FEATURE: Trump’s Proposed NEA Cuts and the Legacy of Piss Christ Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 19, 2017July 11, 2017 Nikolay Petrovich Lomtev's Girolamo Savonarola preaching in Florence. Father Savonarola's incendiary critique of luxury led to the infamous Bonfires of the Vanities, the largest of which on Feb. 7, 1492 including the burning of several paintings by Renaissance masters. Among other achievements, Savonarola successfully advocated for laws banning sodomy and declared that
REVIEW: Gondoliers Gone Wild (GSVLOC) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - March 18, 2017March 18, 2017 Gondoliers Giuseppe Palmieri (Ryan Johnson) and Marco Palmieri (Michael Burton) with their maybe wives Tessa (Maggie Burr) and Gianetta (Blanka Melbostad) in GSVLOC’s The Gondoliers. The Gondoliers was only the fourth-most popular work in the Gilbert & Sullivan canon when it was written, as counted by the length of its original theatrical
REVIEW: Dinner at Eight, Performance Edition (Minnesota Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 14, 2017March 15, 2017 The eponymous dinner party in Minnesota Opera's Dinner at Eight. Photo by Cory Weaver. Minnesota Opera's Dinner at Eight, which premiered on Saturday at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, is a vibrant new comedy with an engaging score and finely tune libretto. This review focuses on the performances in the
REVIEW: Dinner at Eight‘s Splendid Comic Melodrama (Minnesota Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 14, 2017March 15, 2017 New money socialites Dan Packard (Craig Irvin) and Kitty Packard (Susannah Biller) squabble in the world premiere production of Dinner at Eight by Minnesota Opera. Photo by Cory Weaver. Contemporary American opera is usually no laughing matter. At any given opera premiere, you can expect an occasional inserted joke and perhaps some moments of wry underscoring,
WEEKEND PICKS: Grease, Gondoliers, Dinner at Eight, FOOR Folkz Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - March 10, 2017March 11, 2017 Aleks Knezevich as Danny Zuko in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' production of Grease. Photo by Bernadette Pollard. Winter windchill has returned to the Twin Cities again and darn it if there isn't a forecast of snow on Sunday. Here are some indoor entertainments to keep you distracted and warm this weekend. Retro Fun: Grease at
PREVIEW: Dinner at Eight (Minnesota Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 10, 2017March 11, 2017 It took two and a half years for Edna Ferber to convince George S. Kaufman to cowrite the play Dinner at Eight (1932) with her. Ferber was already one of the best-selling writers in the United States, with a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (1924's So Big) to her credit. Nor was she unfamiliar to theatre
Fringe File 2017, #2: Minnesota Fringe Festival Announces New Executive Director Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - February 28, 2017July 21, 2017 A 2015 photo of the Art Shanty Project on White Bear Lake. Photo courtesy of the Art Shanty Facebook page. Last night was the Minnesota Fringe Festival lottery, where balls plucked out of a hopper determine the lineup of the country's largest unjuried arts festival. Attendees got an extra surprise: the
NEWS: Iowa Singer Advances to Met Opera National Council Auditions’ NYC Semi-Finals Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - February 20, 2017March 10, 2017 Soprano Jessica Faselt singing at Bethel University on Sunday, Feb. 20. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera National Council – Upper Midwest Region. The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for the Upper Midwest Region took place yesterday at Bethel University in St. Paul. The first place winner, soprano Jessica Faselt, will
NEWS: Metropolitan Opera National Council – Minnesota Audition Winners Arts Music Opera by Twin Cities Arts Reader - February 19, 2017 Soprano Whitney Morrison singing at the District auditions on Saturday. One of the best chances to hear opera's up-and-coming stars was yesterday, when the Metropolitan Opera National Council held its Minnesota District auditions at Bethel University. Some 32 singers between the ages of 20 and 30 competed in the auditions, traveling
PREVIEW: Minnesota Opera’s 2017-2018 Season Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - February 12, 2017March 11, 2017 One of the production designs for Minnesota Opera's November 2017 production of The Marriage of Figaro. Photo by Dana Sohm. Minnesota Opera formally announced its 2017-2018 season today. The slate of some of opera's greatest hits is sure to please even fans who were pulling hard for the company to continue its journey