A Visit with Tiffany & the Organ...at Trinity

By Guest Blogger, Mary Wilcosky.  Mary is OperaDelaware's Marketing Manager, and a longtime supporter and lover of the Delaware Arts scene.

I’ve attended concerts at Wilmington's Trinity Episcopal Church for years – but it wasn’t until this fall that I realized the beautiful stained-glass windows were the work of the Louis Tiffany Studio. Were it not for the lecture and organ recital on Saturday, January 19, as part of The Arts at Trinity series, I still may have been blissfully unaware!

The name ‘Tiffany’ would be a draw itself; the fact that this was a lecture and improvised organ performance combination made it an event not to be missed!  (Living for many year across from the National Cathedral in Washington DC, I grew to love organ music and the improvisations that organists used to entertain audiences.)  

This informative and entertaining lecture had the added value of allowing attendees to get up close and even touch the glass.  As guest lecturer Josh Probert noted, the Tiffany Studio used a different approach to more traditional method of stained-glass windows, which could be observed on the sides of the church.  From medieval times to the turn of the previous century and continuing today, the glass was colored with paint to create the image and modeling such as drapery folds.  But Tiffany used layers of colored glass to create the image and the modeling; it was amazing to see and feel the swirls in the glass itself.  The faces were painted, but all other effects were achieved by layering colors and textures. 

As a medieval art historian who has done my fair share of iconographical research, it was interesting to me to hear Probert’s take on Victorian women being considered more ‘virtuous’. Therefore, women’s images predominated many of the depictions, coupled with the fact that women were usually the donors of these windows.  It was also interesting to hear how it was wealthy patrons travelling abroad who returned with urgings for their own churches to have grander interiors.  How many of us enter a church and question it’s design or structure?  Moreover, how many generations of us have enjoyed the resulting beauty, all due to Americans congregants wanting to be on a par with European counterparts?

Organist Richard Fitzgerald did a wonderful job of conveying the subject of each window with his selections and improvisations.  I especially like the improvisation for the Main Altar Window, based on the literary text “Come unto me, ye that labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. As he played, the light coming through the window seemed to be one with the music, and I was totally mesmerized by the beautiful image of the window and the swirling notes of the organ.

The Arts at Trinity series presents a variety of music, lectures and performances throughout the year – all free-will donation to attend!  Next up, City Theater Company's troupe, Fearless Improv, takes over the stage at Trinity on Saturday, February 23, at 7:30pm.

See www.theartsattrinity.org.

Seeking New Friends for Penn's

Tucked into the quaint spaces along Delaware Street in Old New Castle is the fantastic coffee spot/artisan shop/tranquil hangout with yummy nosh, Trader's Cove at Penn's Place. Run by Matthew & Esther Lovlie (longtime Delaware arts & commerce supporters), it's become a destination for your day in Old New Castle "must-stops."  It's a friendly and welcoming, not only housing a coffee and wine garden (that sold me, right there) with a menu of local and organic selections, but also providing a showcase for local artists' works and products you can't always find anywhere else.  Some of their current "tenants": artist Donna Teleis, jewelry by Sami Campbell and Sarah Rose Originals, the Snicker Ditch Trunk Company, and candles from Originals by Kate.

Now, Penn's Place is looking to expand their internal neighborhood, offering retail/office space.  For info or a tour, contact Matthew Lovlie at 302.593.5908 or malovlie@gmail.com.  Or, just go down for a cuppa joe or a nice glass of malbec, wander through and enjoy the local talent! Tell Matthew I sent you.

See http://pennsplace.net.

A Weill’d ride at the REP’s Threepenny Opera

Matthew Earnest has created an updated version of Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s production of the Dreigroschenoper which opened in Berlin almost exactly 200 years after its model, John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera opened in London in 1728. Since Brecht and Weill updated the Eighteenth Century ballad opera, why shouldn’t we update the 1928 version? The times they are a-changin’ as that fan of the songs once said.

Earnest used the authorized translation (Robert David MacDonald for the dialogue and Jeremy Sams for the lyrics), but perhaps allowed a bit of colorful interjection into the script. That color fit in and didn’t seem to make anyone in Friday’s audience bolt for the door, but note that your ten-year-old may add a few undesirable words to their vocabulary should you take them to see the show.

The musicians were hidden backstage – against Berthold Brecht’s desires but perhaps for the best with the sound in the Wilhemina Press Thompson Theatre. Ryan Touhey must have had a way of seeing the singers, though, because the orchestra was spot on with musical cues and attacks.


The set and costumes by Mathew LeFebvre deserve special commendation as they invoked the simplicity of the ‘poor’ and the exaggeration of the ‘wealthy’ villains whom we get to know so well. The projected titles were quite dramatic and the darkened set with its red and brown overtones gave the opening the feeling that they had discovered Jenny on a dark and abandoned street. Elizabeth Heflin (Jenny) belted the beloved Mack the Knife song with gritty harshness which got us into the underworld mood. Lovely touches like a mini-harpsichord for the wedding in the barn, a bathtub on a conveyor belt for Jenny’s Solomon song, a carousel horse bearing a Beefeater, a shower-sized jail cell and a revolving barn door added that farcical touch.


Deena Burke (Polly) has quite a beautiful voice and Mic Matarrese had the powerful baritone for the wicked MacHeath. Erin Partin (Lucy Brown) has that comic edge and her voice blended beautifully with Burke’s in the Jealousy Duet. Kathleen Pirkl-Tague was a broadly comic Mrs. Peachum who helped us laugh at the futility of life.


The songs are bawdy and their message of futility and injustice apply to any society at any time. Brecht and Weill’s protest of the fascist and bankrupt Germany of 1928 with foreign war service as the only way out for the downtrodden is a perfect vehicle to protest the unjust distribution of wealth in the United States of 2013.


Leave your ten-year-old with a babysitter, but take your grandmother. She understands more of this history than you do. Show continues until February 2, 2013 at the Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark.



See www.udel.edu/arts.