foundation for a farce. And each actor has taken this idea to heart. Heading the action is Max (Jared Calhoun), beleaguered yet ambitious assistant to the Company’s General Manager, Saunders (David Wills). Calhoun and Wills clearly enjoy playing off one another. Their scenes crackle, reminiscent of Bialystock and Bloom in The Producers. I must commend these actors who, in an extremely long nose-to-nose silence, manage to keep a straight face so the audience can laugh, at first uncomfortably, and eventually raucously.

McElwee conveys the arrogance of an international opera star, but he really shines when he too becomes desperate and determined. As his wife, Rebecca Schall embodies the hot-tempered Italian firebrand. Hallie Hargus as Maggie, Saunders’ daughter and Max’s girlfriend, captures the rebellious streak of emerging womanhood. Julia Kershetsky plays Diana, the opera’s sultry soprano star. Hargus and Kershetsky are hysterically naughty in their parallel illicit trysts. Gerri Weagraff nails the flighty society type, and rocks a costume that’s another nod to The Producers. Rounding out the cast is Anthony Connell as the star-struck Bellhop. While Connell is an excellent lead actor, he is also a master of smaller roles. He bides his time in the background, and finds the peak moment and precise delivery to wring all the goody out of his few lines.

While the individual performances are all excellent, what truly elevates this production is the ensemble as a whole. There are short-burst, back-and-forth between two or more actors, and the timing is impeccable, punctuated by the precise slamming of doors. I have noticed this before in Bob Kelly shows: each actor is good, and their ensemble work makes the show great. Kudos to him, and to the cast for doing the hard work to get this timing spot on. And another thing 
— under a less-disciplined director and cast, farces can accelerate to runaway trains, leaving the audience as exhausted and confused as the actors. Kelly and cast intersperse short-burst mania with slow burn comedy, carefully mining the text for the best laughs. 

On the technical side, the costumes were effective. I mentioned Weagraff’s above, but also note the Pagliacci costume, makeup and hair that made the mistaken identities totally believable. (Oops, maybe that was a spoiler. Sorry.) And kudos to the scenic designer, Envision Productions. It’s not easy to build a set with doors that are robust enough to endure this much slamming.

Oh, the curtain call is a special treat. Jus’ sayin’.

Bottom line? Candlelight’s production of Lend Me a Tenor is a heck of a lot of fun. Sit back and enjoy!
See www.candlelighttheatredelaware.com

Footnote: In the original late 80s version, Merelli was going to star in Othello, in blackface. Guess that seemed funny at the time. Thankfully, this has been updated to Pagliacci, with the tenor in clown face.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

DiAE 'Spotlights' the Arts in Delaware in Signature Event

This post content comes from a release from the Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education...

Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education (DiAE) will host Spotlight, An Evening of the Arts on Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at The Queen in Wilmington. DiAE will also honor Delaware's 17th Poets Laureate, the Twin Poets
Delaware State Representative Nnamdi Chukwuocha and Al Mills.

A VIP pre-party kicks off the evening with fare from Food for Thought, a cash bar and a teaching artist experience with Jason Keller of J.K. Percussion. The main event will include a rousing West African drumming and dance performance by artists Tony Vacca, Abdou Sarr and Massamba Diopwho is featured throughout the Academy Award-winning score of Marvel's Black Panther. Guest artists-in-training from Warner Elementary School will have the opportunity to share the stage with the performers. 

DiAE has designed educational experiences with Warner and Stubbs Elementary Schools to prepare students for the performance. Prior to the event, students will participate in an immersive workshop series facilitated by DiAE teaching artist Jason Keller. Students will have the opportunity to learn traditional West African rhythms and play them in unison, experience poly-rhythm techniques and create an ensemble piece to share with their peers. Fifth Grade students from Warner will participate in West African music and dance workshops with Tony Vacca and Abdou Sarr.

The DiAE school arts-integrated residencies, performances and workshops are supported by Light Up the Queen Foundation, with additional support from Children and Families First Delaware, Warner Shortlidge Arts Alliance, Red Clay Consolidated School District and the Delaware Division of the Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts. 

Tickets for VIP pre-party & show are $50 (or $35 educator discount); show-only tickets are $15.
All can be purchased online