The Complexities of Red, Yellow and Blue

The conversation over one woman's comments about Ellsworth Kelly's painting continues. There are more entries at Mary-Louise Schumacher's Art City. And some angry and sympathetic comments to my entry at Culture Club. Also, Popehat has logged in with a reaction from outside the city limits.

A Guy Thing is high-struttin' fun.

The testosterone hung heavy in the air at Danceworks "A Guy Thing" last weekend. Ed Burgess assembled an impressively eclectic group of "guys" that added up to a program with quite a wallop. For the complete review, see this week's Culture Club.
Photo: Frophoto.

Todd Rosenthal wins Olivier Award

Todd Rosenthal, the Chicago-based designer who works regularly with the Milwaukee Rep might need to design a new trophy case. He won an Olivier Award last night for his design of August: Osage County, the Steppenwolf Theatre production that had a successful West End run. The show, however, didn't match its Tony Award success. Rosenthal, who also won a Tony, was the only winner among the show's five nominations.

Familiar Faces in Delaware

Great reviews are coming in for Of Mice and Men at the University of Delaware's Resident Ensemble Players. The newly established professional company at UD's PTTP includes familiar Milwaukee actors Mark Corkins, Mic Matarrese and Michael Gotch, all graduates of the PTTP. In John Steinbeck's play, Corkins is Lenny and Gotch is Squiggy....no, wait--wrong drama. Michael Gotch plays George. Read the Howard Shapiro's review in the Philadelphia Inquirer here. And see video from the production here.

Critical Chorus of One for La Sonnambula

Critics are getting laid off left and right these days. What might that mean for the future? Google "La Sonnambula Met Zimmerman" to find out. Mary Zimmerman's production of Bellini's opera opened at the Met last night, and critic Mike Silverman was there. A search of the production yields page after page of the headline "Met Opera Makes Travesty of 'La Sonnambula.'" Silverman's review has been carried on dozens of news web sites, from FoxNews to CBS to The Denver Post to MSN. Zimmerman imposed a "play-within-a-play" structure on the opera, and Silverman (and the audience, which loudly booed Zimmerman and her production team) didn't like it.

I've not seen it. And I might even agree. But is there really a chance for conversation amid this one-man chorus of disapproval? Something to remember as more critics are laid off.
AP Photo/Metropolitan Opera, Ken Howard

Florentine Opera's Semele

The stars were aligned at the Pabst Theater this weekend.
The Florentine Opera’s production of Semele was imaginative, witty, gorgeous and even occasionally moving.
That’s not faint praise for a baroque opera, particularly for an audience used to the steady diet of soaring arias saturated with breast-beating emotions. Baroque opera is built instead on winding, breath-robbing strings of rapid notes. There are gorgeous melodies to be sure, this is Handel after all. But songs like “Where‘er you walk,” are more matter-of-fact and clean. Their emotional heft relies more on clarity and phrasing than booming, sing-to-the-cheap-seats firepower. That’s exactly what tenor Robert Breault gave the song, with beautifully sensitive accompaniment by the Florentine Orchestra, conducted by Jane Glover.
Read my complete review at Milwaukee Magazine's Culture Club.
Photo by Richard Brodzeller for Florentine Opera Company © 2009.